Ebikes Put Cyclists in the Fast Lane

As the intersection clears and your feet hit the pedals, that thing you’ve done on your bicycle for the last however many years becomes a distant memory.

By Steve Hanf

No more aggressive pushes to help you make that lumbering start. In an instant, you’re zipping ahead at 10 to 15 mph, and as the combination of your pedal power and the bike motor rocket you down the street at 25 mph, the wide grin slowly spreads over your face.

Yeah. Ebikes can be pretty fun to ride.

“Anybody that comes here who has never ridden an ebike before, they kind of get ‘the ebike smile,’ that sensation of ‘OH!’ ” Mike Stainback says with a laugh. “That’s good to see.”

Ebikes have been around since the 1890s, with the modern ebike growing in popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s. The last 10 years, however, have seen a spike in popularity for ebikes as technology has improved and pricing has come down.

Across the Outer Banks, folks like Stainback at the Bike Barn in Kill Devil Hills, Chip Cowan at Outer Banks Bicycle in KDH, and Rachelle and Ken Lankford at OBX Beach Toy Rentals in Corolla have been spreading those “ebike smiles” to locals and tourists alike.

“Slowly but surely, everybody had a friend who had one who liked it, so they would tell two friends, and they’d tell two friends…” Cowan says.

“I am a huge fan – I love riding my ebike,” offers Rachelle Lankford. “I think they’re great for personal use, and they are fun for tourists as well. But I don’t think it replaces a regular bike.”

That’s actually one of the biggest questions and complaints about ebikes: We’re all getting too lazy to go out and get exercise, and what’s wrong with that nice mountain bike or beach cruiser, anyway?

Cowan, who calls himself a bicycle purist, spins that argument a couple of different ways. For starters… “I had always dabbled in ebikes, but when I really started using them, it wasn’t in place of my bicycle – it was in place of my car,” Cowan says.

Cowan points out that ebikes can be seen at grocery stores, hardware stores, beach accesses, schools. Especially in a smaller community like the OBX, taking a quick jaunt to work or run some errands or visit a friend via an ebike rather than the car is a great middle ground for folks. He also enjoys using his ebike when visiting cities like Richmond and Wilmington when it comes to quickly getting around without worrying about a car.

The same goes for teens and tweens caught in that no man’s land of not having a driver’s license yet but still wanting to venture out and about with friends.
“As far as local kids go, it’s a must have,” Stainback says. “I have a couple kids come in and out of Colington and ride all the way to First Flight. These things are transportation now.”

Cowan adds that his own 15-year-old son and “every single one” of his friends rely on their ebikes, and it definitely has nothing to do with laziness.
“Even though him and I still ride mountain bikes, we still ride BMX bikes, if he’s going surfing or over to Johnny’s house or whatever, it’s all ebike. It just broadens his world,” Cowan explains. “If you’re a 12-, 13-year-old boy or girl and it’s Christmastime, you’re not asking for a nice new shiny mountain bike. You certainly want an ebike.”

Tourists also have them on their wishlists.

Rachelle Lankford said the Corolla shop has some 500 regular beach cruisers in its fleet but added ebike daily rentals for the first time last summer when the requests kept coming in. Corolla is a perfect spot for the motorized bikes, with the wide multi-use path giving visitors the option to travel from the Whalehead Club and lighthouse all the way south to the Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary.

“When people are here for the week, it’s like this fun thing to do: By midweek, you’re sunburned and done on the beach, you’ve gone to the horses, you played miniature golf, and you’re like, ‘What now?’ ” Lankford says. “So riding an ebike for the day is a nice thing. It’s ‘I’m on vacation, I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before.’ ”

Stainback, who shows off old trophies at Bike Barn from his BMX and downhill mountain biking days, is also a purist when it comes to bikes. But after hurting his back in 2007, ebikes actually helped him get back in the saddle.

“These got me riding again, but not really pedaling so much,” Stainback says. “I kind of like to keep the seat down and blast around on these and have fun. I probably should get back to the pedal, you know, and I do … occasionally.”

