The e-bike under exercising myth.

[Stefan Mikes]

The "less workout on the e-bike" can sometimes be true.

On a group ride, a traditional cyclist can burn say 2,500 kcal while I will burn 700 kcal on the same ride and the rest will come from the battery (to match the group speed). Yet it is the matter of "workout or no workout". As a partly disabled person I could even not dream to ride together with my buddies on a trad bike. During a frosty Winter!

 

[PSm]

So I'm going to refute this but not because I don't think you get good exercise with an ebike, but if you are riding the same rides (distance, elevation, etc) with people who don't have ebikes, it's definitely less effort vs a non ebike.

Recently, I've had my ebike in the shop so I've had to use my normie... and even though the rides are mainly flat and average around 15 to 20 miles, it's definitely more of a workout than with my ebike. Especially if you basically go the same speeds because you don't want to abandon the non ebikers. And that's the tough part, the guys in my group all weigh much less than I do... so for them, biking without power is easy... so an ebike evens the field for me... actually puts it in my favor so if I put reasonable effort with assist, I go too fast, if I turn off assist, I'm slower than on my regular bike which I was already lagging behind on.

But... the one advantage of my ebike is I am able to ride hillier rides that I would not be able to without it... but again... without much effort if I want to go the same pace as the non ebikers (several times I've gone full speed up the hills just because I could... to their chagrin).

So that's why I'm looking at a lower power hub bike... something that will give me more balance between ebike and regular bike.

To E or not to E... that is the conundrum.

It’s great to have the choice of how much, or how little assist to use, when you have an e-bike. But you need to have the focus and discipline to get the training and exercise you want, and the right bike that allows you to do that.

In my case, I modified my e-bike with a display/controller that is customized for my needs. Now instead of the stock PAS1-5 levels with unknown watts assistance, I can dial in the watts assist I want. Besides power off, I set the PAS1 lowest assist at 20 watts, with intermediate settings up to a PAS9 with 500 watts assist.

When trying to go for the longest distance, I’ll use PAS1 or motor off as much as possible and not worry about average speed, but increase for ~8% or more grades. For the club rides with advanced non e-bike amateur racers, I’ll try to dial in about 100 watts assist for the majority of the ride, but could need 300+ watts when trying to bridge the gap, or when they really accelerate hard. Sometimes just for fun, I’ll do my full effort at high BPM with full motor assist, and sometimes get unofficial Strava KOM times … very fun, and amazes me to compare and see how a non e-bike pro racer can move that fast!

And once in a while I’ll do motor off rides, which is great for strength building but not great for my knees (since it’s a single speed). It’s impossible to not get great exercise, as long as you don’t injure yourself!

 

[6zfshdb]

It’s great to have the choice of how much, or how little assist to use, when you have an e-bike. But you need to have the focus and discipline to get the training and exercise you want

This is absolutely true but the same applies to ALL forms of exercise.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

and sometimes get unofficial Strava KOM times

In the E-Bike Ride category, I assume?

 

[PSm]

In the E-Bike Ride category, I assume?

I keep my Strava private, so it doesn’t mess with the leaderboards. There’s an E-Bike category in Strava? Had no idea.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I keep my Strava private, so it doesn’t mess with the leaderboards. There’s an E-Bike category in Strava? Had no idea.

Yes it is.

E-bikers have own Strava Segments, so they do not need to compete with traditional cyclist. However, only E-Biker who also has a subscription can create E-Bike Segments. I'm very proud to keep both Course Record and KOM on a 7.33 km (a forest fire road) E-Bike Strava Segment. My brother holds the second place only because he was not aware I was racing and rode more calmly there