My First Week on an Ebike

This story is published in cooperation with Willamette Week and Clever Cycles.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Portland is a bikers’ town. For years, I was one of them, relying on a baby blue beach cruiser to get around – My partner and I have had matching vintage Schwinns. When my son was born, one of our first parent group hand-me-downs was a kid’s ride-along seat.

But after the last several years of quarantines, school closings, weather and life events, most of our personal bike inventory was liquidated to riders in need. Not only do I miss biking terribly, but I can also (reluctantly) admit that, after a few years of relying on motorized transport, I couldn’t see a clear path back to bike life, and frankly, I wasn’t sure my knees, hips, or lungs would tolerate it.

But as my family started making our summer plans, it suddenly became imperative to reintroduce ourselves to biking, with an eye for bikes we could easily store on our new camper. Eager to evolve my bike knowledge in this new electrified landscape, I visited Clever Cycles on 9th and Hawthorne, to reintroduce myself to contemporary biking in Portland.

I had four basic criteria: How fast the bike was compared to driving, if it made navigating around town easier, if it could haul a kiddo and maybe a load of groceries at once, and whether or not I could commit to daily riding, considering how long I’d been out of practice.

Price was also a factor, but was offset once I considered the savings on gas, public transportation, and hard-fought downtown parking spaces.

I was able to borrow an Ebike for a week to put this criteria to the test. Here’s what I discovered:

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Was it Faster?

The short answer is a resounding yes. The bike I spent the most time test riding was the Tern electric cargo bike, a contemporary, low-key haul machine. When ridden in assist mode, made hills evaporate and the bike’s top speed of 20mph is undoubtedly fast. Still, it’s Portland’s generous bike riding perks that really made the experience e-biking “faster.”

In addition to zipping through rush hour traffic, and significantly cutting down cross-city travel time. The city’s tangles of one-way streets, roundabouts, and overhead passes were so much more simple to navigate on this ebike – Far easier, in fact, than driving. Ten minutes into my test ride, I was overcome with reminders of how much easier this city is to live in when you’ve got the perfect bike.

Was it Better?

Portland constantly ranks in the top ten of just about every listicle you’d find using the search terms, “Best” Bicycle” and “City,” because it really is a great place to ride a bike. Novice sightseers and daily commuters alike get to cruise breathtaking riverfront bike paths, pedestrian-only overpasses and bridges, and brightly designated bike lanes. Since the only barrier keeping me from leaping wholeheartedly back into bike life was the potential stress to my out-of-practice body, riding an ebike was a bit of a revelation.

For so much of my life as a bike rider, rides were marked by how flaming my thighs felt, whether or not my knees ached, or how deeply my back throbbed at the end of the ride. The ebike removed those physical barriers without reducing the pure pleasure of riding a bike; of pumping your legs to your own internal rhythm, and gliding through the city at your own perfect pace.

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Did I feel Stronger?

Yes. After one ride, my body felt the same buzzing elasticity that I always associated with more intense riding. The impact was similar to a stationary bike, albeit with the immeasurable mental health bonus of getting to breezily pedal freely through my beautiful city. I found the mental and physical impacts of e-bike riding to be commensurate with super low-intensity speed walking The e-assist is also customizable, so riding could have been as high or low impact as I required.

Post-ride, my body sparkled with endorphins and I felt no pain – but I still felt that I had accomplished something of a demanding workout, without feeling overextended or like the bike was doing all the work.

Bottom Line:

E-biking is far easier, and in many cases faster, than driving or using public transportation. I saved cash on both gas and parking, while running the same errands (grocery shopping and picking up a kiddo) could be performed without issue. The physical satisfaction was low-key immeasurable.

That said, Clever Cycles features 12-month financing, with some bikes selling for far less than a tank of gas a month. For the ebike curious, I recommend heading directly into Clever Cycles for an in-person consultation, but you can also see their offerings online. See you in the bike lane!