Can electric mountain bikes keep you just as active and healthy as traditional mountain bikes?

Abstract

Introduction: The use of electric mountain bikes has increased interest in their contribution to physical activity and health, although evidence under real-world conditions remains limited.Objective: This study explored whether the transition from a conventional mountain bike to an electric mountain bike allowed the maintenance of health-related exercise intensities in a rec-reational cyclist under different assistance modes.Methodology: A longitudinal single-participant study was conducted over sixteen weeks. Four conditions were compared: a conventional mountain bike and an electric mountain bike with three assistance configurations. Heart rate, speed, power output, cadence, slope, perceived ex-ertion, and training load indices were recorded during twenty-eight outdoor rides covering seven hundred and seventy-eight kilometres.Results: Physiological differences were observed across conditions. In this participant, lower assistance and constrained modes were associated with moderate-to-vigorous intensities and reduced momentary physiological load compared with conventional cycling. On steeper slopes, some assisted modes reached relative intensities close to functional threshold power.Discussion: These patterns were consistent with previous studies describing meaningful phys-iological responses when assistance was regulated andhighlighted the influence of terrain and assistance selection.Conclusions: This exploratory study suggests that electric mountain biking may allow some us-ers to sustain health-relevant exercise intensities under specific conditions.