I have heard too many times to count how certain folks are against ebikes because they think they are for lazy people or for people that can’t ride a regular bike. Let me tell you that since riding my ebike I have become an even better cyclist than ever before!
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Here are 9 of the ways riding an electric bike can help you become better at riding a regular bike.
- #1 – Ebikes Are Motivating to Ride
- #2 – Ebikes Help You Fit in More Pedaling Miles Throughout the Week
- #3 – Pedaling on an Electric Bike Is Less Strenuous
- #4 – Riding an Electric Bike is Exercising
- #5 – Riding an Electric Bike Can Help You Slim Down
- #6 – Ebikes Help You Explore New Areas To Ride
- #7 – Electric Bikes Make It Easy to replace Car Trips
- #8 – You Can Start Commuting Long Distances To Work
- #9 – Electric Bikes Help You Go For Rides Even If You’re Sore or Tired
- #10 – Bonus – How I Was Able to Finally Finish an Ultra Endurance Bikepacking Challenge!
I have had plenty of time to ride my electric bike over the last three years and there are a few things I’ve noticed that make me a better cyclist.
Here are just some of the ways riding an ebike can make you a better cyclist!
#1 – Ebikes Are Motivating to Ride
Finding the motivation to keep riding when you are sore, tired, or just don’t feel like it can be a real bummer.
In order to get better at riding, you need to ride more! (mind blown!) 🙂
The simple fact that riding an ebike is so much fun makes it easy to get motivated for a ride. I have had many times when I just want to get out for a short ride to move around and end up riding 20 miles or more on my ebike.
I have also had many more times in the past that I easily talked myself out of riding my regular bike just because it was a little windy.
Even though you won’t work as hard for the same miles on an ebike as you would on a regular bike, you will find that you ride further and more often. Making it a much better workout partner than a regular bike.
#2 – Ebikes Help You Fit in More Pedaling Miles Throughout the Week
I now use my ebike as my primary form of transportation! Riding to work and to the grocery store allows me to fit rides into my daily life.
Electric bikes are the most efficient form of transportation available. They make it very easy to shift from driving your car everywhere to supplementing rides on your ebike.
When you begin to start riding an ebike for regular errands you now have a way of integrating riding workouts into regular activity. This means you don’t have to plan for some time on your day off to go out and ride. You’ve been riding all week!
#3 – Pedaling on an Electric Bike Is Less Strenuous
This is a great factor in riding an ebike. Putting less strain on your body will allow you to remain more consistent.
The biggest thing that can happen to you that will derail your training is an injury!
It may seem like charging up a steep hill and giving it everything that you’ve got is a good way to train, but it may lead to strained muscles that keep you from riding the next day.
With an electric bike you can still charge up steep hills, you just won’t be straining as hard. This means you can climb more hills in a ride and be ready to get up the next day and do it all over again.
Staying consistent is far more important than the occasional “king of the hill” ride.
#4 – Riding an Electric Bike is Exercising
I have a Bosch ebike with the new Nyon display and this will calculate my calories burned based on my user profile and the wattage I’m putting out.
Basically, it means that it is pretty accurate.
I usually burn somewhere between 400 to 500 calories per hour while riding my ebike!
This is equal to roughly a pound for every 10 hours I ride. If I ride 10 hours per week and don’t eat extra to make up the calories, then I’d lose about a pound a week.
Remember these are rough figures and I’m not a nutritionist but you can see how riding an ebike is definitely exercising.
Keep in mind this is using pedal assist and no throttle.
#5 – Riding an Electric Bike Can Help You Slim Down
As I mentioned above, if you are wanting to lose some weight, you can do it riding an ebike.
It is not just burning calories that will help you slim down but riding a bike is great for toning muscles.
Keeping up a consistent riding schedule and eating healthy will lead to quick results.
The thing I noticed most after getting my first ebike was that I found time in the day to go for a ride.
Sometimes I would just get up earlier and go for a ride before work, while also riding to work. Once you start riding an ebike you will see just how much enjoyment it can bring.
It becomes easy to make time for a ride!
