And beat em badly in the drag race from the light.
My wife feels it cheating, wont ride the e bikes. She rides about 200 miles a year, while I tend to log about 2000, mostly pedaling, but spinning. Who's getting the most cardio out of the bike?
Her, 200 miles at 5 mph, so call it 40 hours x 100w effort. 4000 watt hours of cardio.
Mine, 2000 miles at 20 mph, so call it 100 hours of 50w effort. 5000 watt hours of cardio. But if I was capable of doing 100w like most people, it would be 10,000 watt hours per year. I ride a lot more hours primarily because at 15-20 mph its fun. at 5 mph, its just boring. And I'm just too sick to ride 15 mph without motor.
So even "cheating" which I definitely do with my puny, sick old man 50w effort, I still get in more cardio a year than she does, because I ride 60 hours more a year. My rides are much longer, and more often than hers. I think more time at whatever your comfortable effort level is makes a difference. I definitely feel a health benefit, and the e bike riding is a big part of keeping my strength up to the puny level I maintain. Riding a real bike is too hard, and would simply destroy my stamina, with my illness. Even with a motor, I overdo at some point every ride. The ability to just motor without pedaling part of the ride is crucial to my strength building. I have to avoid hurting my ATP levels in my mitochondria. But at the same time, sitting in bed tells my body not to make more ATP. Its a vicious catch 22 of a disease. (post viral fatigue)
Before I got sick, I rode even more, averaging around 400 hours a year of spinning at 100w. My stamina at that time was getting close to being as good as when I climbed mountains to ski back down. I "cheated" myself at 50, back into almost the shape I was in when I was 30.
