I Rode an E-Bike

Yesterday…I rode an e-bike.

Well let’s back up a second. It was also the first time since December of 2018 that I had been on a bike at all…and I was pretty sure riding was done for the rest of my life. It was bad enough that I was considering selling this site or even just deleting it completely. I was never going to ride a bike again.

I’m not going to go into details right now (possibly later) but I did have a serious injury to my left leg/hip that changed my life for forever. The possibility of riding my bikes was over due to the damage. A friend of mine and a local bike shop (Free Flite if you are ever in the Atlanta area) pushed for me to try an e-bike as a way to get back on the trails. The ultimate goal was not to get back to doing road gaps and riding like I used to…it was to be able to ride with my 8 year old son who is really starting to get into riding. I had been putting off the thought of even trying as the uncertainty of whether or not I could do it in the future was better than just knowing I couldn’t from trying. Thanks to the pressure from my wife, my son and my friends…I tried and the results were even better than expected.

Back in 2016, I posted an article on e-bikes and what I thought about them. Little did I know that the #1 reason I thought e-bikes would be great for the industry would be me several years later. After I rode both a Trek Rail and a Santa Cruz Heckler…here are my thoughts.

E-Bike Reactions

My injuries are pretty unique. The valves in my veins are broken due to loss of blood flow so my left leg does not pump out blood from my foot to my heart correctly. Added to that there is vein and artery damage that slows down the blood flow even further. Two of the hamstring muscles are disconnected at my hip…and my hip also happens to be fractured right at the sit bone. Long story short…my left leg is jacked up. The part that really surprised me was what the motor in the e-bikes allowed me to do that altered my riding so that I could pedal pain free…so let’s get into it.

“Turbo Mode”

One of the biggest fears I remember hearing about e-bikes is the fact that they should be considered a motorcycle and people would modify them to go faster and faster. This would damage trails…restrict land access…and make it so that we basically had dirt bikes on trails.

I hated turbo mode.

I know I am a test case of one but turbo mode had zero interest to me. I found that I wanted to still feel like I was riding a bike. I wanted the least amount of input available that still provided the aid I needed. If I wanted to be on a dirt bike…I would be on one. Riding an e-bike is not about doing something different than mountain biking. It was using the aid of technology to further enhance the experience (or in my case, allow me to do it at all). When the bike wants to take off on its own, the experience is lessened and not the same. For me it seemed like “turbo mode” is more about marketing than actually riding. In my personal riding…I see zero need for it.

What was great for me was having multiple modes to switch between. It allowed me to keep riding and try to bring the experience as close as I could to just riding a regular mountain bike.

What did the motor allow me to do?

The part that surprised me the most was what the motor allowed me to do. It basically gave me a functioning left leg. I was able to time uphill pitches so my right leg was forward to take the power stroke and my left leg would just follow with the aid of the motor. When my leg started to give out or have pain, I could just click the motor up one setting to provide more aid. It also allowed me to sit on the saddle more right biased to keep my sit bone from putting pressure where the fracture would start hurting. Normally…this would not be possible as it would make it so that the power out of my left leg during climbing would be decreased.

Overall…the motor took over for the parts of my body that didn’t want to work or could cause pain. I was really blown away. We did a little over 11 miles and I didn’t feel like I was going to get stuck on the trail or that I was holding back the friend of mine that I was riding with. The assist gave me a complete functioning body. This was life changing for me. I was able to ride a bike again.

Final Thoughts

We have seen a lot of different technologies hit mountain biking since the days I started riding back in the 80’s. Some of them stuck…some of them were horrible. Overall, the experience of riding a mountain bike has greatly improved with geometry, suspension, components and other aspects of riding that allow us to ride trails in ways we never thought were even possible. Can you imagine trying to ride the original Stumpjumper today?

This is the next evolution that will allow riders to hit more remote trails, ride longer rides and in the case of some…even just ride a mountain bike at all. I get the reservations. I get the old school mentality of the only power you have is from your body. But if you really want to be a purest…you better be on a 1981 Specialized Stumpjumper because ever innovation since that time has aided in your ability to ride rougher terrain and ride longer. Riding an e-bike for me was much like driving a Tesla for the first time. Without experiencing it first hand…you just don’t get it.

I really can’t put into words what it felt like to be on a trail again when you think that part of your life is over. It’s emotional. There are going to be a lot of firsts again. The first trail ride with my son. The first group ride with my friends. The first riding trip.

I texted my wife on the drive home “it worked” and my son me in the driveway so excited I thought he was going to jump out of his shoes. That is the excitement I remember about riding. Thanks to e-bikes…I get that part of my life back…and it’s amazing. Time to start shopping…