Ebike EXPERT Reveals the Shocking Truth About Riding an Electric Bike! Is It Hard to Ride an EBike?

Is it hard to learn to ride an e-bike? Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. Today, we're gonna answer the question, Is it hard to learn to ride an e-bike? All right, so are e-bikes hard to learn to ride? Great question. Many of you out there may be searching for your first electric bike, or you're an e-bike enthusiast, and you just landed on this video. Well, that's great. Who are first-time e-bike purchasers, whether or not it's gonna be difficult, or if there's anyone out there who's scared, give your input to help them. Now, both of these e-bikes right here are great for beginners because of the low step-through frame. They're from Sixthreezero. If you wanna check them out, you can see how easy they are to get on and off because of how low the frame is. Now, riding an e-bike fundamentally is like riding a regular bike, right? The idea of staying up on two wheels, steering, everything is the same as riding a two-wheel bike, except an e-bike is going to be a little bit heavier than a regular bike. You have a motor and a battery.

You're increasing the weight of a standard bike by anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds on average. Now, most people out there won't even notice the difference, to be honest. So it shouldn't be a big deal overall. So, is learning to ride an e-bike hard? If you are someone who's out on a bike all the time, riding, and now you're looking to transition into an e-bike, the transition's gonna be nearly seamless, right? The only difference between an e-bike and a regular bike is that when you pedal, you have the option of engaging your motor to assist. Typically, an e-bike will have three to five levels of assistance. One will give you the least amount. Five will give you the most amount of assistance, and when you pedal, if you have it in one, the motor will assist your pedaling at level one. You shift it to five. It'll assist you at level five and give you more assistance while you pedal. Now, the other piece of it is that e-bikes do have a throttle, a lot of them. Either something you press with your thumb or something you twist right here, like on a motorcycle.

 Now, this is an optional feature. You don't have to use it when you have your e-bike. All e-bikes will have the pedal-assist function. That is what classifies it as an e-bike. The throttle is an add-on that's become popular in America. In many other countries around the world, they're not even allowed, and they're prohibited or they are regulated based on how much power the throttle can provide. So, the throttle is optional. It's something that you can start to use later on, because at the point of using the throttle, now you're turning your e-bike into a full-on low-powered motorcycle, in reality or scooter, if you will. And the e-bikes can legally go up to 20 miles an hour by using the throttle. So, you'd have to get comfortable pressing this, engaging it, and how you would integrate the throttle use into your riding. But if you're just wanting to get out and ride it like a bike and utilize the assistance, then all you're doing is turning the motor on to assist you while you're pedaling, and you would be pedaling anyway.

you gotta get familiar with the different power outputs of the levels, things of that nature. That's no problem, you can easily shift right here with your thumb up and down on the assistance levels. It's quite easy. So, jumping in and riding an e-bike with the pedal assist, no problem. The throttle requires some getting used to, and how you utilize it. Whether or not you use it when you're stopped, from a dead stop to going, things of that nature. But the other thing I will say is if you're someone that hasn't been on a bike for a long time, and I've seen this countless times because we do a lot of test rides with people that have been off of a two-wheel bike for many years and then they try to get back onto an e-bike and it may be difficult. The reality is it's not the e-bike that's making it difficult; it's being back on two wheels and having to balance that that makes it difficult. So if it's been a long time and you haven't balanced, give yourself some patience. I know people make the statement that it's just like riding a bike, but I've seen it countless times that it takes a minute to get the balance and the orientation back to be comfortable, especially to all of a sudden have the bike powering you.

So you can also practice on the e-bike without the motor and get the balance back. Then, when you feel comfortable and get going, it should be no problem. The other piece of that is if you've been off a bike for a while and you haven't been exercising, your leg muscles are for sure going to have lost strength, and I see many people struggling to turn the pedals with their feet. Now, the beauty of an e-bike is that you could utilize the throttle to get it up and moving, and then start integrating your legs. But I see many people who're not comfortable if they can't make that initial push with their own two legs. Now, again, that's sort of the benefit of an e-bike, is how you utilize the throttle and the pedal assist. So if your legs have atrophied at all and you have lost muscle strength, you can use the e-bike to help you build muscle strength to get back into it. But many people like to immediately after they can't get the bike going under their power, and they get scared, they get fearful, and they get tentative. So be patient with your leg strength as well. You've got to build that back up. You've got to get comfortable. Now, once you get comfortable again, you can use the assistance level to help you build your leg strength back. That's the beautiful thing. 

All in all, riding an e-bike is easy. The biggest hiccups are correlated not to the e-bike elements, but to being comfortable on two wheels again for people who have been off a bike for a long time. Just remember, if you're getting back into it or you're a first-time person riding an e-bike, be patient with yourself, practice, and take it slow, and I guarantee you, you'll pick it up over time. So if you have any other questions or comments about how hard or easy you think it is to ride an e-bike, reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at 310-982-2877. If you want to check them out, they are great for first-time e-bike riders or enthusiasts as well. If you want something easy to mount and dismount. Don't forget, we offer a 30-day test ride, your e-bike policy. If you don't love your e-bike in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we are going to warrant everything for one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we'll take care of it, parts and labor. And lastly, join our community. We have a Facebook group called Sixthreezero Pedalers. There are thousands of members in the group. You should join before you purchase to talk to existing riders to help you make sure you're making the right choice for you. And then, when you have yours, post in the group and make friends. It's a lot of fun. And finally, download our app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard. So thanks for sticking around. And don't forget, it's your journey or experience. Enjoy the ride.