Are electric bikes worth it? | CNN Underscored

I’ve been riding a bike to get from point A to point B for the better part of 20 years. However, the last three years have seen a major shift toward e-bikes as I’ve tested plenty of the best electric bikes and the bike accessories that go with them.

Since I switched to regularly riding electric bikes, there have certainly been some differences in my riding experience, and I’ve had to ask myself if riding an electric bike is really all that much better than a muscle-powered bike. To find out, I devised a testing scheme that could amass data capable of properly answering that question.

I rode and tested outdoors in Chicago across more than 160 miles on a mix of city streets and the occasional trail. I tested in fair weather without inclement conditions, like heavy rain or wind, that would impact my riding style, my aggressiveness or the effort required. Chicago’s roads are largely flat, with little in the way of hills, providing consistency.

The bikes I rode were the Velotric T1, which ranks as our best e-bike pick, and the Priority Eight, a muscle-powered hybrid commuter bike. The Velotric T1 is a straightforward and quality bike offering a nimble ride, effective and efficient electric assistance, quality components and decent value for an e-bike. It also costs $2,199 (though sales have had it around $1,599 lately). Conversely, the Priority Eight is an illustrative alternative from the analog market, offering a lighter package, comparable component quality, a similar riding posture and an attractive price tag of $999. Here’s how they compare.

The Velotric T1 was my top pick in testing during our search for the best electric bikes. It’s light for an e-bike and has a zippy motor while delivering a natural-feeling ride. It’s also decked out with quality components.

Read our review

The Priority Eight packs good components and a drivetrain suited to year-round commuting. Its modest price is a marked bargain next to many e-bikes, and its weight is considerably lower than most e-bikes.

To track my ride metrics, I used a Garmin Rally XC100 power meter pedal and Garmin Venu 3. These provided details on the effort I put into pedaling, my speed and my heart rate for every ride. The Rally XC100’s tracking also differentiates between average speed and average moving speed, so time spent halted at traffic lights can be removed from the calculus for more apples-to-apples data on each ride. This hardware also provides estimates on important considerations like active calories burned and sweat volume.

Of course, bike riding is different for everyone. Conditions and environment make a huge difference. My testing was conducted in a flat city with traffic and stop lights. It’s representative of normal city riding and applicable to the many riders who regularly bike in similar conditions. But riders with access to open trails, off-road riding, hilly areas or long stretches of road without stop signs and intersections may find their experiences incredibly different.

There’s no denying that the extra power of motor assistance can allow for greater sustained speeds and reduced effort on hills and against headwinds. So, people in hilly areas or with ample opportunity to ride without making frequent stops (as in city riding) would see dramatically different results if they conducted similar testing.

Across a dozen rides on each bike, I was surprised at how similar they were. However, some key differences are worth calling out as they impact what you get out of the ride and the state you’ll be in when you reach your destination.

On the muscle-powered Priority Eight, I needed to put in an average of just under 15 watt-hours of work per mile. On the Velotric T1, it was closer to 8.8 watt-hours for every mile I rode. The bike contributed 7.65 watt-hours of effort to each mile, which isn’t far off from the total effort put into my analog bike rides (though slightly more demanding). Now, watt-hours are a bit nebulous for riders, but the analog rides took nearly twice as much work from my legs to get me on my way.

Speed is a more tangible difference. On the Priority Eight, I had an average moving speed of 11.6 mph. My slowest ride saw me go just 10.8 mph on average, and my fastest was at 13.1 mph. On the electric Velotric T1, I averaged 13.1 mph across all rides. This means I typically moved as fast on the Velotric T1 as I had on my fastest ride on the Priority Eight. Of course, it’s still not a huge difference at just 1.5 miles per hour. For instance, on 5-mile trips, that extra speed is good for shaving roughly two-ish minutes off a commute. The difference stoplights can make across that five miles in the city is more impactful than the speed difference.

Speed isn’t everything, though. All the effort put into each ride has a consequence. For the electric bike, every watt-hour used comes out of the battery, which needs regular recharging. For the muscle-powered bike, it’s all physical exertion. This makes a difference in how tired and sweaty you might be when you reach your destination.

For my rides on the Priority Eight, I had an average heart rate of 138 beats per minute (bpm). Most of these rides, therefore, saw me operating largely in the aerobic or even threshold heart rate zones. While this means I was getting a good bit of exercise on my rides — burning an estimated 322 active calories on my faster ride of about 6 miles — it also comes with some sweat. The Garmin tracker estimated 441 milliliters of sweat loss on that ride. By contrast, an electric ride of nearly the same distance estimated a burn of 178 active calories and a loss of 223 milliliters of sweat. While riding the Velotric T1, I burned about half the calories and lost about half the amount of sweat, which aligns with my watt-hour tests.

Riding the electric bike also saw me hitting different heart rate zones. On most rides, I’d spend the majority of my time in the warm-up, easy or aerobic heart rate zones. The average across all rides was just 122 bpm. And since the Velotric T1 offered different assist levels, I could ask for more or less power depending on how I felt at any given time. If I was tuckered out while on my way home from the gym, I could crank up the assistance so my efforts would be more leisurely.

Riding a standard bike does have its perks. For one, you never have to charge it. Then there’s the issue of weight. With all things equal, a human-powered bike will always be lighter than the comparable electric bike because it doesn’t need a battery and motor (the combination of which tends to add at least 5 pounds, if not considerably more). Maintenance is also simpler.

But in terms of getting to your destination, the advantage is clearly in an e-bike’s favor. It may not always be a dramatic difference but electric bikes can help you get where you’re going faster and with less effort.

Even in the city, where the advantages of electric bikes are often reduced, they still show their benefits. Being able to dial in exactly how much effort you want to put into a ride means you can go out for a spritely pedal and show up calm and dry at your destination or you can put some muscle into your ride and break a sweat while in transit. Although a non-electric bike may give you more of a workout on each ride, you can always just turn the electric bike off when you really want to feel the burn.

Since I started testing electric bikes, I always had a nagging suspicion they mostly got me to stoplights faster and weren’t saving me time. After this test, I can’t be sure they aren’t still getting me to stoplights faster, but I am certain that they help me pull away from those lights and get up to cruising speeds far faster.

Overall, I end up with a lower-effort, faster ride. While I may prefer the extra workout a muscle-powered bike builds into my routine, I can’t deny the convenience electric bikes offer commuters of all kinds.

Read our review