Diane is 64, a former marathon runner and triathlete, and brand new to electric bikes. She'd ridden one of our electric trikes the week before; this time she wanted to try a two-wheeled step-through e-bike and see how it compared.
Her ride is a great window into what an e-bike actually feels like the first time out — the low step-through frame, the throttle and pedal assist, the comfort details that won her over, and that reassuring moment when a lifelong athlete goes from a little shaky to completely steady in under two minutes.
Here's a full walk-through of Diane's test ride, what she noticed at every turn, and how she'd choose between a two-wheeled e-bike and a three-wheeled e-trike — because in the end, she genuinely loved both.
From Marathons to Motors: Why This Ride Mattered
Every so often, someone rolls into our shop who reminds me exactly why we build the bikes we build. This time it was Diane. She's 64, a former marathon runner and triathlete, and she's spent a lifetime on two wheels — road bikes, mountain bikes, and the stationary bike in the corner that never lets you coast. What she hadn't done, until recently, was ride electric. She came back to us this week to change that.
Diane had already been out with us once before. The week prior, she'd taken one of our electric trikes for a spin, liked what she felt, and came back for round two. This time she wanted a two-wheeled e-bike — a step-through electric — to see how it compared. I want to walk you through her ride in detail, because what Diane went through says something genuinely useful to anyone who has been curious about e-bikes but hasn't quite talked themselves into one yet.
Here's the first thing worth sitting with. Diane is an athlete. She has logged more miles than most people will in three lifetimes, and she said as much on camera: she rides a road bike, she rides mountain bikes, she trains indoors. And even she needed a moment to settle onto the e-bike. \"I'm a little shaky,\" she admitted in the first minute, finding her balance. A few beats later: \"All right, guys, I've got it now. I'm not shaky anymore. We're good.\" Start to finish, that adjustment took about ninety seconds.
I point that out on purpose. If you've been telling yourself you're too rusty, too nervous, or too far removed from your cycling days to try an e-bike, notice that a lifelong triathlete still took a beat to adjust — and then adjusted fully, quickly, and went on to have a wonderful ride. The little wobble at the start isn't a warning that the bike is wrong for you. It's just the ordinary feeling of something new underneath you, and it fades fast.
There's a quiet assumption I'd like to retire: that e-bikes are only for people who can't pedal a regular bike. Diane is living proof of the opposite. Someone who has raced triathlons isn't looking to stop working — she's looking to keep riding for the next thirty years, on days when her legs are fresh and on days when they aren't, up hills that used to be a grind and out on rides longer than she'd attempt without a little backup. An e-bike doesn't take the exercise away. It hands you a dial. You decide how much of the work is yours and how much is the motor's, and that decision can change mid-ride, mid-hill, mid-block. For an athlete easing into a new chapter, that flexibility is the whole point.
She was visibly excited to try it, too. \"I'm really excited about it,\" she said at the start. \"I loved what I rode last week, but I want to give this a try.\" That curiosity — the willingness to test something new after decades of doing things one way — is worth more than any amount of natural talent when you're learning an e-bike. It's what carried her through the first shaky lap and into a ride she clearly enjoyed.
Why a test ride tells you what a spec sheet can't
You can read every number we publish andw3 still not know how a bike will feel when your own feet hit the pedals. That's the honest truth of it. A test ride answers questions a spec sheet never will: How low is the step-over, really, for someone my height? Does the throttle lurch or ease me forward? Can I trust the brakes on a downhill? Diane's ride was one long, live answer to those questions, and by the end she had a clear read on the bike — not because someone told her, but because she felt it.
This is exactly why we keep the door open for people to come in and ride before they buy. If you're anywhere near us, I'd genuinely rather you come test ride a bike in person than take my word for anything. And if you're shopping from a distance, our 30-day test ride exists for the same reason — so you can get the feel of the thing in your own neighborhood, on your own hills, before you commit.
