SENIORS: Don't Buy an Ebike Until You Watch This! Electric Bicycle Info Seniors Must Know

Hey everyone. I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And if you're a senior, stop, do not buy an E-bike till you watch this video.

All right. So if you're a senior, do not buy an e-bike. Stop until you watch this video. But before I get into it, hit subscribe below. Stay in touch with us here at sixthreezero. Be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and of course, product releases.

All right, so let's say you're a senior, you're over the age of 55 or 60 and you are getting into the market of e-bikes. And I'll tell you what, they are a lot of fun. And actually, for the 55 and overage bracket, they are awesome. They can help you go up large hills, they can have you ride longer. And if you haven't been on a bike in a while and you're concerned about your muscle strength, it's a great, great way to get back into it and allow the bike to provide some assistance to help you just get back into the rhythm of it and build up your muscle as you go along.

Now with that said, before you jump into an e-bike, there are a couple of things that I've learned after doing hundreds of test rides with riders over the age of 55. And if you're curious to see any of them, you can check our YouTube channel. We have 10-mile rides, 20-mile rides, different test rides, and demos with seniors over the age of 50, and 60, and even riders over the age of 80.

Now, a couple of things that I've taken away from seeing seniors riding e-bikes. Number one, I believe, and again this is my opinion, just my opinion only, I believe a step-through frame is nearly essential for senior riders. This is an example right here, our simple step-through frame. What this allows for is it allows for an easy step through. You can see. Lift your foot and easily mount and dismount the frame just like that. Now, typically when you're really young, people just walk up to the bike and they sling their legs around right here, right? And if you can do that, that's all well and good.

One thing about e-bikes though, they are heavier. And if you swing your leg back here and you clip the seat or clip the battery and it gets going down, I've seen it happen where the bike tips over. It's one of those things too when the momentum gets going in a certain direction, it's hard for certain people to bring it back. So to be safe and to get the most out of your e-bike and not have to worry, I like the step-through frame because it makes mounting and dismounting very, very simple and very easy. And quite honestly, I like it for myself. I think truthfully for anybody getting into the e-bike realm, the step through is hands down the simplest, easiest, and I believe safest frame style of e-bike out there.

The one thing I want to point out too is smaller tires don't necessarily mean a lower step through. You can see in this case we have a dipping frame where the frame comes below the crank. Typically, the frame doesn't go this low. With our proprietary design, we've dipped it even lower. And this is a 13-inch step over height, so you can easily put your leg through here.

The other thing I want to point out is if you're a senior, getting back into riding... Because what I also see is a lot of people used to grow up and they rode their bikes a lot, maybe through high school or in college, a lot of people use bikes to get around campus. And then what I'm seeing is there's a break period. A lot of people from the age of 22 to 35 maybe don't ride a bike at all. I've seen other situations where from 22 to even 55, 60, 65, no bike riding was happening. And that's just because life gets the best of us. We have children. Our children are riding their bikes, maybe you're walking with them or you teach your children to ride their bikes and they're often riding on their own. Or a lot of times you may ride a little bit with your children when they're young and then again, when they get older, they're not into bike riding. We're watching them do other things and activities, and now there's another 10, 15-year break and you're getting back into e-biking or biking.

What I've seen with a lot of riders that we've done, and again you can check our YouTube channel, we have specific videos with riders that are getting back into biking and e-biking that haven't ridden a bike in 20, 30, 40 years. How they remember their body performing isn't the same way that their body can perform now. One of the things I've noticed is the limitation in joint movement and the onset of arthritis. Now, we all will most likely experience arthritis to some degree in our lifetimes, whether it's a little bit or a lot. It's a very vast spectrum of how it will affect one's body. I will say of most of the riders that I've done this with over the age of 60, there's been some amount of arthritis that's either affected their hip movement, their knee movement, their ankle movement, their shoulder movement, and even back movement to an extent. And again, please check out the YouTube channel. You can see the riders and see them getting back into it and how that experience was for them.

