When I see someone on an e-bike, I think one less car on the roads and one more person enjoying the outside world. Hey, my name is Ryan Van Duser and I love my e-bike. Woohoo! But before I get into all this, bikes have always been my main form of transportation. I ride everywhere I go. I've never had a car in my life. I ride in the winter, I ride to get groceries, I ride to meet friends, and I ride for fun and adventure. So why would a guy like me, who runs ultra-marathons and bikes thousands of miles at a time on a regular bike, need an e-bike? Well, for a long time, I didn't think that I wanted one. I was doing just fine with my standard bikes. Then a few years ago, I got my mom an e-bike and it changed her world. Her e-bike gave her the confidence and ability to ride longer distances, go on errands, and as a bonus, she could finally ride with me. Oh, la, la, la, la, la, la, and now it's something that we can share together, and that is awesome. Out nature with mom? Yep. Pretty good deal out here. Have a nice day. I'd always looked at bikes as a way to get lots of exercise and to push my physical limits. And e-bikes seemed to take all that away. But after witnessing my mom and many others her age, I realized that e-bikes are simply another form of transportation. They're an efficient and eco-friendly way to get around town while still getting exercise, and I'll get more into that later. They don't burn gas, which saves you money and is good for the environment. They aren't loud like gas powered vehicles, and they don't cause traffic jams. Unless you're in Copenhagen, which is the cool kind of traffic jam. So, inspired by my mom, I got my own e-bike last year, and it's amazing. I love it. Woo! I've now had my e-bike for about a year, and it already has a thousand miles on it. But it's not my main bike. I still use my standard bikes much more often. But there are times when this bike comes in very handy. Like when I'm tired after a hard workout, and I still have to get around town, or when I want to pick up a lot of heavy groceries, like tons of cans of beans. O'Lei! Or on days when I'm in a hurry, and don't want to be super sweaty when I arrive to my destination. And sometimes, I ride it just to have fun. This thing is a smile-inducing joy machine. Woohoo! And I know you want to see my awesome bike. Let's check it out. There she is, the centerpiece of my tiny apartment. The priority current. So this is set up like your traditional commuter-style bike. It's upright, it's comfortable, it's meant for riding around towns and cities. And as you notice, you're like, wow, where's the battery? I don't see the battery. It's actually integrated into the down tube right here, so it looks nice and sleek. And what I love most about this bike is the drivetrain. It's a very low maintenance drivetrain. What we have here is the Gates Carbon Drive. It's not a chain like you'd normally see on a bike. These things last three times longer than a chain. They never need to be lubed and they're silent. You couple that with some internal gearing. And internal gearing is great because you don't have a derailleur stick it out here. They get full of muck and snow and mud. Everything is enclosed in there. So this really right here is the bedrock of all priority bikes, the low maintenance drivetrain. As with lots of city type commuter bikes, there are fenders for those rainy days. Lights on the rear and in the front, cushy, cushy gel seat, which is really nice. And all you bikes are going to have some sort of a screen on the handlebars to give you the important information. And they're all easy to use. This one, you just hit the up and down buttons here. And it takes your speed up and down on the left hand side here is the battery level. So you know how much more battery you have. And the odometer, the speed is going to be right here. And this doesn't come with the bike, but it's definitely a key thing to have on the bike. Some sort of a noise maker or a bell. So people know when you're passing them. This bike uses the Shimano Nexus Gearing System. And there are five different gears that you can switch through. It's just like in the other bike. If you're going up a hill, you want to be in an easy gear like number one. If you want a crank, you go to number five. And all that gear changing happens inside of that hub right there. I'm not sure how it works, but it's magic and it's awesome. Hey, there's my stinky feet. So all e-bikes are going to have some sort of a charging system. And I just plug this straight into the battery right here. I leave it on the bicycle. You can also take this battery out if you want to. All e-bikes are going to have a different battery system, but they all work the same. You just plug them in and it usually just takes a few hours to get a full charge. And that, my friends, is the priority current. Now, let's get something out of the way. I know that some people out there think that e-bikes are cheating, but that's only true if you're racing in the Tour de France and no offense. I don't think many of you are doing that. And by that logic is taking an escalator instead of the stairs cheating. It's having a super lightweight titanium bike with tons of gears cheating because you have a mechanical advantage. I think all of this cheating stuff is silly. And I hope that the idea of this dies down as more people realize the value of e-bikes and their utility in the world. I'll admit that when I first got my e-bike, I thought that I wouldn't get as much exercise as on my standard bikes. Makes sense, right? You have a motor helping you. But believe it or not, that's not exactly the case. There's been some interesting research saying that e-bike riders actually get more exercise than standard bikers because they ride their bikes further and more often. And even with the assist, you're getting your heart rate up. This is definitely true in my mom's case. She almost never rode her regular bike, but jumps on her e-bike all the time. And pedal-assisted exercise is still better than no exercise. E-bikes are simply a gateway to more riding, and they take away the excuse. I've heard from many people that tell me that they hadn't ridden in years, like 20 years, and then they get an e-bike, ride it all the time, and then they leave their car in the garage, and that is awesome. Now here's one very important caveat when I'm talking about this exercise in e-bikes. I'm talking about pedal-assist e-bikes, not the throttle versions. With pedal-assist, you still have to pedal to make the bike move forward. And you get to choose the amount of assistance. So if you want more of a workout, keep the bike on low power, and when you go up a hill and need a little boost, crank it up. I find actually that I get the most exercise when I'm on turbo speed, and I pedal like a madman to keep it at max speed. Now here's some nerdy e-bike info. There are three types of e-bikes, class one, class two, and class three. Class one, go a max of 20 miles an hour, and need to be peddled for the motor to engage. Class two also go 20 miles per hour, but have throttles that power the bike when you're not peddling, so like a mobed. And class three are pedal-assist and can go 28 miles an hour. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of e-bikes with throttles. They're doing the good work of getting people out of cars, but you definitely don't get as much of a workout as a pedal-assist bike. And this is important. Every state or country has different regulations on where you can ride your bikes, so make sure to look into that. If you were curious, my e-bike is a class three, but I usually keep the power assist on two or three, which feels like having a nice tailwind at my back, and that's usually about 15 to 20 miles per hour. You. I will say that e-bikes can be expensive. I'd say that you have to spend about 1500 to get a good entry-level bike. Mine is worth about 3,000, but prices are coming down, and in some cities like Denver, right down the road, Colorado Pride, whoop whoop, they have offered e-bike rebates. La la la la la la la. As a lifelong bike commuter, I'm excited to see where e-bike technology is going. They're getting more efficient and more comfortable all the time. And I love seeing more and more humans out there enjoying the thrill of riding bikes again. When I ride, it always brings me back to when I was a kid and the incredible sense of freedom. Freedom freedom freedom is the coolest, yeah. And cities across the world are embracing them because they see them as a benefit to creating healthy communities. And with that, more safe infrastructure. There's even bike share programs out there offering e-bikes, like right here in Boulder. I am a firm believer that the world will be a better place with more people on bikes and less people in cars. So thank you so much for watching. If you have any other questions that I didn't cover, feel free to ask them below in the comments. And here's an example, hey, Ryan, how do you feel about kids riding e-bikes? What do you think about that? Oh, that's a tricky one. I think kids should probably be riding normal bikes because they need the exercise. That's a tricky one though. Anyway, thank you so much for watching my video. I have tons of other fun videos that you want to check out all the adventures on my channel. Please like and subscribe and share this. It's really beneficial to me if you share this with all of your bike-loving, earth-loving friends. Thank you.