SENIORS: A 500 watt E Bike is Big Enough! Watch to See Why. Senior Electric Bike Tips & Info

Why do most seniors not need an E-bike bigger than 500 watts? Stick around to find out.

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and E-bike industry. And today we're going to answer the question, why do most seniors not need an E-bike with a motor bigger than 500 watts? But before we get into it, hit the subscribe button 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're doing, and of course new product releases. All right. And before I get into the video, this is the Simple Step-Thru E-bike here from Sixthreezero. This is a great option for seniors. It's got a 500-watt rear hub motor, but the key feature is this very low step-through that makes mounting and dismounting very simple for senior riders. If you want to check it out, it's linked in the description below. You can also find it on our website, sixthreezero.com.

Okay. Now, why do most seniors not need an E-bike bigger than 500 watts? So the thing about E-bike motors, 250, 500 watt, and 750. 750 in California is the largest watt motor you can legally ride on bike trails, on the street, and anywhere on government property. Now, that could be different in your local city. It also can vary from trail to trail. I'm seeing more and more now, that certain cities are putting limitations on electric bikes on certain trails and other places. But generally speaking, 750 watts is the largest that can exist out there for bike lane riding, street riding, and things like that.

Now, the big difference between a 500-watt motor and a 750-watt motor is not the top-end speed, it's more the power it's going to give you to get up hills. And the reality is all E-bikes are going to cut out at 20 miles an hour. To stay within the legal parameters, E-bikes with the throttle cannot go above 20 miles an hour. Now, in the pedal assist mode, depending on the class of E-bike, you can go up to 28 miles an hour. But I will tell you what, if you've never even hit 20 miles an hour on an E-bike or anything else, it feels fast, and 28 is flying.

And even for me on an E-bike when I'm pedaling as hard as I can, getting to about 22, 23, 24 miles an hour is pretty challenging, if not impossible to be honest with you. Depending on what type of E-bike you're riding and what type of tires you have and things like that, it all plays into it. So if you are a senior rider and you're doing around-the-town riding, you aren't going to need more than 500 watts of power because that 500 watts is still going to get you to the max miles per hour that's even going to legally be allowed.

Now, the one caveat I have to this is if you're a senior 250 pounds or even close to 225 pounds and over, you may want to consider a 750-watt if you're going to be doing a lot of hills, okay? So if you have major hills with a very steep grade that you're going to be doing quite frequently and you're a heavier rider, then I do think it's worth considering the 750 watts. But if you're not doing hills, 750 watts is an excessive amount of power for flat-ground riding. I'm 225 pounds personally. On the Simple Step-Thru as an example, I ride this on flat ground, I put it in pedal assist level five, and I can cruise at 20 miles an hour quite easily, or I can just hold the throttle, and the bike will maintain 20 miles an hour quite easily with the 500 watts.

Now again, with the 750 watts, you may get to 20 miles an hour quicker, but it's not going to take you faster. So if we were talking about needing this power for a car for whatever reason, and you wanted to go faster or you needed to reach 60 miles an hour and that was the speed limit and a 500-watt wouldn't get you there, then, of course, you want to be able to go the speed limit. But in this case, a 500-watt is going to take you to the maximum legal limit riding on streets.

Now, the other reason why I don't like more than 500 watts of power for senior riders is the sad reality that accidents do occur. It doesn't matter if you're a senior rider, a teenage rider, or a younger rider, whatever it may be, accidents do occur on E-bikes. And when you start to add in more power, the accidents can not only occur more frequently, but they can also be worse. And so if you're a senior rider who is scared at all or fearful at all of getting on an E-bike, it's best to stick with a power range that's going to be safe, but also give you the assistance levels that you need and want during the ride, which is why I don't like 500 watts of power for most senior riders. A lot of times what I see is someone accidentally pedaling, they don't realize the pedal assist is on, it thrusts you, or they'll accidentally hit the throttle, and that will shoot you out. Now, if you add 50% more power going from 500 watts to 750 watts, just think of how much more that motor is going to jolt you in those situations.

So again, the other thing I'll say though is if you're heavier, over 225 pounds, the reaction of a bigger motor won't be as severe. If you're 130 pounds and you have a 750-watt motor, it's going to shoot you out a lot quicker. So my only suggestion is seniors over 225. You're doing a lot of hills, so definitely consider a 750-watt. See how your body responds to a 750-watt. If you can rent an E-bike somewhere and see how your body will affect the motor on a 750-watt and a 500-watt and see what kind of response you're getting. If you like that response, then you can make a judgment call.

The other thing I'm going to say, I've done hundreds of E-bike rides with seniors, you can see them on our YouTube channel. I've personally done 10-mile rides and 20-mile rides. We've had a lot of people come here to our parking lot and ride E-bikes for the first time, do test rides. And I would say 80% of the time, most of the senior riders that we ride with only put their pedal assist level to two or three. A lot of the riders that we run into, enjoy still keeping their legs moving and they still enjoy doing a little bit of pedaling, and a lot of them don't want to get the power output of levels four and five. They're comfortable in levels two and three, and that's two and three on a 500-watt motor.

Now, if you're talking about jumping to a 750-watt motor, levels two and three are going to be even more powerful, and even level one is going to be more powerful than the levels on the 500-watt. So most of the time, the senior riders that I've run into, they're more comfortable in the lower assistance and the lower speeds, just enough to make the ride that much easier while also keeping them safe and not making them fearful the whole time that they're out on their E-bike adventure.

So I hope that helps. That's why I think most seniors don't need E-bikes more than 500 watts. If you have any comments or questions on the topic, please drop them below, or you can also reach out to us, at TheTeam@sixthreezero.com, or call us, at (310) 982-2877. In addition to that, the Simple Step-Thru E-bike is linked below in the description, and you can find it on our website, sixthreezero.com. And we have a 30-day test ride on your E-bike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back with no questions asked, and no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're going to warranty everything on your E-bike for a year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we'll make sure we take care of the labor and the parts to keep you up and riding.

Lastly, we have a Facebook pedalers group and an app with thousands of Sixthreezero riders. Talk to them before you make an E-bike purchase, and see what wattage works for them. There are a lot of senior riders in particular, so you can hear about their experiences and what features and specs and bikes they like. Then once you have your E-bike, post in the group, make friends, and track your rides on the app. It's tons of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.