I love e-bikes—they introduce non-cyclists to the sport, they keep cars off the road, and most of all, ebiking is crazy fun. But is it actually exercise? If so, how much of a workout are you really getting on an assisted ride?
E-bikes, or electric bikes, look like regular bicycles but have a motor (and battery) on board to assist your pedaling. That extra assist can help you climb hills without breaking a sweat, or just speed up an otherwise easy ride. If you’d like to learn more about what it’s like to ride one, here’s my review of the Propella 7S, the e-bike I used to test the question of whether an ebike ride really counts as exercise.
The answer depends on what you mean by the question: On one hand, regular bikes provide a significantly better workout in terms of calories burned and effort expended than electric bikes, but on the other hand, studies suggest e-cyclists as a whole get as much, or even slightly more, total exercise as people who only ride non-assisted bicycles because they ride more often and ride longer distances.