The part Diane got right before she even started pedaling
One of the smartest things Diane did happened before she turned a single crank. She sat down with our team first and got a real tutorial — how to brake, how to shift gears, how to work the pedal assist. She called it out at the end of her ride, and I want to echo it, because it matters more than people expect.
\"I think it's super important, if you're going to do a test ride, to make sure that you're comfortable with how to brake, how to switch gears, how to use the pedal assist,\" she said. She's right. An e-bike gives you more capability than a regular bicycle — a throttle, multiple assist levels, gears on top of all that — and the few minutes you spend learning where everything lives is the difference between a shaky first lap and a confident one. Diane's quick recovery from that opening wobble wasn't luck. She knew what her hands were reaching for.
If you'd like that same head start without standing in our shop, our personal fitting consultation is a real conversation with a real person — no chatbots, no automated quiz — about your body, your riding, and which bike actually fits the life you lead. It's the closest thing to having someone walk you through it the way Diane's tutorial walked her through it.
So that's the setup: a seasoned athlete, brand new to electric, one ride behind her on a trike and one ahead of her on an e-bike. Over the next few sections I'll take you through what she noticed — the low step-through frame, the throttle and pedal assist, the comfort details that surprised her, and finally how this two-wheeler stacked up against the trike she'd ridden the week before. Let's start where she started: with getting on the bike.
","id":"e3e3a4b8-a88f-48f0-9770-3bd28c00d536"},{"layoutId":"bike-listing","variants":{},"bikes":[{"id":"48a678ca-5277-40f6-849d-c5642d2a93d2","value":{"entry":{"entryId":"34rwNRVbD7IvBM92mD3Pun"}}},{"id":"2fdba247-94e9-4d92-86b8-84c764492737","value":{"entry":{"entryId":"7P23MGHpVrdwBPtmDIqrv"}}}],"id":"df60fac4-f4d1-4dd0-b771-9ca52af0a59a"},{"layoutId":"paragraph-section","variants":{},"heading":"The Step-Through Frame: Getting On Without the Fuss","body":"The first thing Diane loved, before speed or power ever entered the picture, was simply how easy it was to get on the bike. \"This is a simple step-through, which I love, because I'm only 5'4\" and I don't like to have to lift my leg really high to get over a bike,\" she said. \"This makes it nice and easy to step through.\" For a lot of riders, that single feature is the one that decides everything.
Why the low step-over matters more than people think
A step-through frame drops the top tube way down so you can walk into the bike instead of swinging a leg up and over the back. It sounds like a small thing. It isn't. Hoisting a leg over a tall frame is where a surprising number of tips, stumbles, and pulled muscles happen — usually not while you're riding, but in that awkward half-second of mounting or dismounting. Lower the bar and you remove the whole problem.
Diane came back to this again near the end of her ride, and I think her phrasing is perfect: \"It was super easy to get on, because there's not, like, a big old bar right here, as you find with some other bikes.\" That's it exactly. No big old bar. You step through the middle, sit down, and you're ready. For shorter riders, for anyone with a hip or knee that doesn't love being asked to lift high, and for riders coming back after time away, that low entry is the feature that turns \"I'm not sure I can\" into \"oh, that's easy.\"
If low and easy is what you're after, that's the whole idea behind our step-through electric bikes — frames built specifically so the act of getting on and off never becomes the reason a bike sits unused in the garage.
It's worth understanding why a bike can sit you low and still pedal comfortably, because the two don't automatically go together. The trick is geometry: pushing the pedals slightly forward of where they'd sit on a traditional frame. That forward position lets the saddle come down closer to the ground — so your feet can reach — while still giving your legs room to extend properly on each stroke. You get the security of being low without cramping yourself into a knees-up crouch. Diane never had to think about any of that. She just knew the bike felt right underneath her, which is exactly how good design is supposed to work: invisibly.
