Has your EMTB made you fitter, or kept you as fit, as your regular MTB?

[mtb64]

Does anyone have actual comparative data of regular MTB rides before and after EMTB purchase / prolonged use?

 

[Jonzy]

Definitely not as fit as when I rode my regular trance, but I enjoy it so much more.

 

[mtb64]

So do I, but I'm interested in fitness. There's lots of claims that EMTBs can make or keep you fit, but I'm interested in peoples' real world and honest experiences compared with regular riding.

 

[Bullmonster]

I used to drive to work, as soon as I got my ebike I ride everyday to work instead of 5 to 6 times a year plus do an extra 7 miles at lunch time, buying an ebike has definitely improved my activity and general well-being.

 

[Konanige]

definately lost leg strength.

 

[Pdoz]

My kids ride my old bikes, so I regularly end up swapping when they run out of steam. There are sections of trail I used to walk which I easily ride up now.

BUT - I'm riding the emtb a LOT more often than I ever rode the memtb. For perspective, the 2009 trance is still on its original chain, and the 2017 norco optic has only worn out 1 cassette. I stopped counting chain / cassettes on my 2018 fugle.

 

[MOTO13]

It made my wallet a lot slimmer. So...there's that I guess.

 

[Gary]

In the 3+ years I've owned and ridden Ebikes I've lost a shit load of fitness and strength, gained weight and become far more prone to fitness related injuries.
Ive also lost a bit of skill and pop from not riding a hardtail as much.
Riding time wise I ride way less than I did 4 years ago too. From around 10-12hrs actual riding time per week down to around 7.

An Ebike is really not a great option in place of normal bikes if strength, fitness or conditioning are important to you.

 

[JetSedgwick]

I'd say less fit

 

[Kingerz]

Less fit certainly, in terms of pedalling power, although I ride far more often and by no means UNfit

 

[Flyfisha]

I have had my ebike for 8 months. I definitely get out on it a lot more than my old bike . As a retired person I can ride as often as I like. I have lost weight and gained fitness but then again that was to idea of the purchase in the first place.

 

[RustyIron]

Does anyone have actual comparative data of regular MTB rides before and after EMTB purchase / prolonged use?

If anyone offers legitimate data, I'd be very skeptical. I'll be so bold as to proclaim that none exists.

But if you're looking for subjective impressions...
Since getting the eMTB, I'm riding more. There is physical movement, but the heart isn't red-lining and my muscles aren't pumping at 120%. My initial concern was that I might become a gelatinous blob of adipose tissue. But what I've found is that when I hop on the Amish bike, my muscles and joints are ready to work, not in an already-damaged state. My ability to crank up my heart and lungs as not diminished, and might just be greater. One of these days I'm going to be old, and my thought is that by riding the eMTB now, and engaging in extreme physical effort less frequently, my body might actually last longer. I suspect, however, that if someone switches to eMTB exclusively, their physical ability will eventually diminish.

 

[MrSimmo]

Id say less fit, but my middle aged knees are happier so I ride loads more.

In terms of data, I have to regularly take quite intensive fitness tests for work; resting heart rate is 5bpm higher (stress), heart recovery time is the same, average/mean heart rate when cycling is similar, leg power is way less, leg muscle recovery though is faster, upper body strength is similar despite not powerlifting anymore which the boffins reckon is because moving the emtb (and the increased weight) around is triggering muscle memory and tricking the body into thinking I am lifting weights.

But I have stomach fat now which I blame on covid ?

