eBikes - is there a way back?

[Cowsham]

This time of year is when my ebike gets a bit of use to get me back into cycling after quite few weeks of not cycling. Was out on it today. The weather has been so horrific for such a long time. Last time I was out was a quick jaunt out in the snow. I've most of the damage done by the big storm in January repaired now so been very busy with that and work. Time for some "swannin aboot on bikes" as my brother puts it.

[Cowsham]

Weather lovely here the last couple of days so got out on the mtb yesterday for a good long run. Maybe a bit too long and felt tired and a little sore today so took the ebike this morning. Still out in the park enjoying the nice weather and listening to the birds in full song -- spring has sprung -- maybe ?

[Vantage]

I'm rather late to this topic but I have gone from being fit as a fiddle, having a stroke which rendered me extremely unfit that I very nearly gave up cycling, fitting a mid drive motor to my bike and recovering better, getting unfit again due to the ebike, back to non powered cycling which i failed miserably at, back to epower, further unfitness, back to non power again and getting a little fitter but suffering constant diabetic hypos and fatigue and now I'm using a different brand mid drive motor which helps but also makes me work for that help. Phew!

So, after the stroke and almost giving up cycling, my Dad convinced me to try his ebike. I loved it and soon got my own Bafang motor for my own bike. As a cadence based motor, the faster you pedal the harder it works...more or less. The Bafang made it easy for me to just do the motions of pedalling while the motor did all the work. This worked great for a while, but I soon noticed I was walking more slowly and getting worn out easily. All play and no work was making Bill a lazy boy. Back to non powered cycling then. But I couldn't do it. I didn't have the muscle to climb the endless hills here and any form of training lead to my diabetes grounding me before I was even breathing hard.
Things continued like this for a while with no improvement.
A few weeks ago after trying to go non powered again for the billionth time, I invested in a new motor. The Tongshen one. This works on torque. The harder I pedal, the harder it works. It's possible to cheat in that I could just set it to its highest setting and cruise along with almost no effort but I'm finding that I like to push myself just enough that it's benefitting me but without putting me in hospital either. It.s only been 2 or 3 weeks but I am starting to feel a bit fitter.
So yes, I think that as long as you're putting in enough effort and not letting the ebike/motor do all the work, then going back to normal cycling is very much possible.

[Cowsham]

I'm rather late to this topic but I have gone from being fit as a fiddle, having a stroke

Sorry to hear about the stroke Bill -- were you relatively young when that happened?


I used the ebike on my last commute cos my legs were tired from the first few commutes this year after the atrocious weather we've had so far. I only used the power on the hills and turned it off on the flat but better on bike than caged.

[Vantage]

Young for a stroke victim. I was 41.
I'm ok ish on the flats, but gimmie a headwind or the slightest on inclines and my legs are useless.

[Galactic]

I'm rather late to this topic but I have gone from being fit as a fiddle, having a stroke which rendered me extremely unfit that I very nearly gave up cycling, fitting a mid drive motor to my bike and recovering better, getting unfit again due to the ebike, back to non powered cycling which i failed miserably at, back to epower, further unfitness, back to non power again and getting a little fitter but suffering constant diabetic hypos and fatigue and now I'm using a different brand mid drive motor which helps but also makes me work for that help. Phew!

So, after the stroke and almost giving up cycling, my Dad convinced me to try his ebike. I loved it and soon got my own Bafang motor for my own bike. As a cadence based motor, the faster you pedal the harder it works...more or less. The Bafang made it easy for me to just do the motions of pedalling while the motor did all the work. This worked great for a while, but I soon noticed I was walking more slowly and getting worn out easily. All play and no work was making Bill a lazy boy. Back to non powered cycling then. But I couldn't do it. I didn't have the muscle to climb the endless hills here and any form of training lead to my diabetes grounding me before I was even breathing hard.
Things continued like this for a while with no improvement.
A few weeks ago after trying to go non powered again for the billionth time, I invested in a new motor. The Tongshen one. This works on torque. The harder I pedal, the harder it works. It's possible to cheat in that I could just set it to its highest setting and cruise along with almost no effort but I'm finding that I like to push myself just enough that it's benefitting me but without putting me in hospital either. It.s only been 2 or 3 weeks but I am starting to feel a bit fitter.
So yes, I think that as long as you're putting in enough effort and not letting the ebike/motor do all the work, then going back to normal cycling is very much possible.

