Have you been asking yourself should I get an ebike? Are you wondering what the reasons are to bite the bullet and buy one? Do you find yourself wondering ‘what are the benefits of ebikes?’
Well, first and foremost you may as well embrace the future… You might be a petrolhead who takes the idea of riding something battery powered as blasphemous or maybe a purist cyclist who feels like pedal assist is cheating, wherever you are in your vehicle-related beliefs, there is no doubt that electric vehicles are the future.
But truth of the matter is that there are tons of benefits to riding an electric bike and we’re going to scrape the surface here, so take a look at our top reasons to and benefits of joining the electric revolution and buying an electric bike…
1. Ebikes are environmentally friendly and zero emissions
Fancy reducing your carbon footprint seeing as we’re destroying our planet at every opportunity? Ebikes are an environmentally friendly alternative mode of transport to a petrol or diesel guzzling car or motorbike!
Basically an ebike uses battery powered motors rather than fuel which produces environmentally harmful emissions. A lithium ion battery propels an ebike, pedal assisted for ebikes (electric bicycle) with 250w limit for the roads – or purely battery powered with no need to pedal for electric motorbikes.
Air pollution is a huge problem all over the world, including the UK, especially major cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester. Nitrous oxide being the main problem, mainly omitted from diesel engines, as it’s damaging to the human respiratory system.
Well guess what?
Ebikes don’t emit that nasty stuff and when you commute or pop on your ebike to clear the head or have a bit of fun, you won’t be ripping up the ozone layer anymore than you need to!
But wait a minute, doesn’t mining for lithium batteries cause a carbon footprint too?! Yes but apparently this emissions from this activity are less than that of internal combustion engines and this needs offsetting. Whilst lithium batteries aren’t perfect they are a better solution and less damaging to the environment that fossil fuels.
Plus if you charge your ebike overnight when power is in less demand, then you are usually using excess power from the National Grid, meaning it’s more environmentally friendly and cheaper.
2. Ebikes are the best way to commute
Ebikes are a great alternative to using a car for your commute – why sit in a box in loads of traffic when you can whizz on an ebike in the fresh air?
They’re a much more pleasant experience to commute with than being stuffed into public transport on a bus, train, tram or tube. Would you rather the wind in your face or someone’s Bobby Orange armpit?
Since the days of Covid, using a two-wheeled machine, that allows you to commute alone without any coughing or spluttering around you from covid, colds, flu or any other illness that you’d rather not catch, is a preferrable solution to getting to work; instead of being packed into a train, tube or bus like a tin of sardines.
Biking to work is a popular way to get your daily dose of exercise. Thanks to the invention of the electric bike, anyone can commute by bike without sweating or straining themselves.
You can opt for a folding ebike too, which means you can fold it up and take it on the train or other means of transport for extra convenience. Take a look at our best folding ebikes list here.
Ebiking to work is also a source of work-out and stress-relief in addition to physical exercise. Electric bikes are quiet too, not that bicycles aren’t quiet, but usually when you have a motor you have noise, but not with ebikes.
An ebike commute is a great way to get exercise and is revolutionising how many people commute every day, even the NHS are doing it!
3. An ebike will help you to keep fit and burn calories
“Cut down on your pork life mate, get some exercise!”
Ok, so ebikes may give you some help with battery-assisted propulsion, but you still have to pedal and pedalling is better than not pedalling.
You can choose how much or how little you use the battery and if you’ve consumed 1,500 calories the night before on your favourite Chinese takeaway then you may opt to pedal more and use the battery less.
The fact of the matter is ebikes still need your calory burning input much more than sitting in a car or a train, so you’ll burn more fat, and the age old move more eat less will apply to help you maintain a healthy BMI when using an ebike.
Not so much with an electric motorbike as you don’t need to pedal, another in the long list of benefits of ebikes.
Some studies have even claimed that ebike users get more exercise than regular bicycle users as they often commute further and use their ebike more often…
Many studies on the effects of e-bikes on health and the environment have been conducted over the past few years.
The motor assists pedaling, allowing people to travel at higher speeds than they could on a standard bike. This increases the potential for physical activity and reduces risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory disorders, ear and muscle pain and gout.
In addition, traveling by e-bike reduces air pollution from driving a car, van or petrol bike. It also reduces noise pollution from its engine as it travels at higher speeds.
According to research conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine in 2016, people who use e-bikes regularly have lower levels of cardiovascular risk than those who use them occasionally or never.
4. Ebikes are flexible, convenient and easy
Using an bike over a car or motorbike as your mode of transport will open up a new world of convenience.
Finding a parking space will no longer be a problem, as you chain your ebike to the nearest immoveable object such as a lamppost or metal fence. You’ve get the new world of using cycle lanes and roads that cars are not able to go down. Move your bike up and down stairs and steps if need be to shortcut or transfer your bike from one place to another.
You also don’t need to worry about having a licence, insurance or tax when you use an ebike – find out more about the UK ebike laws in our guide.
5. An ebike is Cheap like the budgie
We know a lot of people don’t think ebikes are that cheap, with some of the more premium brands costing as much as a small second hand car, but once you’ve made the initial investment, then your ongoing costs compared to running a car a substantially lower.
- Forget the need to fill up with fuel on a regular basis with an ebike
- Forget the road tax, forget the compulsory insurance (although you may want to insure for theft on your home contents insurance!)
- Forget expensive servicing, MOT and all the things that can go wrong with a car…
Owning an ebike will certainly save you money compared most forms of transport (obviously excluding walking and using a traditional bicycle, but you can still do them too!).
6. Ebikes look awesome
There are so many different styles and brands of ebikes already and they’re still so new that it’s an exciting new world in electric bikes. We absolutely love Super73, VanMoof, Mate, Synch, Cyrusher to name a few and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
Not to mention some of the amazing electric motorbikes out there such as Cake, Super Soco, Niu and Sur-ron and that’s before we even talk about motorcycle manufacturer’s joining the party with Harley Davidson’s LiveWire and BMW’s CE04 as leading examples – welcome to the brave new world, it’s going to be exciting…
Still interested? Then read our complete guide to ebikes.
