E-bikes can promote good exercise: study

NEW YORK • Is riding an e-bike good exercise? Is riding an e-bike safe?

With interest in and sales of pedal-assisted electric bikes surging during the coronavirus pandemic, those questions share a growing urgency.

A timely new study of e-bike riders' exertions and injuries suggest that the answer to both questions can be a qualified yes, though anyone riding an e-bike needs to be aware that the experience is certainly cycling with a kick to it.

As most of us are likely aware, bike riding has become extremely popular and aspirational this year, since so many of us are otherwise housebound.

Riding gets us outside, active and heading somewhere - anywhere - else. But it also involves distance, hills, winds and sometimes leaden legs, which can be daunting.

Enter e-bikes. Short for electric bikes, these are road or mountain bikes with an added battery-powered motor that boosts our pedalling power.

Given their ability to help us cover multiple kilometres without requiring a spousal sag wagon, e-bikes sales have soared by 70 per cent or more in the US each month since the pandemic began, according to industry statistics.

But this popularity may carry a price.

Simon Cowell, the acerbic judge on America's Got Talent TV show, reported on Twitter he was hospitalised earlier this month after fracturing his back during his first ride on a new electric trail bike, an exceptionally high-powered British version of an electric bicycle.

Many of us have heard other (sometimes apocryphal) stories about e-bike accidents. And some people wonder if riding an e-bike, with its pedal assistance, even counts as a workout.

On that last count, though, the first of the new studies is reassuring.

Published last month in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, it involved 101 healthy adult men and women in Hamburg, Germany, who agreed to alternate riding either a standard bicycle or an e-bike over two separate two-week periods.

Each volunteer chose his or her preferred e-bike model, with most picking road bikes having top assisted speeds of about 32kmh.

To compensate for the novelty factor, participants spent a couple of weeks getting used to their e-bikes before the study period.

The researchers also provided their volunteers with activity monitors, heart rate monitors and a specialised mobile app where the riders could record their trips, distance and how physically draining each ride had felt.

The scientists did not offer their volunteers any suggestions, however, about where, when or how often to ride, says Hedwig Stenner, a research associate at the Institute of Sports Medicine at Hannover Medical School, who led the new study.

The researchers wanted to see how people, on their own initiative, would use the different bikes and whether their riding would change with the e-bikes.

Electric assistance did change their habits, the researchers found.

In general, the men and women rode more often during the two weeks with e-bikes, averaging about five rides a week then, versus three a week with the standard bicycles.

Interestingly, the distances of most people's rides did not budge, whichever type of bike they rode; their rides were not lengthier on the e-bikes, but they were more frequent.

Their heart rates also differed. In general, people's heart rates were about eight per cent lower when they pedalled e-bikes, but still consistently hovered within the range considered moderate exercise.

As a result, during the two weeks when the volunteers rode e-bikes, they accumulated sufficient minutes of moderate physical activity to meet the standard exercise recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate activity. When they rode the standard bikes, they did not.

Most also reported liking the pedal-assist, says Stenner.

More than two-thirds of the participants told the researchers they enjoyed the e-bikes and could imagine using them "for many years", according to a final study questionnaire.

But whether e-bikes might pose a greater risk for injuries than standard bicycles remains an open question.

"No serious injuries were reported to us," during the research, says Stenner.

E-bikes, at heart, are bikes, so if you can ride a bike, you can ride an e-bike.

"You'll just feel as if you have superhero legs" on the amplified, electric versions, says Ian Kenny, the e-bike brand leader for bike company Specialised.

E-bikes boost cycling speeds, though, so most new riders would benefit from some practice spins in a protected area with little traffic before venturing onto roads or paths, he says.

Look for a large, empty carpark or a road closed to traffic for your first few rides.

During these shakeout sessions, use your bicycle's lowest assistance setting, with different e-bikes offering different levels of pedal assistance.

"E-bikes accelerate faster" than standard bikes, Kenny points out, and that sudden momentum can disconcert and bobble unprepared riders.

Practice slowing and braking, too. "Because e-bikes are heavier and travel faster, they will require more time and distance to stop" than a standard bike, he adds.

When you do head for the open roads or paths, remember to monitor your battery life.

The kilometres can slip by while your pedalling is aided, but the return trip will be long and gruelling if you have drained your battery, especially since e-bikes, in general, are heavier than standard bicycles.

Finally, wear a mask if you are around other riders and pedestrians, and perhaps add a jaunty bell to your bike, if it was not standard equipment. Sound it before passing anyone.

"Treat others as you would like to be treated," Kenny says. "It's never fun to be startled by a zooming cyclist."

NYTIMES