There's a second benefit to sitting low that Diane felt without necessarily naming it: your feet can reach the ground. \"I feel really good on this bike,\" she said toward the end. \"I'm close to the ground.\" When you can put your feet flat down at a stop, everything gets calmer — pulling up to a light, pausing at a corner, easing to a halt on a hill. You're not tiptoeing off the nose of the saddle hoping to catch yourself. You're planted.
That planted feeling is a big part of why riders describe these frames as confidence-inspiring, and it's a big reason they show up so often in our electric bikes for women and our electric bikes for seniors, where easy mounting and a low center of gravity aren't luxuries — they're the whole point.
From shaky to steady in under two minutes
Now, remember, Diane is human, and the first few seconds felt new. \"Let me get my bearings here. I'm a little shaky,\" she said. Then, as she found the rhythm: \"Okay, I have my grounding. So it takes a second to get used to.\" And then, settled: \"I've got it now. I'm not shaky anymore. We're good.\"
What struck me watching her was how fast the bike itself started doing the work of steadying her. \"Oh, this is nice and steady,\" she said early on, almost surprised. Later, cruising: \"Can you guys tell what a nice steady ride this is? This is one sturdy bike.\" Sturdy and steady are the two words riders reach for when a frame is doing its job, and Diane reached for both without prompting. A stable platform under you is what lets your nervous system relax, and once hers did, the whole ride opened up.
She noticed the handling, too. \"Nice turn radius,\" she said, working through a corner, and a moment later, \"I love the color,\" because comfort and looks are allowed to matter at the same time. A bike you find genuinely pretty is a bike you'll want to ride, and wanting to ride it is half the battle.
The through-line here is comfort by design. A low step-over, a low seat, a planted feel, forgiving handling — none of these are showy features, but together they're what make a bike feel trustworthy in the first five minutes. If that easy, upright, get-on-and-relax character is what you're after, it runs through our whole lineup of comfort electric bikes, which are tuned around exactly the feeling Diane described: steady, sturdy, and easy from the very first pedal stroke.
","id":"b42a177f-84e9-47d2-ac4d-9062a084c31c"},{"layoutId":"full-width-image-with-out-bleed","variants":{},"image":{"assetId":"6PvUEKGvTUoy53NgY3u15W","options":{"backgroundSize":"cover"},"mobileAssetId":"","mobileOptions":{"backgroundSize":"cover"}},"id":"06ed9702-c2d2-4319-a5e2-b4fb28af6dd3"},{"layoutId":"paragraph-section","variants":{},"heading":"Throttle, Pedal Assist, and the Hills: How the Power Feels","body":"Here's where an e-bike stops feeling like a bicycle with a battery bolted on and starts feeling like something new. Diane had three ways to move this bike, and over the course of her ride she used all of them: her own legs, the pedal assist, and the throttle. Learning how they work together is the single biggest leap from a regular bike, and watching Diane figure it out in real time is the best explanation I can give you.
The throttle: instant go, no pedaling required
The throttle is the part that surprises new riders most. Engage it and the bike simply goes — no pedaling needed. Diane leaned on it exactly when it's most useful: getting started, and climbing. \"Okay, so I'm using the throttle to get going,\" she narrated, easing away from a stop. Later, on a surprise incline: \"Oops, this is a steep hill. I was wanting to avoid an acorn. So right now I'm using the throttle to get me up this hill. I don't know what incline this is, but I'm loving the throttle.\"
That's the throttle's whole job. From a dead stop, especially pointed uphill, it takes the strain out of that first hard push where a heavier bike can feel tippy. You get moving smoothly, you get stable, and then you decide how much you want to pedal from there. For anyone whose knees complain about hard starts, or who's ever felt that wobble of trying to build momentum on a climb, the throttle is a small miracle.