 

[The Hodge]

I would say that Im not as fit as when I was riding my mtb regularly ..but then prior to getting my ebike I probably hadnt ridden as much in the previous two years due to the physicality of my job and hours I was working which left me completely knackered and recuperating on the days I didnt work ..
Ive now got work which is less demanding and time consuming ..so I can ride more ..but ..more than half my mates still ride mtbs and on group rides with them Im hardly breaking sweat ..even in eco / tour ..
With mates on purely emtbs ..the pace while twice as fast is still "social " ..and is determined by range of battery life ..so not really going any further on a big day out ..just a bit faster/ easier..
The only time where I can put a similar amount of effort in is on a solo ride ..really going for it ..but then thats not really why I ride ..so those occaisions are very rare..
Does it bother me that I might not be as fit as I used to be ..well to use a well worn Geordie* expression " Does it shite " ..
What I've lost in fitness I've more than made up for in fun and at my age that suits me just fine ..?
* Not strictly limited to the Geordie dialect

 

[fenwick458]

Depends on how you define fitness. My heart & lungs feel just the same as they ever did before to when I'm e biking or doing other activities. I always track my heart rate, on e bike climbs it's exactly the same or higher, but on the overall ride way lower average
but I am no where near as strong in my legs, and have lost 2-3 kg of muscle

 

[Davvee]

I got in to biking last October with my first bike in years, according to my logs I’m still burning the same amount of calories as well as my heart rate being the same on the climbs. I’m not fussed about getting fitter, I’m fussed about keeping my anxiety and panic disorder at bay and so far it’s keeping me off my 9 tablets a day I was on.

 

[SwissMountainLeader]

If anyone offers legitimate data, I'd be very skeptical. I'll be so bold as to proclaim that none exists.

Not so much “bold” as entirely unrealistic ?sorry!

there’s a peloton of academic studies as you might expect given this has impacts into public policy areas like public health, transportation policies and tourism. And it’s an obvious area for a phd candidate to take an interest in.

For example the University of Zurich studied 10,000 riders over a one year period finding good health benefits. That’s probably the largest of the studies but there’s quite a few more. As another example Brigham Young University looked at a smaller cohort and looked in detail at individual rides or journeys over a range of metrics.

 

[Tonybro]

I'm an atypical candidate.

Having had spinal surgery that left me with issues with my legs, regular MTB sat in the garage and only ventured out for light sessions.

I put weight on and last year decided to do something about it and I looked at my mtb and tried again. The leg issues still prevented any meaningful exercise so looked at the e-mtb. Not looked back.

Lost 26lbs (12kg) in weight, improved my fitness, improved my type 2 diabetes measurements to the extent I might actually shake it off entirely if I keep going...

Aiming for another 8 lbs weight loss but I am exchanging fat for muscle now so weight loss is slowing...

 

[Doomanic]

I’m considerably fitter now compared to when I bought my first eeb but being honest most of that is down to running 3 times a week during lockdown last year, not the bike.
I am stronger though; muscling that fat fucker of a bike around has seen to that, both from gym work to make it easier and actually riding the thing.

 

[Beekeeper]

Lumbering my bike over gates and into and out of the car, and carrying a spare battery on my back yeah I’d say my core strength has improved as well as bone density.

 

[Pdoz]

I think you'll find two types of cheater riders. The ones that want to work for it and just need a boost, but intend to ride with an analog mindset (e.g. SL). The other camp are the lazy fucks that want all the power they can get and don't mind the bulk.

I had a chuckle over this.

Three years on a ff , I'd ride low or power off when feeling lethargic or dial up full boost for an energetic blast. I suspect most of that was psychological rather than physiological

I added a levo sl hoping to get more exercise but now miss those high intensity full power rides where I'd spend an hour scaring myself senseless whilst trying to toss 23 kg of bike around.

So I guess I'm a Crazy rather than lazy fuck?

 

[ggx]

mutch more fit as I´ve incresed riding time. I still ride analog mtb and road bikes.

 

[StevoKickstart]

I suspect not as fit aerobically speaking... but that is to do with riding with one of my twin boys on a normal bike (the other on an ebike) and needing to all travel at the same speed so therefore not challenging my cardio-vascular system as much as pre-eMTB.
However, due to the eMTB being 10kg heavier than my previous (Capra), manoeuvring the additional weight around gives my muscular system a much bigger work-out. e.g. when I am descending a narly bumpy trail with constant "hits" coming through the handlebars, I feel like I am constantly doing press-ups. My shoulder and pectoral muscle development show this.
To summarise:
- not as aerobically fit due to how I use the bike
- All body workout, definitely a better workout
Hope this helps

 

[Gary]

Depends massively on how fit you were pre Ebike.