Ebikes aren’t terribly different from regular bikes, of course. They’re slightly heavier and bulkier, but as Cowan puts it, “the handlebars, the seats, the chains, the pedals, the hubs, the tires, the cranks, the brakes, it’s all the same stuff.”

The difference comes in the motor and the computer that controls it. Most ebikes now have throttles that will propel the rider even when not pedaling. Models also include pedal-assist, so if you’re on the lowest setting, that’s all your pedal-power, then intermediate levels will combine your pedaling and the motor at speeds of 10-12 mph, then slowly getting faster. Most ebikes top out around 28 mph at the highest setting with pedal assist.

That being said, all ebikes are not created equal, and the owners of all three shops independently mentioned the number of people who reach out asking about repairs of inexpensive models purchased online (and often put together at home with varying degrees of success). Cowan sells models ranging from $1,200 to $4,000, but most range from $1,200 to $2,500. When your average OBX couple comes into the shop asking about buying an ebike, Cowan preaches practicality: Is the seat comfortable? Does the bike fit you? Is it from a manufacturer that is likely to be around in case parts or service are needed?

But don’t ask how big the motor is, he cautions with a laugh, or ask about how far the battery will take you on one charge. “Everything you read is a lie,” he says with a laugh. Conditions from weight to wind to how much you’re pedaling or just using the throttle make for far too many variables. You’ll get to Duck and back or have an enjoyable afternoon tooling around town. But you’ll need to plug it in at night.

At Outer Banks Bicycle, Cowan and his team actually make their own model – the Kill Devil Ebike – in addition to stocking other ebikes.

At Bike Barn, meanwhile, Stainback loves doing conversion kits – taking an old-fashioned bike and motorizing it.

“The front wheel has a motor on it and the battery is mounted on the seat post,” Stainback says. “Those 1940, 1950s bikes, they’re fun when you pull up on that, spinning down the beach road at 15 miles an hour.”

This summer will mark the fourth year Bike Barn has been renting ebikes, and the Rad Power Bikes are holding up impressively well. They fit anyone ranging in height from 4-foot-11 to 6-1, top out at 20 mph, and work great for folks wanting to tool around anywhere from Nags Head Woods to Bay Drive and other scenic spots.

One group of women in their 50s came back beaming last summer with quite the story to tell: They rode their ebikes to the top of the Wright Brothers Monument, getting chastised by a park ranger for that faux pas yet proud of themselves for tackling that adventure.

“There’s all kinds of stories that come back – a lot of fun to be had with the camaraderie of it,” says Stainback, whose 20 rental bikes were gone just about every summer weekend last year.

Flat tires and worn-out brake pads tend to be major repairs for ebikes, in large part because people are riding them more than regular bikes. Keeping the batteries charged and in tip-top shape for long life also can be a challenge at times.

“Just like with our golf carts we rent, you have to plug it in at the end of the day,” Lankford says. “A lot of the houses close to the beach, even if there is an outside outlet, they fail a lot from the salty air, so having outlets outside that work so you can plug in your bike at the end of the day is just another challenge. It’s not as easy and as fun and seamless as you might think.”

For his part, Cowan calls ebikes a “net positive” despite the challenges of finding a reliable model, keeping it maintained, and – oh yeah – getting used to that added power under your feet and not crashing it!

“I think most people who were never going to ride a bike are out riding their ebikes and getting outside,” Cowan says. “And people who ride bikes, they’re getting on their ebikes and doing more stuff. You can get as much exercise as you want, you know? You can pedal as much or as little as you want.”

Like Stainback, Cowan also enjoys sending out riders on his fleet of rental bikes and having them come back “blown away” by the experience.

“They’re all the rage,” Stainback says. “If you’ve never ridden an ebike, hop on one and get your ‘ebike smile’ on. They come naturally.”

Steve Hanf worked as a sportswriter for 13 years before becoming a teacher and now leads the journalism program at First Flight High School. Reporting for this article has converted him from ebike skeptic to ebike curious!

Author: Steve Hanf

Steve Hanf is a former professional sportswriter who teaches the journalism classes at First Flight High School. The dormant Nike Running Club app on his phone offers a reminder of the seven half-marathons and one full marathon he completed … several years ago.