The other day while I stopping by at a local cafe a gentleman buttonholed me before I got on my bike and asked whether I thought the ebike I was riding would be suitable for a senior. He clarified that a lady he knew had recently suffered dementia and as a result had lost her license. She was 69 years old with no form of transportation.
I had to reply that I wasn’t sure, and the decision would depend on many factors. While ebikes would have some advantages for an elderly person without transportation, there were some hidden snags, and the woman in question would do well to factor in the risks and challenges that ebikes would throw up along with the potential benefits.
Pros
No license
The licensing requirements for a car are a huge challenge for the elderly and at some point a switch to the humble bicycle just makes sense. What you do need however is a sense of control on your bike – just because you don’t need a license to ride doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful and responsible on the road.
Lower cost of fuel
There’s no doubt that you save a lot of fuel on an ebike. Not only does this mean that you keep more money in your pocket on a day-to-day basis, it means that you hedge yourself against future price increases as well.
Free parking
There’s no cost to park an ebike, which if you live in the city centre and need to get to town regularly, can be a major bonus. For Kapiti it’s pretty standard, however.
Great for exercise
Ebikes are a great low cost and low pressure way to exercise, and function in a very similar way to exercise bikes at the gym. You can adjust the power or ‘assist’ on an ebike to give you more or less speed and resistance. The additional power from an ebike means that longer journeys can be accomplished with relative ease. People who own ebikes tend to get on their bikes more and stay on for longer and thus travel greater distances.
Extends your biking lifetime
There have been a number of reports that elderly people who start ebiking have been able to continue biking up to age 75 when they would have had to give up at age 65. Using an ebike can add a number of years to your ability to exercise on a bike. Because exercise and access to other locations are an important part of a healthy old age, it stands to reason that people who ebike regularly in their old age could live longer lives as well.
Cons
Sharing the road with large vehicles
One big disadvantage is that you will be sharing the road with large vehicles who don’t always give you the widest berth or the fullest amount of respect. If you have to travel on the open road, particularly the main highway, then keep in mind that you will be riding along a very narrow bike lane. The slightest loss of balance could result in an accident, particularly at the higher speeds that ebikes can travel at.
Additional kit required
It’s not just the cost of the bike you have to pay for. You also need a high visibility jacket, reflective tape, gloves, quality helmet, battery powered front light, a travel pack along with a bike pump, replacement tyre tube, spanners, and wedge to help remove the tyre. This veritable shopping list will cost you hundreds of extra dollars.
Not to mention that you will need to learn how to use these things. Maintaining an ebike requires constant attention.
Regular maintenance needed
Just about every day, before beginning a major journey, you need to check your brakes and tyre pressure. This will involve spending time more or less every day checking that your tyre pressure is pumped up to the right level. If you don’t, you are much more likely to receive a puncture.
The only puncture I have had so far was as a direct result of allowing my tire pressure to fall too low. With an ebike there are simply more difficulties you need to observe, many of which are not ideal for a senior living alone, let alone one who suffers from dementia.
Difficulties in replacing tyres
For a senior, I believe it is critical to check whether the ebike has a ‘quick release’ function enabling the tyre on both wheels to be removed with ease. Without this function, removing a bike tyre will be all but impossible for old hands. If you don’t have this, you will be forced to manually remove the tyre with a spanner, and this can require a lot of force. (One time the nut on my bike wheel was wound so tight that I had to get an auto mechanic to remove it with his gun.)
Not to mention that you may need a different sized spanner for each wheel. Be sure to ask the dimensions on the nut for both wheels from the bike salesperson, because you will need to get a spanner for each size to cover you if a tyre punctures on either wheel.
In general, replacing an ebike tyre is incredibly fiddly and requires a lot of additional equipment which you will need with you at all times. It is not a problem if you are only planning short trips to populous locations. But if you’re commuting between towns, like me, or planning a big trip out the country, you need to have a plan to manage this sort of situation when it comes up.
Batteries will wear down over time
An important thing to understand is that the way an ebike rides on day one is not the way that the ebike rides after six to twelve months of use. Often, this will be because the battery will wear down over many months of recharge. If this happens, you will be left will a lower power capacity and sometimes a lower current.
For this reason, you will eventually need to budget to replace the battery. While this may not occur until several years into ownership, it can be costly, not to mention logistically difficult to find a battery that matches your exact model of ebike.
Conclusion
My honest advice is that regardless of your age and situation, you should only commit to purchasing an ebike IF you have a workable plan to solve all of the above problems in a crisis situation. Otherwise an ebike breakdown could leave you stranded, and I can imagine that that would be particularly terrible for the elderly.
Equally important to observing the risks is selecting the right brand. While many people will be tempted to economise, they are better off spending double the money they would have otherwise spent to get a product that is going to last better. It needs to hold together well over thousands of kilometres of travel, and also give you options to replace the battery. Otherwise the investment could result in a sunk cost.