 

[Growmac]

When I initially got an ebike it was at least partially to allow me to join my local group rides. It’s a friendly but very fast group, and although they were happy to wait for me, it just wasn’t fun with such a big fitness differential. The ebike let me keep up, and I got a load of hours in until I was able to keep up on the normal bike too.

I rode normal all last summer, and got fitter than I have been in years.

In the Autumn lockdown meant that we went back to riding in pairs. I rode with a mate and we both rode eeeb all the time. We realised that we were getting a lot less fit within a couple of months, but on the flip side ebikes were a lot more fun to ride in the mud and slip than a normal bike. So we made a conscious decision to step it up. Much longer rides, and going much, much harder. Fitness came back up, and in fact when group rides restarted, the two of us were amongst the fittest there.

But, despite that, no, I don’t think you get as much from riding an ebike, no matter how hard you try. My Strava ‘guesstimate’ fitness graph is below. You can see that things pick up in December as we decided to go harder, and it improves slowly in the next few months. We started doing a lot more real biking in May though, and you can see the uptick.

It’s hardly scientific, but it mirrors how I feel pretty closely. And yes, I’ve been riding less the last couple of months because I’ve been busy. Fail.

 

[Herder000]

I would say slightly fitter purely because I go out now when I wouldn’t have before, but to be fair I do other (boring) stuff for pure fitness. I bought my emtb because I’d stopped riding. It rekindled my passion for mtbing but to be completely honest, after the novelty of blasting up trails wore off I came to realise my old much lighter anthem x is more fun on the flat and downhill. I find now it’s about 50/50 between the emtb and the anthem. I do occasionally do an epic ride on the emtb, did a 7 hour one a while ago, the battery died at 6.5 hours, I thought I was going to die by the 7 hour mark!

 

[VWsurfbum]

Definitely not as fit as when I rode my regular trance, but I enjoy it so much more.

This

 

[RustyMTB]

This

Same & ride much more frequently on my eeb than my normie, so I guess there's some balancing involved. Facts are at my age, a ride on the trail bike requires at least a day off for my iffy knees to recover.

 

[KSL]

I had a chuckle over this.

Three years on a ff , I'd ride low or power off when feeling lethargic or dial up full boost for an energetic blast. I suspect most of that was psychological rather than physiological

I added a levo sl hoping to get more exercise but now miss those high intensity full power rides where I'd spend an hour scaring myself senseless whilst trying to toss 23 kg of bike around.

So I guess I'm a Crazy rather than lazy fuck?

Clearly it was a bit of dry humor and glad you had a chuckle. That was the intent. I figured more would be offended honestly.

I think regardless of e-Bike, it's really a factor of how much effort the rider wants to put into it. I have an ebike and an analog still, but never ride my analog anymore as I no longer have to come home completely spent after climbing at a snails-pace uphill at max HR. It's a fine line between torture and fun. You can only ride in aerobic mode for so long before caving in.

The eBike has been a game-changer for me, but everyone gets something different from them I suppose. Some merely use eBikes for longer commutes, but aren't interested in an adrenaline high. I'm primarily an adrenaline junky in my 50's, but as I age, I'm sure I'll be toning things down and fall into the lazy as fuck camp.

 

[Gary]

I no longer have to come home completely spent after climbing at a snails-pace uphill at max HR. It's a fine line between torture and fun. You can only ride in aerobic mode for so long before caving in.

Seems you've forgotten about the option to make an effort to get yourself properly fit enabling faster climbing speeds, longer endurance and the ability to complete the same rides in less time at a lower intensity. When folk say they now ride further since getting an Ebike it's quite telling as It's not like Ebikes have a massive range even in eco.

Isn't it weird how so many folk feel they need to justify having an Ebike tho?