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Should Older Riders Ride E-bikes?
From: The December 5, 2024 Road Bike Rider Newsletter (FREE)
Author:Stan Purdum (Bio at the end of this article)
Given that you can go faster on ebikes, should older cyclists ride them?
QUESTION:Should older cyclists ride ebikes? This question was prompted by a reader response to my recent answer to a woman who asked if her 83-year-old husband, a long-time cyclist who had fallen from his bike and injured himself more than once lately, was too old to keep riding. Along with my answer, I mentioned the possibility of older riders switching to ebikes. The reader, who uses Syborg as a handle, said, “I would not advise an older person to use an e-bike. The higher riding speeds, compared to riding a pedal bike, of an e-bike requires quicker reflexes than an aging person may possess, especially when riding in a group. Falling at the higher speed attained on an e-bike can be much worse for an older person. You slow down with age, and you should embrace that as a good idea.”
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES:I didn’t mean the ebike recommendation as a one-size-fits-all-riders suggestion. But as several other respondents to my Q&A article stated or implied, switching to an ebike has allowed them to keep riding after they were starting to struggle on a regular “analog” bike, and what’s at stake for many is continuing to experience the joy, health benefits and social connections that cycling brings.
Syborg is correct, however, that you can go faster on ebike, and another respondent, R. Groves, said that though he is 84, he has chosen not to get an ebike “because I know I won’t be able to resist the temptation to go as fast as I did years ago knowing full well that my sense of balance, reflexes and vision are not what they once were.”
That sounds like the right decision for R. Groves; there’s wisdom in listening to what your body is telling you.
That said, I believe ebikes are a good choice for many aging riders who still have decent balance, reflexes and vision. I’m 79, and live in southeast Ohio, a region that contains the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Without an ebike, I’d be stuck riding the few flat routes available in my area — routes that also have higher traffic counts.
The most important attribute you need if you’re going to get an ebike is common sense. My ebike has three assist levels. The lowest one, Eco, adds 35% assistance to my effort, the middle one, Sport, adds 60% and the top one, Turbo, adds 100%. My intent while riding is not to set any land-speed records or even to approximate my best performances on a standard bike in my younger days, but to ride hard enough to challenge the rider I am today and maintain fitness. So I ride some of the time in Eco mode and much of the time in Sports mode — where I do average a couple of miles faster than I did in my later analog bike days, but I feel comfortable at that speed and ride judiciously. Hopefully, I’ll have the good sense to slow down when continued aging makes that decision a sensible one. About the only time I use Turbo mode is on the steepest of hills where I employ it not for speed, but for power.
Dammit, we older cyclists don’t want to consign ourselves to the recliner chair any sooner than is absolutely necessary!
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more athttp://www.StanPurdum.com.
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