Pedal assist: choose your effort, level by level
Pedal assist is the other half of the system, and it works differently. Instead of moving the bike for you, it multiplies your own pedaling — you still pedal, but the motor adds a push proportional to the level you pick. Diane moved through the levels constantly, and narrated it as she went: \"I'm on pedal assist one right now. Oh, I like it.\" Climbing: \"My other option would be to go to pedal assist two, which I'm going to do right now. It's so easy to switch these.\" Cresting a hill: \"I'm in pedal assist three right now, even though I don't need to be. Now I'm back into pedal assist one.\"
Notice how fluid that is. She's dialing effort up and down to match the terrain — more help going up, less on the flats — and she found the controls easy enough to do it without breaking concentration. \"It's so easy to switch these,\" she said, and that ease is what makes the system actually usable instead of a menu you fight with.
She also caught something a lot of new riders miss, and I loved that she said it out loud: the more she pedaled, the more the assist gave back. \"The more I pedal manually, the faster I go. The pedal power gives you extra oomph in the assist.\" And again later: \"I really like that the more I pedal when I'm on pedal assist, pedal assist seems to kick in even a little bit more.\" That's the system rewarding your effort. Put in a little, get a little; put in more, get more. It means you're never just a passenger — you and the motor are working together, and you can feel the partnership.
Gears on top of everything
On top of the throttle and the assist, this bike also has gears you shift by hand, the same as a traditional bicycle. Diane worked those too. \"You can also switch gears on the right-hand side. I'm in third gear right now, and it seems perfect for this ride.\" Gears let you fine-tune how hard your legs work independent of the motor — a lower gear to spin easily, a higher gear to push. Combined with the assist levels, you end up with a genuinely wide range of ways to ride the same bike, from barely breaking a sweat to a real leg workout.
The exercise is still there if you want it
Which brings me back to a point Diane made beautifully. This is not a machine for avoiding effort. \"If you want to burn a little calories as you're pedaling and build up your muscles, which is important — that's good,\" she said, choosing a lower assist level on purpose. At one point she deliberately backed off: \"I'm going to go down to two, because I want to get a little exercise in, too.\" That's an athlete's instinct, and it's exactly right. The motor is there when you want it and out of the way when you don't.
Power to spare on the climbs
Diane lives on a big hill, so climbing was on her mind, and the bike handled everything she pointed it at. By her own read, this was a 500-watt bike with more than enough push to carry her up and down the terrain she rode. \"Enough power to get me up and down the hills and through terrain, if that's what you're going to do,\" she said, adding that she never felt the need to go past pedal assist two — \"maybe three\" — even on a pretty steep climb. When a rider can crest a real hill without ever reaching for the top of the assist range, that's a good sign there's headroom to spare.
All of this — throttle, multi-level assist, hand-shifted gears — is standard across our full range of electric bikes. The exact tuning varies from model to model, but the core idea Diane discovered holds everywhere: you're always in charge of how hard you work, and you can change your mind at any moment.
","id":"f75e84b3-60d7-40a7-8bee-edbbcf2e6c73"},{"layoutId":"full-width-image-with-out-bleed","variants":{},"image":{"assetId":"2Xz2KpdWZ2XeDxQYsG4FEl","options":{"backgroundSize":"cover"},"mobileAssetId":"","mobileOptions":{"backgroundSize":"cover"}},"id":"ef1ffd5b-4c32-4a55-9341-26f45db9545a"},{"layoutId":"paragraph-section","variants":{},"heading":"Comfort in the Details: Seat, Tires, Suspension, Brakes, Display","body":"Speed and power get the attention, but comfort is what makes you actually keep riding, and this is where Diane kept circling back with obvious pleasure. \"Very easy ride, comfortable seat,\" she said early. \"This is really comfortable.\" And again: \"Very comfortable seat.\" When someone says the word comfortable that many times in one ride, unprompted, the bike is doing something right.
A seat you'll still like an hour in
The saddle is the single point where most of your weight meets the bike, and a bad one can ruin an otherwise great ride within a couple of miles. Diane never once shifted around looking for relief. \"Comfortable on the back, comfortable pedal, the controls nice and safe,\" she rattled off while cruising — the kind of running commentary you only give when nothing is bothering you. A supportive, well-padded seat is quietly one of the most important features on any bike you plan to ride for more than a few minutes at a time.
