"Truly, they can make all the difference between surviving a tour and actually enjoying it."
 | TRAVEL DEALS | | | Why E-Bikes Are a Great Way to Explore a New City | When I lived in San Francisco a few years ago, I swore I would never ride a bike in the city. Call it a healthy fear of death or a total lack of ability to pump my out-of-shape thighs up and down the city's famed hills, but the idea of cycling through SF has always sounded like a surefire way to get hurt.
But then, earlier this year, I found myself on a guided e-bike tour with Blazing Saddles, cycling the 8 miles from Fisherman's Wharf to Sausalito in Marin County. I had never been on an e-bike before, and I was admittedly nervous—especially after our guide warned us of the "weekend warriors" on the Golden Gate Bridge—but I was intrigued enough to go.
The e-bike had five different power boost settings, with "1" used for flat surfaces and "5" for the hilliest of the hills. After a quick—relatively easy—practice run past Ghiradelli Square, we switched "gears" and cycled up one of the steepest legs of the tour.
It didn't go well, not at first.
After a misguided attempt to navigate the bike path on the "4" setting—and nearly colliding with a fellow biker—I hopped off and half-heartedly jogged my bike up to the top of the hill, where the rest of my tour group was waiting. "Isn't that an e-bike?" a man called after me.
"Hah hah, yeah."
But after that initial test of the bike's—and my own—abilities, I started to get the hang of it. I could ride up and down the hills of SF and Marin (using the "5" setting, of course) with some effort, but not all of it. By the end of my week in California, I went on to do two more e-bike tours—one through Carmel's 17-mile Drive and the other around Santa Barbara. I felt like an old hand at this point.
So much so that I even voluntarily signed up for what I thought was going to be an e-bike tour around Burgandy last month. It was sadly just a regular bike, and I had an embarrassingly hard time navigating the wine region's hills—to the point where my tour guide, who was on an e-bike, lent me his wheels on a particularly different leg of the journey.
While I don't think I'm quite ready to handle a multi-mile bike ride without electrical assistance, I would definitely recommend giving e-bikes a try, even if it's just on your own. They're a fun and (relatively) easy way to explore a new destination, and truly, it can make all the difference between surviving a tour and actually enjoying it. | | | Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products and services; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. | | | |
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