E-Bikes Intro
Who is E-Bike Cycling For?
E-bike cycling is for people of any age or ability. That includes many who believed that riding a bicycle was impractical or impossible for various reasons. These include things such as hills, headwind, distance, fitness levels, health reasons, knee problems as well as, like me, ageing. E-bikes provide assistance to help overcome all these problems.
For those who are new to e-bikes I am proof that just about anyone can cycle on an e-bike. I am in my seventies and have mild exercise induced asthma. Yet in the two years or so I have had my hybrid e-bike I have cycled in the region of 3,000 miles during day trips and some annual tours.
So if a septuagenarian asthmatic can do it just about anyone can!
Getting Started with E-Bike Cycling
Obviously different people are at different stages of health and fitness. Factors such as this will determine how they start on the road to e-bike cycling.
Beginners
For example, you may not have exercised in years or you may not have been on a bike for a long time. Perhaps you are not keen on cycling in traffic. In such cases you could cycle on an e-bike for half an hour or an hour in your local park. This would be a gentle introduction back into cycling. You could then gradually increase your cycling by going to a country park where you may be able to cycle longer distances.
Cycle Paths
You could then graduate to cycling on the many cycle paths that exist throughout the country where you can cycle traffic free. Many of these cycle paths are on the National Cycle Network that is maintained by the charity Sustrans. You can access Sustrans’ website here.
Current Cyclists
If you are already a cyclist but can’t cycle with your partner as he or she cycles at a faster pace than you, then an e-bike could solve this problem.
Or perhaps you are in a cycling club or group and you are beginning to find it hard to keep up, then an e-bike could enable you to more easily stay with the pack (or leave them behind!).
My Case
In my case before I got my e-bike I was struggling really badly to get up hills. This was due to my exercise induced asthma. I therefore needed an e-bike to help get me up hills due to my breathing.
Do You Get Exercise When E-Bike Cycling ?
Some people think that e-bikes are like mopeds or scooters and that you just sit on them and press a button and away you go.
This is far from the truth. E-bikes can be more correctly refered to as electrically assisted bikes, the key word being “assisted”. E-bikes must be pedalled before the electric motor kicks in to provide assistance. Once you stop pedalling the motor cuts out. This is why e-bikes provide a good level of exercise.
There are normally three or four levels of assistance from the electric motor. You can select the level to suit your personal needs or to suit the terrain you are cycling on. On all selections, though, pedal input is required from the rider and the motor merely provides assistance. So you are still getting good exercise.
There is also the option to select no assistance and just to pedal on your own steam, and thus you can get even more exercise. This is what I do 90% of the time (at present!)
Are E-Bikes Easy To Ride?
Hybrid e-bikes are extremely easy to ride. If you have ridden a hybrid bike before then you’ll find riding an e-bike very easy and a joy to ride. If you’re just learning to ride a bike you can take it in stages. Firstly learn how to ride the bike, then master changing the gears and finally see how easy it is to get assistance from the electric motor.
As I am recounting my own personal experiences my comments here are in relation to hybrid bikes with straight handlebars. My e-bike has ten normal gears and four levels of assistance from the electric motor.
On hybrid e-bikes you can control both the gears and the assistance level without taking your hands off the handlebars
operating the normal gears
As with most hybrid bikes the normal gears on a hybrid e-bike are operated with two levers on one of the handlebars.
You simply flick one of the levers with your index finger to go up a gear. You flick the other lever with your thumb to go down a gear.
The image on the left shows the set up on my bike, with the gear levers on the right hand handlebar.
Changing the Level of Assistance
On my bike the level of assistance from the electric motor is changed by tapping my thumb on the small unit on the left hand handlebar.
Obviously, you tap the “+” button to move up through the four levels of assistance, and you tap the “-” button to move down.
Full details of the operation of this unit and all the other components of the electrical system are outlined in the “Anatomy of My E-Bike” page. (Click here to go to this page.)