3alarmer 

...there was a great thread by one of the user accounts (who got banned for trolling), on this very topic.
I think maybe he went too far when he posted a picture of his exercise regimen bike, with a dead car battery tied to the rack.

Too bad, I liked that guy. Here are all the threads he started. Prolific doesn't begin to describe him.

Wouldn't you get a better workout with a heavier bike ?

Jklotz

If you can't beat em', join em'?

3alarmer 

...it's hard to remember when everyone was down on mechanical doping in racing, isn't it ? Seems like it wasn't that long ago, but I guess it was. Fast forward a few years, and what was anathema is the new dogma.

big john

Not yet.

big john

There is a great network of bike paths near here and sometimes I go there to ride solo. Lots of e-bikes there of all types including the throttle kind. Lots of young guys on e-stuff and they want to race or pass defiantly. If they have the ones limited to 21 mph or so I can stay ahead of them on flats or even drop them on downhills. Today a kid on an e-mtb started chasing me and even came alongside to try and pass but I sped up and he couldn't. Once that assist stops he's done. Of course once we hit a rough section I had to back off and he went by.

Joe Bikerider

There are a lot of lies that people tell themselves and it seems they really believe them.

3alarmer 

...I have adopted the idea that I want them as far away from me as possible, so I slow down until they pass and pull away. I don't trust their bike handling skills (admittedly prejudice on my part), and I don't want to get taken down in a crash. I can probably survive the crash, but I would get up and try to hurt someone. : Just easier not to be involved.

Lombard

Ebikes have their place. But considering how fast they are capable of going, they don't belong on MUTs, they belong on the road.

big john

Yeah, I usually don't engage but sometimes I can't help myself.

Today I also saw a guy on one of the ones with the long saddle and throttle. He had a little kid sitting on front and was going what looked to be 30 mph. No pedaling, just going way too fast.

DMC707

my experience is close to yours.

DMC707

is this the guy who lived in a storage shed and was buying nice bikes with his Covid money? I recall that guy always invoking his “friend” and even had members local to his area trying to help him out

3alarmer 

...doesn't sound familiar. This was the guy who would have used the name "Cheap Giant (bicycle) for Life", but it was too long for a username.
He used a lot of bandwidth philosophizing about how how everyone was spending way too much on bicycles, these days. Cheap is the way to go.

I ride a $200 mtnBike that I bought 20 years ago. Can you still get a $200 bike?
What are the biggest wastes of money in biking?

Carbonfiberboy 

Total training stress for that ride. It's measurable fairly well using an HRM after one has determined one's zones. That works just as well on a e-bike as on a regular bike. Before we had power meters, everyone used HR to measure accumulated training stress. If you read through the above posts, it's pretty easy to see the some riders will get a much better workout on an e-bike.

Reynolds 

PeteHski

Maybe those people in the study who bought e-bikes used them far more often than they ever used their traditional bikes. I think that was one of the main points in the conclusions of the study.

We have to remember that outside of dedicated bike forums, most people struggle to ride traditional bikes for any significant length of time. E-bikes just make riding more accessible to a much larger audience.

There are some good examples in this thread of riders using e-bikes effectively. They are not “casual” riders. They are keen riders who, for various reasons, are unable to fulfill their riding goals on a traditional bike.

daviddavieboy

I have one E Bike and 7 road bikes. The only time the Ebike gave me a better workout is when the battery died on a 100 km ALL off-road ride with 20 km left to go. The section it ran out on was gravel so it wasn't terrible terrain but the total weight of the bike was close to 75 lbs. It was loaded with touring supplies in case I had to stay in the forest over night.


Sounds like a person issue rather than a bike issue. I can travel faster (and further) on my regular bicycles than the Ebike. This very debate recently occurred in city council here. I am glad the mayor didn't think there was a need to ban them from trails.

PeteHski

Apart from riding faster what else do they do? Are you telling me they are actually racing you? I have had e-bikes pass me on hills, but never had one shouting at me to race them. Are they supposed to slow down to protect my ego?

Maelochs

“The study, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, found that e-bike riders actually get more exercise than traditional bike riders. The researchers looked at data from 10 studies conducted in Europe and North America, which included a total of 1,415 participants. They found that e-bike riders spent more time riding and covered more distance than traditional bike riders, which resulted in more overall physical activity.

