E-bikes have been around for over a decade, first as urban utility machines and, increasingly, as performance models for enthusiast recreational riders. But there鈥檚 that using a bike with electric assist is cheating compared with conventional, purely human-powered machines. (This people hate e-bikes, but it鈥檚 a common one.)
What might surprise you is that this criticism isn鈥檛 just leveled at fitness riders. Even And听in a twist, some of the most vehement e-bike hate comes from 听
So it鈥檚 fair to ask: How, exactly, are e-bike users cheating? Sure, if you enter an organized, nonmotorized bike race on an e-assist model, that鈥檚 cheating. You owe it to your peers to compete on equal terms. But if you ride a traditional, solely human-powered bike, and you鈥檙e upset that you got beat to the top of the climb by someone on听an e-bike,听or if you grimace when a rider on a midtail cargo bike speeds by on the bike path in town, consider that someone else鈥檚 choices don鈥檛 have anything to do with you. It鈥檚 not as if you鈥檙e getting听less of a workout.
Of course, there鈥檚 the argument that e-bike riders are somehow cheating themselves out of the proper physical benefits of riding a bike, a criticism that seems thoroughly rooted in our puritanical drive to equate hard work with virtuosity. But a growing body of research suggests that even that argument fails.听According to many studies, e-bike users ride at moderate to vigorous intensity levels (admittedly, they ride faster, too). Studies also show that they often cover longer distances than people on pedal-only bikes. Plus, in many cases, e-bike trips are replacing car trips.听
As a caveat, a number of these studies either feature small sample sizes or are surveys, in which听it鈥檚 harder to prove听true causation. But the general conclusions are consistent: riding an e-bike offers genuine health and fitness benefits. This is true whether you鈥檙e an urban commuter or an enthusiast getting after it.听
No, the Motor鈥檚 Not Doing All the Work
Electric assist definitely reduces the human effort necessary to go a given speed, but by how much? A (only eight participants) in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity compared exercise intensity for e-bike commuters with听pedal-only bike commuters and found that, in terms of intensity, e-bike commuters were still engaging in moderate physical activity, similar to brisk walking.听
Brisk walking might not be what you鈥檇 call a hard workout. But consider听that public-health officials identify physical inactivity as one of the in public health in the U.S.听The听 government听 for baseline is a day of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise,听听
in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine recruited 32 overweight, sedentary听participants to compare the cardiorespiratory fitness benefits of commuting on an e-bike versus commuting on a conventional bike. At the end of a four-week trial, where subjects rode at least three days a week, researchers found that peak oxygen uptake, a measure of aerobic fitness, actually increased more in the e-bike group than the group on conventional bikes.
Initial research suggests that the fitness benefits aren鈥檛 only relevant to sedentary individuals. A , published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, compared measured and perceived exercise intensity in a group of 33 amateur听cyclists听who hammered a short loop on both conventional and electric mountain bikes. The study found that the average heart rate for riders covering the loop on an e-bike was 93.6 percent of their heart rate while riding the same loop on a conventional mountain bike. (Rider speeds on the e-bikes were also four听miles per hour faster on average.) Surprisingly, however, participants鈥 perceived exertion for the e-bike loop was much lower than for the conventional bike loop. That is: they didn鈥檛 see riding e-bikes as physically taxing, though they were, in fact, exercising at the same physical intensity.听
Collectively, this research hints that riding e-bikes offers physical benefits, even though it doesn鈥檛 seem like exercise.
People Who Use E-bikes Ride More Than People on Conventional Bikes
Back in 2016, the European Journal of Applied Physiology from a small University of Colorado Boulder study that quantified usage patterns over four weeks of real-world e-bike commuting. Twenty听sedentary subjects were recruited to ride at least two hours a week at whatever pace they chose. Participants saw significant improvements in objective health measures like blood pressure and glucose tolerance. They also voluntarily rode twice as much as required: four hours a week on average听and almost 200 miles per participant over the four-week study.
Yes, we should be cautious of inferring conclusions from studies with small sample sizes. But the general pattern in the University of Colorado听Boulder study is backed up by other research. A from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities at Portland State University听canvassed almost 1,800 North American riders, mostly commuters, who had recently purchased e-bikes. Some 25 percent of respondents had used their conventional bikes daily, but that number almost doubled when they converted to e-assist rides. Notably, 6.6 percent of survey respondents didn鈥檛 even own a conventional bike before buying an electric-assist model, and some 93.5 percent of those participants rode their e-bike at least once a week.听
When asked why they hadn鈥檛 previously ridden as often, participants had three common responses: hills were too difficult, destinations were too far, and they didn鈥檛 like to arrive sweaty. Those are all things that e-bikes can help with.
Finally, in June, in the peer-reviewed journal Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives听found that physical-activity levels were similar between e-bike riders and conventional cyclists, in part because e-bike riders had 鈥渟ignificantly longer trip distances.鈥 The more striking comparison was between e-bikers and non-cyclists. Authors reported 鈥渟ubstantial increases in physical activity鈥 in people who switched from cars to e-bike commuting. (The survey had over 10,000 initial respondents in seven European cities听and over 1,000 participants still responding to biweekly听questionnaires after a year.)
E-Bikes Aren鈥檛 Just Replacing Conventional Bikes. They鈥檙e Replacing Cars.听听
The accusation that e-bikes are cheating completely falls apart if the alternative is hopping in a car. A in Transportation Research听offers some insight. First, the authors examined 14 older studies showing that听access to e-bikes reduced car trips substantially, with the bikes replacing cars for between 35 and 76 percent of trips. Then the authors set up an original study听in which听80 residents of Brighton, England, were loaned e-bikes to use;听here听they found a more modest effect, with a roughly 20 percent reduction in car miles traveled.听
The authors noted that Brighton in general has lower rates of car use and higher rates of walking than other parts of the UK, so impacts on driving might be lower than the same experiment conducted in other parts of the country. But the June Transportation Research survey broadly corroborates the findings: e-bike use led to 23 percent fewer trips by conventional, pedal-only bikes听and 25 percent fewer car trips (rates varied city to city).听
E-bikes, it seems,听are so seductive that they replace car trips even when people don鈥檛 intend to use them that way. A different in Transportation Research found that e-bike buyers in the Netherlands were using e-assist models to replace conventional bikes, not cars, but that car trips went down as a result. People were more willing to commute on e-bikes than on conventional ones.
So is using an e-bike cheating? Research shows that the physical benefits of e-bikes and conventional bikes are听more similar than critics make them听out to be. Even if you account for the assist, e-bike users seem to ride their bikes more frequently and for longer periods, which makes the physical-fitness contest a draw, at worst. If we look at cargo bikes, which riders use to haul heavy loads, I suspect any differences nearly disappear. And for urban use, at least, they鈥檙e replacing sedentary travel modes at equal rates to replacing conventional bike use. This means the comparison isn鈥檛 always e-bike to bike鈥攊t鈥檚 e-bike to sitting on your rear听in a 180-horsepower, 4,000-pound sarcophagus.听
The point isn鈥檛 what you鈥檙e riding, it鈥檚 that you got out at all. Maybe the next time you grab your car keys, ask yourself: Why do I need to use the car for this trip? What are the obstacles to doing it by bike, and would an e-bike help solve those issues? Maybe the real cheating is that alluring, lazy excuse we all give ourselves: it鈥檚 easier to go by car.听