#6 – Ebikes Help You Explore New Areas To Ride
I have found all sorts of new trails and dirt roads on my ebike that I then take my regular bike out on.
Sometimes exploring on a regular bike can lead to dead ends that are so far out that it pretty much ends the ride. These make it so you don’t want to go exploring on your regular bike anymore.
I like to use my ebike to scout out new areas and find new routes. Even if you find a dead end and have to turn around, you just crank up the juice, fly back, and scout out a different area.
Generally, I will do this when scouting out multi-day trips for my regular bike. It just helps me fine-tune my route planning and when I’m ready to load up my regular bike with gear and head out, I know where I’m going.
#7 – Electric Bikes Make It Easy to Replace Car Trips
While you can surely replace your car trips with a regular bike, having an ebike makes it far more appealing.
Once you begin to regularly start commuting to work or school on your ebike, you really start to notice a difference in cycling skills.
By working your rides into your normal day you will be able to get far more riding miles in on a given week. So much so that on your day off, you can take the day off!
Related Article – “Can an Ebike Replace a Car? What to Expect if You Do”
#8 – You Can Start Commuting Long Distances To Work
I use to live 25 miles away from work and after driving to work and working all day, then driving home, there was little time or motivation for a bike ride.
Being that it was 25 miles to ride, and the safest route was through the woods on trails, riding a regular bike would have taken 2 to 3 hours. Especially on the ride home which was mostly uphill.
Having a nearly 3 hour, uphill ride, after working all day is not very motivating to ride to work.
But after getting an ebike, I started doing this ride regularly. I even made it home once in an hour and 10 minutes! (I usually averaged about an hour and a half)
This is still a pretty long distance to ride every day, but it became quite fun and part of my evening meditation.
#9 – Electric Bikes Help You Go For Rides Even If You’re Sore or Tired
As I stated earlier, being able to adjust your assist setting based on how you for that given ride is a blessing.
Sometimes I just want to go out and put my ebike at the highest assist level and zip around for a few miles.
I often find that if I go for even a shorter ride when my legs are feeling sore, the soreness usually goes away.
I also tend to have more energy afterward, even if I was pretty tired at the start.
This makes it very motivating to get out for a quick ride knowing that you don’t have to strain yourself if you don’t want to.
#10 – Bonus – How I Was Able to Finally Finish an Ultra Endurance Bikepacking Challenge!
I am 43 years old now and I’ve ridden bikes for as long as I can remember. I have always wanted to try out one of those Ultra Endurance Bike races that you hear about people doing.
The ones where you are fully self-supported (meaning you carry all your own gear and food) and try to finish a backcountry course at least 300 miles long or more.
Unfortunately, as I got older I stopped riding my bike like I used to. This dream seemed out of reach. I was obese, out of shape, and had no motivation to get into the kind of shape it would take to finish one of these races.
Then I finally bought an ebike! At first, I was only able to ride once or twice a week and not for very long, but it was enough to spark my love of riding again.
Soon I began going on longer rides and started riding my ebike to work. After a while, I started to see some improvement in my weight and decided that maybe I could get back into shape.
With some changes in diet and a new attitude toward cycling, I began to ride almost every day.
Now it didn’t happen overnight, but after a couple of years and losing 70lbs, I finally felt like I could try for an Ultra Endurance Race.
Now keep in mind these races are on regular bikes, not electric bikes. And not just some lightweight road bike, but a fully loaded mountain bike with all my camping gear, food, cooking equipment, tools, and first aid.
The first race I signed up for turned out to be quite a mess due to wildfires and extreme heat, but it was a learning experience.
I wasn’t able to finish that race, but nobody actually finished completely. The race was rerouted so many times most people just finished when they were done.
The second race I tried for I was able to finish and so my ultra-endurance bike riding journey started. All thanks to my ebike, which I still ride almost every day!
At the End of the Day
Maybe you used to ride a lot and have since, not really been up to it.
I would highly recommend trying an ebike and it might be just the spark you need to continue riding again.
For me, it got me back into riding my regular bike becoming a better cyclist all-around. Not to mention finding a new joy of riding an ebike as often as I can!
