Congrats on considering an e-bike for your upcoming bike tour! Maybe it’s your first cycling trip, or perhaps you’ve been out of the saddle for a while, but either way, you have this smoldering uncertainty that your current fitness level might not match the mileage and terrain. At the same time, there’s a berating voice in your head telling you that e-bikes are cheating, and if you just train for 12 hours a day over the next 9 months, you’ll save face (meanwhile forfeiting your job, your family and personal time, your Netflix binges, and anything else that makes life worth living).
Sister, drop the shame game. We’re here to tell you why choosing an e-bike for a bike tour is the most brilliant choice you can make.
Reason #1: This bike tour is vacation, not purgatory.
You’re spending a wad of dough to have a good time, right? If not, let us suggest that you sign up as a contestant for Survivor.
Reason #2: Hill is just one vowel away from hell.
When the road goes up, that battery-assist pedaling lets you rise to the occasion, keeping your composure (and consciousness) so you don’t drop dead before the summit. Like Reverend Mother, you too will soon be warbling “Climb every mountain, ford every stream…”
Reason #3: You’re being strategic, not deceitful, when you ride an e-bike.
An e-bike still makes you work for your supper, but at a more sustainable pace. Think of it as the food processor of cycling, getting the same job done with greater efficiency. Instead of groping for the Tylenol because your quads are sore as sin, you’ll wake up the next morning excited that you get to spend another whole day cycling. And then another. And another.
Reason #4: You’ll end your bike ride wearing a lovely sparkle, not a tsunami of sweat.
When you check in at the hotel, nobody will be filing an environmental impact statement in your wake. Go ahead, tell your road-biking roommate that she can grab the shower first.
Reason #5: E-bikes make you relish headwinds.
While your non-motorized peers are cursing the gales like sailors, you simply increase the pedal power with a touch of a button, proudly prodding Mother Nature to bring it on.
Reason #6: You won’t be the last one to finish the bike ride — unless you want to be.
With an e-bike, you have time to stop for that picture, read the historic signage, sip a fancy espresso and scribble down that sensation of Superwoman empowerment. “Dear Diary, I rode 70 miles and climbed 5,000 feet today. Am I badass or what? Love, Me on an E-Bike.”
Reason #7: You always have the option to power off.
You’ll feel even more badass when you realize you can manage stretches of trail or road without any pedal assistance at all. But you’ll be so cool beans about it you won’t have to let anyone know. Your secret is safe with us.
Reason #8: E-bikes are a way to lean in, not cop out.
Take it from our pal Virginia S., an e-bike skeptic-turned-convert who tells it like it is in this video.
See our selection of E-bike rentals available when taking a WomanTours bike tour.