Belgium-based urban e-bike manufacturer  has shared interesting data gleaned from its ridership, providing insights into how many fitness benefits e-bikes offer.
Many riders have ditched the car or bus for commuting in favor of e-bikes.
Electric bikes include an electric assist motor and battery to add extra power to the rider’s own pedaling effort, and when traffic is factored in, they can often travel at speeds close to a car in many cities (and sometimes even faster than a car by using traffic – Destruction of bike lanes).
Although many studies show to the contrary, there is a common misconception that e-bikes do not provide exercise benefits.
Some studies even show that e-bikes provide more exercise than bicycles because riders typically ride longer than bicycles.
Data  recently collected from its smartphone app that pairs with customers’ e-bikes paints an interesting picture of how a typical rider uses its e-bike.
co-founder and explained that after the company launched the new app, riders were riding farther and longer, and said the company saw an 8% increase in distance travel and increased travel time 15%.
Specifically, the company says its bikes are cycled an average of nine times a week, with an average of 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) per ride.
Since e-bikes are primarily designed for urban riding, this seems feasible.The average ride time on recreational or fitness e-bikes is usually longer, but urban e-bikes are often used for city navigation, and they typically perform shorter trips through the heart of densely populated areas.
40.5 kilometers (25 miles) per week is equivalent to about 650 calories of cycling.Remember, cowboy e-bikes don’t have a gas pedal, so they require the user to pedal to start the motor.
The company says this equates to about 90 minutes of moderate-intensity running a week in total.Many people find it hard (or annoying) to run for an hour and a half, but nine short e-bike trips sound easier (and more fun).
who recently secured $80 million in financing to expand his e-bike business, also mentions research showing that e-bikes have nearly the same cardiovascular benefits for riders as pedal bikes.
“After one month, differences in peak oxygen consumption, blood pressure, body composition, and maximal ergonomic workload were within 2% of e-bike and regular cyclists.”
In other words, pedal cyclists improved cardiovascular measures by about 2% compared to e-bike riders.
Last year, we reported on an experiment conducted by Rad Power Bikes, which put five different riders on different styles of e-bikes while using different levels of pedal assist.
Performing the same 30- to 40-minute ride, the calorie burn varies from 100 to 325 calories for different riders.
While pedaling a bike with zero electric assist at the same distance as an e-bike will undoubtedly result in more effort, e-bikes have proven time and time again to still provide significant exercise benefits.
And since e-bikes put more riders on two wheels who would never accept the possibility of riding a pure pedal bike, arguably they provide more exercise.
is a personal electric vehicle enthusiast, battery nerd, and author of Amazon’s bestseller DIY Lithium Batteries, DIY, The  Electric Bike Guide, and The Electric Bike .
The electric bikes that make up Micah’s current daily driver are the, the $1,095 , the $1,199 and the $3,299 .But these days, it’s a fairly constantly changing list.