E-bikes are everywhere — sleek, silent, and oddly mesmerizing. But are they redefining cycling or just giving us an easier way to skip leg day?
Dennis takes a lighthearted look at the e-bike craze — and his own surprising ride through Victoria, Canada.
My drive to work takes about fifteen minutes. I start the car, let it warm for five, and cruise across town at thirty-five miles an hour. I always park in the farthest spot from the building—call it my token attempt at fitness—and walk the last few minutes in.
By 3 p.m., I head home without bothering to warm up the car. Twenty-five minutes to work, twenty minutes back. A round trip of forty-five minutes just to sit behind a wheel. There has to be a better way to get some exercise and still make it to work on time.
I’ve got a mountain bike I ride on trails and walkways, and recently, I started pedaling it to work. Great exercise, decent time… but there’s one problem: I arrive drenched. The looks, the stares—suddenly, I’m Pigpen from Peanuts.
There had to be a better way.
Enter the commuter e-bike.
The E-Bike Epidemic
I see them everywhere lately—zipping down streets, up hills, through intersections. E-bikes. Sleek, quiet, fast; like bicycles that went to tech school and came back overqualified.
Most riders I see have one thing in common: they aren’t pedaling. Not one bit. They’re flying down the road with their feet frozen in place, cruising at twenty miles per hour with the serene look of people who have transcended both gravity and effort.
Maybe it’s age, or maybe it’s just the years of twelve-hour shifts catching up to me, but I’ve been thinking more lately about what it means to move through a day without feeling drained. Not heroic fitness — just the kind where your knees don’t file a complaint by lunchtime.
And hey, I get it. Hills are cruel, sweat is optional, and who among us hasn’t wished their bike came with a turbobutton?
But lately, I’ve started wondering — is it still a bike if your legs are just along for the ride?
A Quick Lesson in E-Bike Science
(Yes, I looked it up so you don’t have to.)
Class 1 – Pedal-assist only. No throttle, just a little help when you’re pedaling. Think of it as an encouraging friend who gives you a gentle push up a hill.
Class 2 – Has a throttle, so pedaling is entirely optional. This is the “I could pedal… but why?” model.
Class 3 – Pedal-assist that can reach up to 28 mph. For people who want to tell their coworkers they “bike to work” while arriving sweat-free and smug.
My Turn in the Saddle
I actually got to ride one while vacationing in Victoria, Canada, and I’ll admit — I was skeptical. It was a Class 3 pedal-assist, basically the overachiever of the e-bike family. The thing weighed about eighty pounds (roughly 38 kilos), most of it centered over the back wheel, like someone had strapped a car battery to a beach cruiser.
But once I got moving, I understood the hype. Pedal-assist — no throttle, just science. Level one felt like I’d suddenly remembered how to be twenty again. The hum was quiet, the wind was loud, and I was grinning like a kid who just found a cheat code.
Somewhere along that waterfront trail, I realized I wasn’t thinking about work, or time, or the usual dozen worries that hitch a ride in my head. I was just… moving. Wind in my face. Muscles working but not hurting. It felt like getting a small piece of myself back — the part that used to enjoy motion for its own sake.
Then came the hills. I kicked it up to level two, and suddenly I wasn’t pedaling a bike — I was Aladdin, flying over rooftops. Magic, really.
I rode nearly twenty miles, and by the end, I wasn’t exhausted — just impressed. It made a long ride feel manageable, even fun. I caught myself thinking, this is what technology’s supposed to feel like.
The Strange New World of “Almost Biking”
Still, there’s something funny about watching a generation reinvent cycling to remove the “cycling” part. Around town, most e-bikes I see aren’t the friendly pedal-assist kind. They’re the sit-back-and-throttle kind — part bike, part scooter, and part “don’t make eye contact with me, I’m late for brunch.”
It’s fascinating how quickly we’ve adapted. Somewhere along the way, we decided that pedaling was optional, and that’s somehow progress. Maybe it is. Or maybe it’s just evolution with better batteries.
In the End
I can’t really mock them — not after my Victoria ride. It was fast, fun, and honestly? Kind of addictive. I’d like to think I’d pedal more than the average rider — but let’s be honest, I’ve met me.
Maybe that’s the point: e-bikes aren’t the death of effort — they’re the reward for surviving it.
Still, the next time I see someone fly past me on a throttle-only bike, I might yell after them, just to keep things honest:
“Nice scooter!”
Then again, maybe they’ll just smile — too far ahead to hear me anyway. Ha.
Closing Reflection
Have you tried an e-bike yet? Did you pedal, or just cruise? Drop your story in the comments — I’m still deciding if I’m a convert or a hypocrite.
Either way, if one of those fancy e-bikes showed up under the tree (or waiting in the garage), I wouldn’t complain. Just saying.
I set out looking for exercise and found technology instead. And somewhere between sweat and smugness lies the modern commuter’s dilemma — a place where effort meets innovation, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of magic.
Because sometimes, progress comes with a motor and a cheat code.
Maybe the real magic wasn’t the motor at all — maybe it was remembering what it feels like when movement feels good again.
Thanks for reading — and for keeping the spark alive.
— Dennis D. Montoya
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Dennis D Montoya 