In our last blog entry we talked about the great health benefits that riding an electric bike provides. Electric bikes are the perfect commuter vehicle for those living within biking range of the office (and of course that effective range is a lot longer when you have an electric motor to help shoulder the task). They help you to increase your activity level overall, which helps you to lose weight. They are a low-impact means of exercise, which helps you break out of the cycle in which you might not be able to lose weight because you are afraid to strain your joints, and your weight is what is putting the strain on your joints in the first place. Getting outside and getting riding helps expose you to natural light and fresh air, and this, in combination with the physical activity, helps you to sleep better. Better sleep reduces the level of stress hormones in your body, which helps you to lose more weight, and the whole process works together to produce better overall health and fitness (including cardiovascular health and even some anti-aging benefits) for you as a rider. For this reason, those who live within electric bicycle range of their place of school or work sometimes choose to use a Wave eBike as a means of environmentally friendly, sustainable, and low-cost transportation. What you may not realize, though, is that using your Wave electric bike to commute to work might actually improve your work performance.

The information comes to use from the University of Bristol. A study of a couple of hundred participants specifically targeted people who bike to and from work, or who used their break times to get some physical exercise. What they found out was that the bike riders, compared to a control group of non-bike-riders, were more positive, experienced fewer ill effects from stress, showed better motivation, and (from a self-assessment perspective) reported that they got along better with coworkers. The riding group also felt the need to take fewer breaks. They exhibited better focus on tasks than those who did not get moderate exercise. There was no way to tell if these qualities actually improved an employee’s chances of getting promoted and moving ahead at work, but if we link this up to another study done some time ago in Ohio, we might be able to draw that conclusion. The study said, basically, that the fatter you are, the less likely you are to get promoted and to get raises. That’s because regardless of social movements to promote “fat acceptance,” many of us hold subconscious or overt biases to people who are overweight. We see them, rightly or wrongly, as lazy and less disciplined than people who are not overweight.

If you want to move forward in the workplace, then, it makes sense to be as fit as you can manage to be. People who are more attractive, more physically fit, and better able to move around are more likely to be seen as highly motivated go-getters who get the job done. And really, apart from your work performance, don’t you owe it to yourself to be healthier? Aren’t you really doing it for your own sake? We think so. There are lots of reasons to ride a Wave electric bike. Some of these are that it’s a great, low-cost form of transportation and it’s also remarkably fun to ride. But if you have to get somewhere anyway, if you could get there in a way that improves your health, why wouldn’t you do that? It’s the difference between taking the stairs down and taking an escalator down. Yes, it’s slightly easier to stand in place while an escalator carries you than to walk down a set of stairs… but it doesn’t take that much effort to walk down, while you are improving your level of overall health in so doing. And we’re not asking you to pedal up steep hills or pedal when you get fatigued. That’s what the electric motor is for. So that’s exactly like taking an escalator to go up, but taking the manual stairs to go down when its’ easier to do so.

Electric bikes are the transportation of the future. That’s why they are so incredibly popular, and that’s why more people than ever are riding them. It’s hard to find exact figures on precisely how many electric bike owners and riders there are in the United States and around the world, but the trend is very encouraging. Crowdfunding campaigns for electric bikes have scored many more times their goals (including our own very successful crowdfunding campaign for the Wave). This response is driven entirely by the fact that people definitely want electric bicycles. More importantly and more significantly, though, they don’t just want eBikes. They want eBikes they can afford. The Wave was one of the new generation of electric bikes that are more accessible than its predecessors. When it was introduced, the Wave eBike was truly the world’s most affordable electric bike. We’re pleased to see other companies taking their cues from us… and if it means there are that many more electric bike riders out there, then the proliferation of other electric bicycles on the market is definitely a good thing. But we also pride ourselves on world-class customer service and attention to detail. We want you to enjoy your electric bike as much as we do. That’s why we bring you the Wave and do everything in our power to see to it that you are happy with your purchase.

If you want to enjoy better health, better overall fitness, and maybe even jump start your work day (or your school day, or whatever), then electric bikes are definitely for you. Give it a try today and see what you have been missing.