I think Vantage's experiences fully answer the original question. I too require some help these days in order to keep on cycling, and like Vantage, have to work hard not to get lazy and let the motor do all the work. But so long as one remains disciplined, and sets the electric support as low as needed to keep going then eBikes are definitely a useful tool to stay cycling and / or build up stamina and muscles.

Personally I have a cadence-sensor, and the support that offers is just what I need. To put it simply, each power level has a certain target speed, and as I get close to that target, the input from the motor tails off. So if I have it on step 1 or 2, the motor will kick in when I set off and peter out once I reach 4 or 6mph (or whatever I've programmed it to). I usually have it set to about 9mph, so the motor only really switches on when I'm flagging or going up a hill. Once I hit 9mph it'll stop giving me any support and I'm cycling normally.

On occasions I overreach and have trouble continuing, then I'll choose a higher setting and just pedal as much as I'm able to, safe in the knowledge the motor will get me home.

PS I too was once sceptical about ebikes, but then I had the choice of giving up cycling or using an assistance motor. I'm glad I overcame my prejudice since it helps me remain as fit as I can and the only other option would have been to buy a car.

[Cowsham]

Young for a stroke victim. I was 41.
I'm ok ish on the flats, but gimmie a headwind or the slightest on inclines and my legs are useless.

Must have been devastating at that age. I know two other people both female that had strokes around that age -- both fit as butcher's dogs and one a keen cyclist the other a runner. That was about 5 or 6 years ago so before covid etc no real explanation. I had my theories 1 was that the two girls were fairly sedentary for most of their youth and then went mad on the exercise as they approached their 40's. That all maybe rubbish cos I've since heard of lifetime athletes having strokes too.

Sorry for thread drift.

[Vantage]

Strokes affect different people in different ways and no one really knows what causes them. Certain lifestyles, bad habits etc can contribute to them but their root cause is usually a mystery.
Mine I'm sure was caused by smoking through my twenties, diabetes complications and a particularly stressful time getting custody of my children.
I knew one gentleman in the bike club who was nicked named 3 stroke Dave or something because he'd had 3 stokes and was still cycling competitively into his 70s.
The bloke beside me in the hospital ward was already a resident when I arrived and when I left 2 weeks later on my own two feet, he was still very much a vegetable.
Brucey of this parish has also I think, come out the other side smiling.
Coulda been worse. We're both still breathing

[Davo54]

I had back surgery in March 2024 and a year of physio afterwards. The pain wasn’t going away. In an attempt to be fit and in pain instead of unfit and in pain I bought an e-trike.

The e-trike broke down after 2 weeks but at least it showed me I could move my legs without increasing the pain. I’d been unconvinced about the trike’s safety when going round corners or in a straight line on heavily cambered roads, so I bought a cheap pedal bike to use while the e-trike was being repaired.

After 3 weeks of using the pedal bike I don’t want to go back to the e-trike when it’s fixed, so I’ll be selling it. If I can afford to, I might buy an e-bike (not trike) for lazy days or for when I want to do a journey more quickly, or just in a more reliable time.

I’m 70. After 5 weeks of re-cycling the back pain has dropped from level 4 to level 3. The weight loss will have helped with that. I also started using a muscle gun 4 weeks ago to get rid of the early onset muscle pain. I use this less often and for less time now, as I do some proper stretches at the end of each ride. The gun still gets used, but now more so on the following morning.

So maybe the solution for you is also to have both a pedal bike and an e-bike?

