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As soon as I hit the side of the quaint Swiss café, I thought I might throw up from the pain. Though I suffered no broken bones, the roughcast wall cut a swath of stingy, bloody abrasions on my forearm and left a pencil-sized hole near the tip of my elbow. Thankfully, after the emergency room cleaned my wounds to remove the grit, all I needed was a stitch.
I was on a day tour, e-biking in southern Switzerland, when my front wheel briefly stuck between the slate tracks on a cobblestone path and the cobblestone, tilting me to the right. I caught myself with my foot, but my bike was too heavy (e-bikes average 50 pounds, about 30 pounds more than an analog bike) for me to right myself. Propelled by the momentum, I hopped a step, then crashed into the wall, my arm taking the brunt of the impact. My first e-bike adventure was over less than two hours after it started. Afterward, I learned my experience was not uncommon.
Lanora Mueller, who was 61 at the time of her accident, hadn’t ridden a bike in years. Riding her e-bike on a gravelly slope, she felt she was losing control, so “I ditched it,” she says. “It felt as though it was gonna fishtail or something.” Fortunately, she was not hurt, only shaken.
E-bikes come in a wide range of purpose-built models for touring, mountain biking and city cruising, to name a few. The common denominator is a battery-powered motor with pedal-assist technology that kicks in when the rider pedals. Riders can reach speeds of 28 mph or more depending on the motor’s capacity, and newer styles feature throttles that, if activated, mean no pedaling is required.
The popularity of e-bikes has grown exponentially. According to a 2020 Deloitte study, nearly 300 million electric bikes will be in use worldwide in 2023, a 50 percent increase from 2019. Tour operators report similar enthusiasm. “Over the past few years, requests for e-bikes on our biking and multi-adventure tours have skyrocketed,” says Bob Greeneisen, assistant director of operations at Backroads, a leading provider of bike tours in 55 countries.
Susan Portnoy sits against the wall shortly after she was unable to right the e-bike she was riding during a day tour in Switzerland. Her arm took the brunt of the impact.
Courtesy Sherry Ott
It’s not surprising that e-bikes have earned widespread appeal. Riders with physical limitations or no interest in conventional cycling are now able to explore routes that weren’t previously accessible. “The ability to see and ride more without running out of gas (personal energy), along with the opportunity for traveling companions of different fitness levels and abilities to ride together,” says Greeneisen, has been a huge draw. “We’re seeing more than 50 percent of our cycling guests opting to use an electric-assist bike.”
But with any new technology, there’s always a learning curve and potential pitfalls. Like Mueller, I hadn’t been on a bike in a long time. As a fit mid-50s adventurer, I figured I could do it; it was literally like riding a bike, as the saying goes. And feedback from friends gave me the impression the bikes were plug-and-play. Almost immediately, I realized that wasn’t true.
If you are new to e-bikes and thinking about touring, whether it’s for a few hours or a few days, keep these tips in mind.
Know your limitations
E-bikes have democratized the sport, but whether or not they’re right for you is not a foregone conclusion. U.S.-based ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours, which offers cycling holidays throughout Europe, cautions prospective customers on its website that stability, strength and balance are necessary to operate an e-bike.
