E-Bike - new trend?

Sales of E-bikes (a.k.a.: motorized bicycle) constantly grow. This year 170 thousand units were already sold in the US. While during last year 120 thousand units were sold. Increase in sales can be explained by economic situation (gasoline prices) and flexibility in movement (no traffic jams). And there is an added value of owners feeling they contribute to "greener" environment.

There is an old Russian saying: "Everything new is well forgotten old." First motorized bicycle was invented more than 100 years ago. But since then it was almost ignored by the western world. And there is no doubt that for most people driving a car to work is more comfortable than an e-bike. Due to economic crisis and technological improvements, e-bikes can become an alternative to cars.

There are several things to consider before purchasing an e-bike:
  • If you buy it, will you use it?
  • Environmental variables - yearly average number of rainy days in your region, average temperature, the level of air pollution, etc.
  • Are there special lines for bikes on the way you're planning to use?
  • Do you have appropriate facilities? For example: if you want to use e-bike to reach work, are there showers at your workplace?
  • Do you have any health limitations/inconveniences that may prevent you from riding a bicycle? For instance: you start feeling your knees after some time.

If you decided to buy an e-bike, you can use it to get a better shape. How to do it? We can divide training into two main parts: aerobic and anaerobic. "Aerobic" means "requiring air", where "air" usually means oxygen. Anaerobic is the opposite of aerobics, in other words "without air". Human physiology allows us to reach maximim intensities for short periods of time (anaerobic) and sustain medium intensity for longer periods (aerobic). Thus, 5km run with constant speed will be considered aerobics and 100m sprint will be anaerobic. From now on I'll assume that e-bike will be used for long distances, thus we're talking about aerobics. But, don't forget about anaerobic. It's highly recommended to do both aerobic and anaerobic training. See an example of basic anaerobic training.

There are two ways to increase aerobic capabilities: continuous and interval training. I won't discuss interval training in this article since it's a more advanced type of training. Additional info regarding interval training can be found here.

As you can understand from the name, continuous training increases workout duration while effort level remains constant. How can it be applied to riding an e-bike? Let's use following example to explain the process. If the chosen distance is 20km, then start from 5km cycling and 15km using the engine/battery. Each week increase the distance of manual pedaling by 1km. Let's say you've reached 13km manual pedaling (and 7km non manual) and it's hard for you to increase the distance of manual pedaling any further. In this case you can try increasing manual pedaling distance by 1km once every two weeks. Let's assume that using this technique you've reached 16km, but again you feel that you're stuck. At this point you'll have to vary intensity. In short, it can be explained as making two steps back and three steps forward. For example (each number represents a different day [km]): 16, 16, 16, 14, 12, 10, 17, 15, 15, 17, 17, 17. After "fixing" 17km as your new distance, you can continue this loop with one adjustment (increasing each number by 1).

In the end you'll make the whole distance by yourself. Is this the end? Of course not, you can increase the speed or try interval training.

Good luck.

P.S.: In this article distances are measured in km, but you may not be aware of exact distance while cycling. Instead you can use some landmarks.

For more information regarding e-bike see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-bike#Electric