[Cugel]

So maybe the solution for you is also to have both a pedal bike and an e-bike?

It was the ladywife who first got an e-bike, so she could go riding with me in the very hilly area we live and keep up. Not only could she keep up - she soon became fit enough to drop me up the steeper hills with only a little bit of help from the motor (+75 watts as long as she pedalled at least 150 watts herself, if anyone's interested).

In short, she got much fitter at cycling by coming out on her e-bike with me on an ordinary bike. She would have done no cycling at all without the e. She's mostly a swimmer. She got better at that too, partly from getting bike-fit.

*************
Yesterday I went out with a friend who was once a cyclist (about ten years ago) but has done no cycling since. It only took me two years to get him out again. We went out on unpowered bikes but mine has a low gear of 30 (front) X 34 (rear) whilst his was 39 X 25! He enjoyed the ride but his lower back was as sore as his nether after just one hour.

In short, technological differences of many kinds make a difference to the cycling experience and effects. My twiddle meant no sore back for me, despite being 26 years his senior. Heaving up a series of 1 in 5s will do for any lower back.

**************

There are e-bikes and ordinary bikes in our bike shed. I use both. Riding the e-bike generally means longer and more hilly routes, ridden faster (often flat-out) as the e gives the confidence to do that knowing I can go home easily from afar should I blow up.

Because of the flat-out on the e-bike, I go better on the no-e-bikes. Partly I'm fitter from e-cycling but there's also a psychological component - I know all the hard sections and how to get up them with the right gears and amount of effort. I have the confidence to do them with no e because I've become intimate with their pedal-power requirements.

That may seem counter-intuitive .... but it's what happens when riding both kinds of bike.

On the other hand, I see some on e-tanks going everywhere at 15mph with no apparent effort from them as they select "full-gas" motor mode for the whole of every ride. That's OK - it's just their better-transport-than-a-car. E-bikes can serve many roles.

[Skids]

#Cugel makes some great points.

I actually question the original question: why worry about getting back at all? If I have understood the OP correctly they are unable to do the rides they want to on a normal bike, owing to health/fitness issues, but can when on an e-bike. I say just go for it as its far better to be riding an ebike than not riding at all.

A number of studies have shown that ebike riders do get fitter than those riding normal bikes because they ride them more often and further than the unpowered group. Also, as has been written above, how you choose to use your ebike will alter how much your rides will improve your fitness.

[toontra]

A number of studies have shown that ebike riders do get fitter than those riding normal bikes because they ride them more often and further than the unpowered group.

That would appear counter-intuitive. Any links to the studies?

[Jdsk]

I recommend starting with the Wikipedia article and a couple of meta-analyses:

Electric bicycle: Health effects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_ ... th_effects

McVicar et al 2022
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9546252/

Riiser et al 2022:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sp ... 31004/full

Jonathan

[toontra]

I recommend starting with the Wikipedia article and a couple of meta-analyses:

Thanks. A cursory glance of the conclusions of the McVicar study finds:

The magnitude of effect in physiological responses (of e-bike riding) was lower than compared with conventional cycling.

Haven't read them all in detail though. It may be as Skids says, that e-bike riders simply get out more often.

[Cugel]

I recommend starting with the Wikipedia article and a couple of meta-analyses:

Thanks. A cursory glance of the conclusions of the McVicar study finds:

The magnitude of effect in physiological responses (of e-bike riding) was lower than compared with conventional cycling.

Haven't read them all in detail though. It may be as Skids says, that e-bike riders simply get out more often.

Why rely on "studies", cyber-twaddle or other fifth-hand reports; or (worse) opinions based on zero experience. Get a-had o' an e-bike and ride it for a month or two. You'll discover things about them for yourself.

Or, if you prefer, continue to regard e-bikes as somehow disabling or whatever you feel inclined to want them to be. After all, believing things just because one wants them to be-so is all the rage, no matter what boring old reality says.