In Favour of Electric Bikes

I considered getting an electric bike a few years ago. I didn’t for a single reason. When I spoke to a bike seller I asked whether bikes get stolen and I was laughed at for asking the question. I didn’t get an electric bike the next day. If we’re going to spend thousands of francs on an electric bike, to replace a car, or scooter, we don’t want to live in fear of it being stolen.

Experiment With Commuting

I continued to cycle, and walk. I walked up to five and a half million steps a year during the peak of pandemic self-isolation. My walking went down recently, because I have resumed cycling. I quite easily cycle to Geneva and back. I do this journey, not because I have anything to do in Geneva. I do it to prove to myself that the journey is a simple one that takes as long on a bike, as on the train. This is the case. I could get to work by bike, rather than by car or by train. I would have a healthy bike ride in the morning, and another in the evening.

Fit Enough To Ride With E-bikes

E-bikes are fast. They get you to twenty five kilometres an hour with relative ease, and then it’s just a matter of maintaining that speed. If you’re not fit then you’ll face the challenge of keeping up with e-bikes, and riding with them will be unpleasant.

The flipside of this is that electric bikes are enablers. They enable people who haven’t spent 53 hours riding their bikes in the last year, to keep up with those that have. They enable those with one fitness level, to ride along with someone of another.

The Liberating Benefit of E-Bikes

There was a time when I enjoyed going for bike rides but I felt limited by the hills around where I lived. I felt that they got in the way of me going for longer bike rides. It takes a certain amount of training and practice to go up and down hills. This training doesn’t take weeks or months. It takes years. There was a time when I felt that the bike I use didn’t have easy enough gears for climbs. With time and practice I no longer encounter that challenge.

I worked to get the cycling freedom that I now enjoy.

With electric bikes you get the same freedom, without putting in the leg work. (pun intended). With electric bikes non cyclists gain the freedom experienced by cyclists, within minutes rather than weeks, months or years. It enables people of varying levels of cycling proficiency to be equal.

And Finally

When I go for my bike rides I often see groups of people, either cycling together on self-powered bikes, or electric bikes. Electric bikes have democratised the sport. People that would have taken the car to breakfast, or to have coffee, are now enabled to cycle on hilly terrain to explore the landscape, without using a car. Parking a bike is easier than parking a car. Cycling is good for the environment and it gets people to enjoy an easier version of cycling.

For a while I wanted to get my own electric bike. Eventually I reached a level of fitness where an electric bike was no longer of benefit. I am in favour of electric bikes, as it makes it easier for others to join us on bike rides, despite a difference in fitness.