Health benefits of pedestrian and cycle commuting
- Thread starter Arjimlad
- Start date
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wiggydiggy
Legendary Member
At some point someone is going to start selling "Analogue - Human Power Only" stickers for people with no sense to buy and stick on their bikes.....
All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
I celebrate everyone I see on a bicycle, who rides with care and consideration for those who are more vulnerable.
They are out in the open air showing others that there is an alternative to high speed mobile living rooms.
It's all good.
Edit: I also groan each time I see one of these pointless bickerfests.
They are out in the open air showing others that there is an alternative to high speed mobile living rooms.
It's all good.
Edit: I also groan each time I see one of these pointless bickerfests.
wiggydiggy
Legendary Member
Of course, I don't really like to get involved in eBike/none eBike discussions (other than being a bit sarky with both sides!) as really its just good to see anyone on a bike rather than in a car.
Anyway this was about health benefits of commuting.
As I work from home these days I've lost about 2000 - 3000 miles a year from my annual mileage, I haven't really replaced it. Now I'm not going to mandate a return to office anytime soon but theres certainly scope to do a ride before/at lunch that I haven't being doing, until now.....
Popped out at lunch, quick 40 spin around the local area and first lunch time ride since I can't remember. Roads were almost Sunday quiet I felt, though a lot more lorries on the major road. I shall do my best to repeat this!
Fair point. It just annoys me when people think if there's a motor, there's no rider input. Which is often the case for the illegal types (a minority), but it's a lazy stereotype.
I live in a moderately hilly area and I had one normal bike I used to commute on, only a few miles, but was near destroyed when I got home and it was pushing my HR into zones that I was concerned about due to having AF. My fitness did increase but I never had motivation to get out for rides longer than about 10-12 miles. Since I got an ebike that's completely changed. I have a couple of analogue (sorry!) road bikes in addition to the 3 ebikes and I'm up to about 30 miles on those, though I have to carefully choose flatter routes. Having the choice of a motor (which you can turn down, or off, but is there if needed) motivates me to do much longer ones.
- Location
- Inside my skull
“The proportion of participants reaching 150 min of MVPA per week was higher for conventional bike users than for e-bike users”
“In a multiple regression model, the odds of reaching the physical activity target were lower for e-biking than for conventional biking”
“Conclusion E-bikes are associated with a lower probability of reaching WHO targets for MVPA due to reduced duration and a reduced cardiovascular effort during riding.”
Not the conclusion you claimed
OK not that one then. I didn't read it as I had to do something work-y just as I found it.
Most ones I've read indicate the opposite so it'd be interesting to understand the differences in methodology.
What I can definitively say is in a dataset of one participant (me) it does increase activity.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I cant see how getting out of a car and onto and ebike wouldnt increase activity...?
- Location
- Inside my skull
Lifting their leg over the cross bar might require more effort than getting in to a car🤣🤣🤣🤣 However you do have to pedal an electric bike. You ride 50 miles, your mate on his electric bike will have done the equivalent to about 25 miles.
I think the following argument does have merit. There are people that for whatever reason would find it too hard to ride a bicycle without assistace, but still like to ride, and the electric assistance makes this possible. Those people exercise more with the electric bike than without.
spen666
Legendary Member
Nope, you're the one with no grasp of science. If the battery does 50% of the work, that means I'm doing the other 50%. How difficult is this for you?
Guess what, 50% of the effort is less than the 1005 of the effort if you pedalled it yourself all the way.
thus as I have repeatedly said, you are getting less exercise when riding the battery powered vehicle than using a non battery powered bicycle
Its not a hard concept that if a battery is doing some or all of the work, the rider is doing less than on a non battery powered bicycle
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
All we need is someone to accuse ebike riders of "cheating" then we can all shout BINGO!
Do you not get that some of this people may have be doing no exercise at all before getting an ebike. So it’s a good thing.
A few years ago an elderly rider on an ebike caught up with me on a slight climb. I jokingly said he was cheating, and he took it in the spirit it was said. He explained that he had been struggling with longer rides until getting the ebike allowed him to keep riding as far as he was used to. For him having the ebike meant he could exercise more than he had been able for a while.