Thick tires that shrug off the little stuff
Diane rode over real-world debris — acorns, pine cones, the junk that collects on any street — and the tires just handled it. \"We've got some nice thick tires on here,\" she noted, and later put her confidence plainly: \"These tires are thicker, so even if I hit an acorn or a pine cone, I think I'd be okay.\" She was right. She rolled over a pine cone mid-ride and barely registered it.
Wider tires do a few things at once. They give you a bigger contact patch for grip, they soak up small bumps and cracks before they reach your body, and they turn debris into a non-event instead of a white-knuckle moment. If you want to lean into that even harder — sand, gravel, packed dirt, rougher trails — that's the whole premise of our fat tire electric bikes, which take the stability Diane felt and multiply it. For most everyday riding on pavement and paths, though, the thick tires she praised hit a lovely middle ground: cushioned and sure-footed without feeling sluggish.
Front suspension that saves your shoulders
The bike Diane rode was a deluxe build, and one of the things that came with it was front suspension — a shock in the fork that absorbs bumps before they travel up into your hands and arms. She flagged it herself: \"This is the deluxe version, and what's cool is there's front suspension, kind of like a mountain bike. So if you're going to go over a big bump or a hill, you're not really going to feel it as much in your arms and shoulders.\"
She tested that claim without meaning to. \"I also like the fact that it does have the front suspension,\" she said at the end. \"When I hit a bump, I didn't feel it. So it's not like it's going to jar your shoulders.\" For anyone with sensitive wrists, cranky shoulders, or a history that makes jarring impacts a real concern, front suspension is one of those upgrades you stop noticing precisely because it's doing its job — the bumps simply don't arrive.
Brakes that are responsive and quiet
Diane is candid about her riding style, and I appreciate her for it: she's cautious on descents. \"I'm not a fast downhill rider, so I tend to ride the brakes a lot,\" she said. \"If you know, you know.\" That makes her a great brake tester, because she used them constantly — and she liked what she got. \"This is a very sensitive, responsive braking system,\" she said early on. Later, heading downhill: \"The brakes are nice and quiet. Even if I were going faster, it's still nice and steady.\"
Responsive and quiet is the combination you want. Responsive means the bike slows the moment you ask it to, which matters a great deal more on an e-bike that can carry real speed. Quiet means no shriek, no grinding — just smooth, controlled deceleration. Diane's habit of riding the brakes down every hill would expose a weak setup in a hurry, and instead she came away trusting them completely.
A display that keeps you informed
Finally, the little screen up on the handlebars, which does more than it lets on. \"I've got my mechanism in front, so I can see what my speed is,\" Diane explained. \"I can always access the battery level to see where I stand with battery, how far I've gone. So that's easily visible in front.\" Speed, battery charge, distance — the three numbers you actually want while you ride, right where a glance can catch them. Knowing your battery level in particular is what turns range anxiety into simple planning: you always know how much you've got left, so you always know how far you can roam.
Add it all up — the seat, the tires, the suspension, the brakes, the display — and you get a bike that disappears underneath you in the best way. That easygoing, cruiser-style comfort is the heart of what we do; it's the same DNA that runs through our electric beach cruisers, built for riders who want the ride to feel like the reward, not the workout.
","id":"e96ad17c-ef5f-45ad-84f3-1856844d2cec"},{"layoutId":"full-width-image-with-out-bleed","variants":{},"image":{"assetId":"1a16g22JWSLxQDta2NvRvm","options":{"backgroundSize":"cover"},"mobileAssetId":"","mobileOptions":{"backgroundSize":"cover"}},"id":"985b4d16-2f7e-4f13-832b-a82f65693ebf"},{"layoutId":"paragraph-section","variants":{},"heading":"E-Bike or E-Trike? Diane Rode Both — Here's How She'd Choose","body":"Here's what makes Diane's visit so useful: she didn't just ride one bike, she rode two. The week before this e-bike, she took one of our electric trikes out on the same kind of route. That gives her something most reviewers can't offer — a direct, personal comparison between three wheels and two, ridden a week apart by the same person. So which did she prefer? Her answer is the most honest one possible: it depends on what you're doing.
