Since I got the new eBike last week, I’ve been comparing it to my old bicycle that doesn’t have the nifty peddle-assist. Many people are asking how different they are and how I like the new one, so I thought I’d share that here.

The bottom line is that I much prefer the new bike and that the workout / fitness measurements are less different than you might think.

To figure out exactly how different they are, I rode the same ‘double loop’ around our local lake and neighborhood on both bikes with my Apple Watch in ‘Outdoor Cycling’ mode to measure the difference …

eBike Performance vs Regular Bike:

+35% Faster (13.6 v 10.1 mph).

7 Minutes Faster over 4.3 miles (19 v 26 minutes; 73%)

83 Less ‘Active Calories’ (213 v 294; 72%)

96% Calories/minute (11.2 v 11.6)

90% heart rate (119 v 132 bpm)

Weighs 14 pounds more (48# v 34#)

Not surprisingly, the eBike didn’t burn as many calories because the ride was 7 minutes shorter. Still, on a calories per minute basis, it was 96% of the manual bike, and would have been easy to ride for much longer.

This ‘course’ has some hills (one big one!) and so I also measured my heart rate. It was lower on the eBike, but not much. I still averaged 119 beats/minute over the ride. That’s 90% of what I got on the manual bike – exactly what some published research I read suggested. In addition, it was still well above my Apple Watch’s ‘exercise threshold’ of about 100 bpm.

The eBike is certainly much faster. I felt like I had to purposely slow down at times and was glad I was wearing a helmet. I peaked out at 20 mph a few times. I wonder if the Apple Watch GPS measured the rides exactly right as it also had the two identical rides 0.04 miles different with a bigger difference in elevation change (43’).

Felt Verza e30 – Electric Assist:

Giant Cypress DX – Manual Bike:

Still, I had to air up the tires on my manual-crank bike in order to do this comparison. I had only used it twice this year, even though we are already in August. The difference in workout intensity is a bit of a moot point if you don’t use the bike. I only used it a handful of times the last few years either.

I’m hopeful the new battery-boosted bike will increase the bike riding I do and add to this summer/fall’s fun. So far, I’ve been using it a lot!

Image Credit: (c) MrFireStation.com