As we ride fully into 2024, many of us are thinking about how we can kickstart the year with new resolutions to improve our well-being. Taking up a new fitness activity tends to be a popular choice, as many aspire to be healthier than ever before. In this blog, we will dive into why taking up e-biking is the ticket to a better you this year. Incorporating it into your regular routines will not only make you fitter, it's also an enjoyable form of transportation to get you where you need to be, quicker and more sustainably than other forms of transport while helping you to get the most out of your lifestyle. Let's dig into why now is more important than ever to get into e-biking, starting with recent 2023 news.
Improve your fitness and protect against obesity
Taking up cycling is a great starting point for achieving a less sedentary lifestyle – it's a type of cardiovascular exercise that can help prevent obesity by boosting health and fitness levels. Increasing obesity levels is a worrying trend and a powerful argument for more citizens to get fitter; recent reports show that 1 in 6 EU citizens are classified as obese, with over half of adults being overweight, and the UK has reported its obesity-related hospital admissions have doubled in comparison to rates from six years ago. E-biking press Cycling Electric believes cycling has a key role in mitigating the obesity crisis by "enabling people to choose safe active transportation connected to their locality [which] would make a major long-term dent in the obesity crisis".
Starting e-biking is an excellent way of merging fitness into busy and sedentary lifestyles. Getting into the habit of cycling regularly can lead you to proactively manage your future better, by helping you to avoid obesity and other health complications.
Help to reduce carbon emissions with a more sustainable transport solution
Although the sustainable benefits of cycling for the environment have been promoted lots in society, there is still huge work to be done. The European Environment Agency is calling for more citizens to cycle with its reporting on greenhouse gas emissions; a quarter of these come from transport, with a staggering 75% from road transport. The EU is taking climate change very seriously with its "Fit for 55 in 2030" legislation, which includes emissions reduction targets of 55% for cars by 2030. By using e-biking as much as you can to get from A to B, you can play an active role in reducing CO2 emissions to protect our planet.
City planners making cycling safer and easier
As cities become more and more crowded, authorities are seeking innovative ways to manage transport. Due to increasing sustainability targets, and the joys of cycling being frequently discovered by new riders, planners in many cities are rethinking how they can transform their transport infrastructure to create more space for their growing populations to get around with two-wheeled drives. And on a national scale, policymakers are implementing changes to make cycling more accessible than ever – you can check out the ECF's 2023 update on what each European nation is doing to encourage this.：
E-bikes outshine conventional bikes for regular exercise
E-bikes are a great way to blend exercise into your lifestyle and offer numerous benefits when compared to traditional, non-electric bikes. They can be seen as a preferred replacement for the car and public transport compared to conventional two-wheelers, as shown in studies from the UK and Denmark. This is because their electric power assistance makes them better equipped to cover longer distances, and their speed is comparable to public transport. This makes them a more flexible and convenient travel option that's easier to fit into a variety of lifestyles, leading riders to spend more time on them, and therefore exercise more.
Electric bikes aren't cheating: they enable more people to achieve active travel!
Another common misperception is that e-bikes are cheating, however many see that they offer a more accessible route to active travel. E-bikes still require the physical effort of cycling but simply give users more choice with power assistance. Riders have the option to enjoy cycling at whatever pace they prefer; it could be a mode that saves the rider energy with more assistance, like a gentle ride for work or leisure, or trips that cover longer distances or challenging terrain. In contrast, they can also be used with less assistance, allowing riders to really push their fitness for a substantial workout. This versatility truly opens up cycling to a broad range of people!
E-bike and pedelec power that gets you where you need to be
Riders searching for a new e-bike in 2024 may come across the term pedelec. An electric bicycle is an umbrella term for electrically powered bicycles, and there are three different classifications of them, 2 of which are pedelec e-bikes, which require riders to pedal to activate their power, a non-pedelec e-bike gives power on demand with throttle without the need for leg work. At TENWAYS our e-bikes are Class One pedelecs (as they have a maximum speed of 20mph) that give you the best of both worlds, aiding you to reach your fitness goals by getting you pedaling but also support you with extra bursts of power, giving you the natural, intuitive feeling of riding an ordinary bike.
Save money with a cost-effective form of transportation
The up-front cost of e-bikes can be a big pill to swallow for those looking to save money at the start of this new year, however the long term benefits are really where you'll see the price tag paying off. As mentioned earlier, investing in your health is important, and preserving it with e-biking is invaluable. Also, using an e-bike instead of public transport or cars means saving on parking fees, fuel costs and bus or train tickets. They also require much less maintenance and upkeep than a car; we do recommend they are taken into your local e-bike dealer for regular tune-ups and inspections, but this would not be as costly as servicing a car. At TENWAYS, many of our models include highly cost-effective carbon belt drives, giving CGO600 Pro, CGO800S and AGO T thousands of kilometers of stress-free riding.
Add more fun into your lifestyle
Not only is e-biking a good investment for your health, environment, and wallet, it's simply an enjoyable way to get around and really experience your local area. Due its increasing popularity, manufacturers have designed a wide range of versatile products to equip different riders for e-biking fun in various lifestyle scenarios, such as breezing past the city sights on your commute. There are step-through framed models that are perfect for those wanting to ride comfortably without compromising their style or straining their joints. Stealthy, high-performance rides have been created for those who want to get the best outdoor adventures and perhaps challenge their endurance, with the ability to tackle varied terrain and longer trips in the city and countryside.
Discover more e-biking benefits
E-biking unlocks so many amazing rewards for both riders and the planet – too many to include in this blog, but easily found online! A commonly known benefit of e-biking is the ability to ride according to your schedule – no need to rely on public transport timetables to get you where you need to be, and what’s more you’re not traveling in confined spaces with members of the public, so less likely to pick up viruses! And last but not a least, a lesser-known gain from cycling is that it not only improves your physical fitness, but it also increases your brain function, development, and the production of chemicals and hormones important for mental health.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed finding out about all the awesome reasons for taking up e-biking this year. Our mission is to get more people to travel sustainably, by enjoying the delights of e-biking through our range of high-quality premium rides, and we hope this is helpful for you to consider welcoming a two-wheeled partner in your life. Feel free to browse our TENWAYS commuter and explorer rides online and explore our support page with any e-biking questions you have.