“But why is this the case? One possible explanation is that e-bikes allow riders to travel longer distances and tackle more challenging terrain than they would on a traditional bike. This means that e-bike riders are able to ride for longer periods of time, which ultimately leads to more exercise.”

Notice that there is no mention of watts, joules, ergs, horsepower …. Nor of calories burned. For the sake of popularizing an unsupported concept, the writers of the article have distorted the study in order to equate “time not on the couch” with “exercise.” The issue of Intensity of exercise is ignored. The actual amount of work done and the benefits of that work are ignored.

This is just some writer somewhere reading the abstract of some actual scientific study and plucking out a few words to use out of context to “prove” that e-bikes are better for exercise than pedal bikes.

The article ignores differences in riders, rides, and e-bikes. The writer is basically being completely dishonest to help sell e-bikes.

The e-bike cake is a lie.

Nothing wrong with e-bikes, and Some riders on Some rides can actually do more work or more useful work given the assist of the motor. As for generality …. As for the general conclusions proposed by this article …… This article is pure garbage.

There is No Inherent Conflict between e-bikes and pedal bikes. An e-bike is either en electric moped, and small electric motorcycle, or a pedal bike with assist .... none of which impinge inherently upon the pedal-bike-riding experience.

People rabidly opposed to e-bikes have personal issues which they should solve. Also, most people proudly promoting e-bikes as "better" are just tying to do marketing, with no fact involved.

As for as e-bikes on MUPs or trails ... not the issue at hand. That is just people expressing prejudice, not actually rationally responding to the point of the post. And that is not the fault of the e-bike, but the rider. I could ride a Harley down an MUP as 6 mph, or ride a pedal bike at 20 mph, or an e-bike at 26 .... or an e-bike at 6 mph. I could walk down an MUP and be a menace and a nuisance. It is the person, not the transport mode.

And the principal addressed in the original post is the same, actually: "E-bike" guarantees Nothing. How each person uses an e-bike (if at all) under different circumstances determines the quality of the work-out. The "e" portion is not constant. Any article insinuating otherwise is just lying.

njkayaker

Sure, all this could be true but the OP appears to be talking about something else.

Your reference appears to be comparing people who are using e-bikes against a group that isn’t really riding much.

That the e-bike group is getting more exercise than the other group is saying the obvious: “people who exercise get more exercise than people who don’t”.

What the heck does “traditional bike rider” mean?

=========================

The OP appears to be claiming there are lots of articles saying e-bike riders get more exercise than people riding the same amount. Your reference (the only one provided) appears to be saying something very different.

Actually, the OP isn’t being clear and is unable to provide any linked to even one of these many articles.

So, we don’t really know what they said. We only have what the OP thinks they said (and we have no reason to rely on that).

PeteHski

My reference was just the first thing Google threw up when I searched to see if the OP’s initial claim was factual. I haven’t seen any articles claiming that e-bikes offer a “better” workout than traditional bikes for all riders. But for some riders (and there are some first hand examples on this very thread) they clearly do.

njkayaker

If there really is a “barrage” of articles, it should be easy enough to provide a link to a few of them.

As it is, no one here has any idea of what you happened to read or whether your interpretation of the meaning is correct.

(Expecting people to look them up for themselves isn’t reasonable and they might not find the actual articles you did.)

Maelochs

Oi .... at some point generalities become so general as to be meaningless.

E-bikes are just like bikes ... or barbells. What a person does with them make all the difference. Do barbells give a better workout than bikes?

Garbage in, garbage out, people used to say.

PeteHski

Agreed. Here’s another article I found that shows both sides of the argument.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...o-it-than-that

njkayaker

Because they are riding more. A lot more. Compared to not really riding at all (or riding much less) before getting an e-bike (the so-called "traditional bike riders").

​
It isn’t showing “both sides of the argument”. (The “argument” hasn’t been clearly specified anyway.)

It is saying:

1. that e-bikes encourage people who weren’t really riding to ride more.
2. People who ride regular bikes are more fit.

This seems what one would expect.

The OP seems to be claiming these articles are saying e-bike riders riding the same amount as he is are getting more exercise. Them saying this or it being true doesn’t seem likely.

Your last link contradicts the OP's apparent claim.

Lombard

Does anybody remember why he was banned? What was the straw that broke the camel's back?