Background: Ebikes show great potential for replacing car use as they can facilitate longer trips, support trip-chaining, and carry cargo and passengers. As an ‘active’ mode, ebikes could provide both health and environmental co-benefits compared to car use. However, there is ongoing debate about whether ebiking qualifies as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) due to variable assistance from a battery-powered motor. Whether greater use of ebikes might decrease physical activity among people already biking also appears in this debate. We have investigated the effects of ebike power settings and cycling intensity on minutes of MVPA.

Methods: Adult participants each completed six 5km ebiking trials along the same route, with a factorial combination of ebike power setting (off/mid-power/full-power) and cycling intensity (natural/brisk). Heart rate while cycling was measured by a Polar Heart Rate monitor. Using either age-estimated or lab-measured maximum heart rate, total minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were calculated for each 5km trip.

Findings: Nineteen participants completed a total of 114 trips, with six trips excluded for data quality issues. Cycling 5km with the ebike motor switched off led to participants completing 14 minutes of MVPA on average, significantly higher than the 11 minutes with the motor set to either mid-power or full-power. Cycling briskly led to participants completing around 90 seconds more MVPA over 5km (and notably more minutes of vigorous physical activity, 11 minutes brisk; 5 minutes natural).

Discussion: Despite small differences in the total number of minutes of MVPA over 5km, cycling with electrical assistance still produced meaningful amounts of physical activity. E-biking therefore offers a flexible means to achieve recommended weekly MVPA, especially compared to sedentary transportation modes like car journeys. The potential health co-benefits of this climate mitigating behaviour are apparent and should be emphasised when promoting ebiking as a sustainable form of mobility. At the end of our presentation, we will discuss with attendees what further unanswered questions they have relating to ebikes and physical activity.