CRC’s The Hub carried out two one-hour tests to see how e-MTB effort compared to regular MTB effort.

The video came about as a response to some people’s negative reactions to their previous video ‘e-MTB: what’s the point?’ A few commenters left remarks along the lines of “electric bikes are for lazy riders“.

We’ve seen tests like this before but we really like how they’ve based the test fundamentally on duration ie. one hour of riding.

The tester rode the same terrain (an unnamed trail centre) for one hour on two different days. One day on the e-MTB and the other day on the regular mountain bike.

The results essentially say that you work just as hard on an e-MTB (possibly a very slightly bit harder actually) but you go significantly faster and therefore cover more miles (obviously!)

Specifically the tester had an average speed of 7.2mph on the regular MTB compared to 11.2mph on the e-MTB.

For those who struggled with maths at school, this means on the regular MTB he rode 7.2 miles compared to 11.2 miles on the e-MTB.

The average heart rates, maximum heart rates and maximum speeds were arguably pretty much identical (see infographic below) but the regular MTB claimed a faster max speed and the e-MTB caused a higher heart rate.

Now then, we reckon the nature of the terrain had a big effect on the test. A trail centre is a relatively calm, smooth and not-so-steep place to ride.

We’d love to see the results of a similar test done whilst mountain biking on natural trails.

Video description

CRC The Hub: “As a follow up to our initial video e-MTB: what’s the point? I decided to do a non scientific test, in response to some comments saying e-bikes were for ‘lazy riders’.

“I wanted to see the differences in distance travelled, heart rate and speed during a one hour ride…

“So, how did I get on? Well, the ride took in a mixture of climbing, descending and technical sections and the stats sum it up pretty well – unsurprisingly I covered more ground on the e-mtb, but I didn’t expect it to be almost double the distance of the standard bike.

“The top speed was higher on the e-mtb, as was the average speed but most significantly, my heart rate was higher on average and it topped out the highest on the e-mtb too. Why? It certainly felt like I never stopped pedalling – no resting, no recovery time: just flat out fun. Maybe the extra thrill/danger raised my heart beat too…?”