Pratt

My hope is that ebikes will bring more people out riding and create a louder voice for people to stop considering bikes as a second class vehicle. More bike riders may result in better bike related resources and more of a more bike-friendly attitude among motorists and road designers.

CrimsonEclipse

I bike with a couple who have ebikes.
They probably wouldn't ride without the assistance, and it gives me a challenge to keep up.

Has an eboard (e-skate board) fly by me dangerously close recently. Guy burnt out his motor and or battery a few miles later.

(yes I smiled as I passed by him)

hevysrf

So you're the guy on my back wheel!

Polaris OBark

This gets to part of her experience. She wasn't getting any exercise (due to the knee injuries, not sloth), so this enabled her to get enough to regain fitness.

This in turn raises another question: Could moderately fit, active cyclists improve further from cross-training on an e-bike?

tempocyclist

I guess maybe it could allow for true, low-effort recovery rides for people who live in areas where terrain (or their bike gearing) doesn't allow?

bikehoco

To be fair ….. I said an e-bike makes little sense FOR ME but you make an excellent case for e-bikes (for your wife).

Polaris OBark

Sorry, it wasn't your experience I was trying to highlight, but just a general assumption that we all seem to make. Let me try to depersonalize this, and reframe my question as follows:

Let's say my measured average power output is 170 Watts for a given ride on my conventional bike.

If I do the same ride on an ebike, and can maintain a measured power output of 170 Watts, presumably I am getting approximately the same workout (but maybe I am going significantly faster, or can go twice the distance in the same amount of time).

I realize this isn't how people typically use e-bikes, but it suggests that they could be used by healthy/non-injured people as a viable form of cross-training.

In other words, does it really matter, from the point of view of exercise, if there is an assist motor present, as long as you maintain your power output rather than slack off?

sande005

I commuter biked modest distances for many years - enough to inspire my daughter to become a urban planner for biking, and now head of the department for multi-mode planning and safety in one of the largest cities in the US. But getting old, and a bit larger, had me jump to a Class 3 e-bike.
I go far, far further and more often than I ever have in the past. And despite the assist, that 55 lb "beast" does get me in better shape than I have ever been. So much so, I'm seriously looking at adding to the stable with a really good conventional road bike....

rsbob 

I was doing my semi-usual 30 mile loop which has some good climbs. At about the 3/4 point, there is a 10% climb for a quarter mile which kicks my butt. It was a hot day and I was pouring it on so I wouldn’t feel so defeated when out of no where a guy on pedal assist e-bike breezes right by me and disappears over the crest. I felt like yelling, Cheater, but kept myself under control. It was just about as bad as when doing a series of short 8 to 15% climbs and a 15 year old on a conventional acoustic racing bike just blows by me. Equally frustrating but for different reasons.

rsbob 

I have motor paced a couple of those bikes as well, on the flats, and it was a good time at 20 MPH.

Then there was the guy on the pedal assist e-bike that just had to show me how fast he could pass me. He had the type that the motor cuts out at a certain speed and then it is all him. After the pass I thought to myself, game-on! I chased him down and passed (yes I know it was juvenile but some competitiveness just doesn’t die) and was able to catch and pass and drop him since he must have hit his speed limiter and it was all him. Acoustic bike 1. Pedal assist bike 0.