Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images
A common complaint you hear about electric bikes is that they basically amount to cheating. Cycling, especially mountain biking, is supposed to be about exercise and promoting healthy living, but how healthy can you be when the bike’s motor and battery are doing most of the work for you? A new study out last month — the first to investigate the health effects of pedal-assist electric bikes — puts to rest many of these misconceptions.
Researchers from Brigham Young University recruited 33 subjects, mostly men between the ages of 18 and 65, to ride both regular mountain bikes and electric, pedal-assist mountain bikes on a rolling six-mile, single-track course through the Utah countryside. Afterward, they compared their heart rates and…