What the e-trike did better
Diane was clear about the trike's strengths. \"The difference I see is, if I were going maybe to the grocery store or something like that where I needed extra space,\" she said, \"the fact that it was an e-trike gave me a little bit more stability right up front, and more space to carry things.\" Two things there: stability and cargo.
The stability comes free with the third wheel. A trike doesn't ask you to balance it — it stands on its own at a stop and stays planted through slow, tight maneuvering. For riders who feel uneasy about balance, or who want to be able to stop anywhere without putting a foot down, that's transformative. It's a big reason our electric trikes for seniors are so popular: they take the balance question off the table entirely.
The cargo is the other piece. Diane specifically pictured a grocery run, and that's the trike's home turf — a big rear basket that swallows bags, boxes, and the odds and ends of daily errands without you having to wear a backpack or balance anything on the handlebars. If hauling is a regular part of your riding, that space is hard to give up. You can see the full spread of three-wheeled options in our electric tricycle collection, and if easy mounting is high on your list, we build trikes with a low step-through too — that's exactly what our easy-to-mount e-trikes are for.
She also mentioned the hill she lives on at home, and noted the trike's extra stability felt reassuring in that context. When your daily route includes a serious grade and you'd rather not think about balancing a loaded bike on it, three wheels quietly take that worry off your plate.
What the e-bike did better
Then she pivoted, and this is where her athletic background showed. \"I love this bike as well,\" she said of the e-bike. \"It took me a minute to get used to it — I'm new to the world of e-bikes — but I've been riding bicycles forever.\" And here's her verdict: \"I would love this if I were going trail riding, or for a longer bike ride. If I wanted a little bit more versatility with being on more of a bicycle, per se, this is probably the one I'd go with.\"
That's the two-wheeler's edge: versatility and that familiar bicycle feel. A two-wheeled e-bike is lighter, nimbler, and more at home on a longer ride or a trail. Diane noticed the weight difference right away — \"I can tell this bike is a lot lighter than the e-trike, but I'm okay with it\" — and for someone who's spent decades on road and mountain bikes, that lighter, more responsive character feels like coming home. If you want to cover distance, take on a trail, or simply enjoy the classic sensation of riding a bicycle with a helping hand from a motor, two wheels is the answer.
That do-it-all versatility is exactly what we designed the EVRYjourney line around — an ergonomic, upright frame meant to be equally happy on a city street, a park path, or a coastal road, which is precisely the range of riding Diane had in mind.
So which should you choose?
Diane refused to crown one winner, and honestly, she was right not to. \"I like them both,\" she said, more than once. The real question isn't which bike is better — it's which bike is better for you. Ask yourself what your riding actually looks like, most weeks. If it's errands, hauling, and you value never having to balance, the trike is a gift. If it's distance, trails, and the feeling of a real bicycle under you, the two-wheeler wins. Some people even end up wanting both, for different days.
If you're weighing that same decision, don't do it in your head — do it in the saddle, the way Diane did. Our 30-day test ride lets you feel each one on your own turf, on your own hills, before you commit to either. Ride the trike, ride the two-wheeler, and let your own legs and your own routes tell you which one belongs in your garage.
Diane came to us a lifelong athlete and a total newcomer to electric, rode a trike one week and an e-bike the next, and walked away genuinely delighted with both. That's the thing about e-bikes: they meet you where you are. Whether you've run marathons or haven't been on a bike in twenty years, there's a version of this that fits — and the only way to find yours is to get on and ride. I hope Diane's ride nudges you to do exactly that.
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