Now, the reason I bring that up is you want to have an e-bike that is safe for your body and your physical limitations. The other thing too is when you're investing in an electric bicycle for 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,500, 3,000, you want to make sure you can own this product for a very long time. So why not go with a frame like a step-through frame that's going to allow you to easily mount and dismount and something that if your body or joints or you have surgery at some point starts to limit it, you'll still be able to use that bike.

If you were to get an option with a higher top tube and let's just say you had to have knee surgery or a hip replacement, and all of a sudden now you're limited and you can't swing your leg like this or you can't get your leg over the top frame, in essence, you've rendered that product useless. And I will say too, I am in a lot of forums in Facebook groups for different types of e-bike riding, and I see this every day where I see e-bikes going up for sale and they were maybe using it a year ago and now they can't use it. So my suggestion is to get a frame that you know will be able to use for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years. Now, if you're okay with the idea of possibly selling and buying new in a few short years, then by all means that's your prerogative. But I like the step through because it's so simple, it's so easy and it can grow with you and it can age with your body as well if you should experience limitations over time.

The other thing that I think all senior riders should know about e-bikes is that they are powerful. Now this bike is a 500-watt motor. There are 750-watts, which is the max motor size legal on the streets in California, which is the same for a lot of states across the country. You can also get 250-watt options and 350-watt options. But even a 500-watt motor is powerful. And again, check out our YouTube channel and you can see first-time riders over the age of 55, 60, 70, and 80, experiencing the thrust of an e-bike for the first time and feeling that power. The reason I say this is because e-bikes can be dangerous and it's important for all senior riders to know that they are powerful. Even a 250-watt, which is an entry-level motor is going to give you a decent amount of thrust when you pedal and the motor kicks in. You have a throttle on a lot of e-bikes like this one right here and how hard you push the thumb throttle is how much juice you get out of the e-bike.

So my suggestion is most seniors, in my opinion, do not need 750-watt e-bikes. There are some circumstances where if you're going to ride a lot of hills and you are over the weight of about 240 pounds, then a 750-watt may be a good option. But my suggestion is that 750 watts on flat ground is going to be a lot of power. And I would prefer safety over excess power. So think about your body type, think about where you're going to be riding, and think about how comfortable you are with that speed.

If you've never gone above 10 miles an hour on a bicycle, it feels pretty fast, to be honest with you. 500 watts of power with full throttle is going to allow you to go 20 miles an hour. And in pedal assist, you're going to go over 20 miles an hour. That feels fast when it's just a helmet, your body and you're on two wheels and it's just you and the road. When you're in a car going 20, it doesn't feel that fast. But on a bicycle, it definitely feels fast. And even 10, 11, 12 miles an hour is going to feel relatively fast to someone that has never experienced that before. So safety comes first. Getting comfortable with it. And just knowing when you get into e-bikes and if you're shopping as a senior out there and you see something that maybe the specs say 750 watts and it's a good deal versus 500 watts, there are other elements to consider. As I said, the frame can be more important to a senior versus just having a bigger motor in my opinion. The price isn't just reflective of the motor size, right?

So I just want to make sure you don't just choose an e-bike out there because, "Oh, this one is $1,400 and I get 750 watts of power, and this one's 500 watts of power, but it's 1,700." Make sure you choose the right bike that'll be safe and right for the type of riding that you will do.

So I hope as a senior in the market for an e-bike, this has been helpful. If you have any other questions at all, please comment below or email us at theteam@sixthreeozero.com or call us at 310-982-2877. And if you're in the market for an e-bike, take our proprietary body fit quiz on our website, answer a few questions about your body and your life, and our proprietary algorithm will recommend the perfect bike or e-bike for you. In addition to that, we have a 30-day test ride on your e-bike or bike policy. If you don't love it in 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. And we have a huge community in our Facebook Pedallers group and our app. You can talk to existing riders, ask them questions in advance of purchasing, and see how they like their bikes. Then once you have a sixthreezero, make friends in the group, find riders in your area, and of course track rides on the app. So thank you for sticking around. And don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.