According to recent research from the ATTA, European Cyclists’ Federation-EuroVelo, and CycleSummit, there is currently a boom in cycling tourism, and 64% of the tour operators surveyed have a quarter or more of their guests riding e-bikes. Most operators offer both traditional and e-bike options, with only 7% offering no e-bikes, and 4% offering just e-bikes. Offering both types of biking experiences can open up more opportunities, but it can also create additional challenges.
E-bikes can be a great equalizer, allowing groups to stay together and increasing accessibility to people who might be unable to keep up on a conventional bicycle. People can ride much farther, and the option appeals to groups with a variety of fitness and experience levels. However, many experienced operators caution others from simply converting a more traditional cycling itinerary into an e-bike itinerary, saying there are different considerations when traveling with e-bikes, from logistical issues—such as where trailers can drive—to battery management, as well as managing group dynamics.
Gonzalo Fuenzalida, founder of Chile Nativo Travel, has offered adventure trips for 23 years, including biking trips for the past decade. His company offers an Estancias & E-Bikes itinerary focused on riding e-bikes on gravel roads to visit ranches near Torres del Paine National Park. He says e-bikes are a great equalizer on tours, and they help with multigenerational travel, where older family members can more easily keep the pace with speedy teenagers, or novice cyclists can keep up with their more experienced loved ones. “The nice thing about it is that we find the difference between the first position and last is only five minutes,” he says.
Patricia Doe is managing director for Wilderness Ireland and the company has offered cycling tours for more than a decade. On many of their trips, people can opt for a traditional bicycle or e-bike. "We find it works really well with couples when one half is an avid biker, happy to bike 60 or 80 kilometers a day, and the other half is leisure cyclist who wants to come along on a trip. It's an equalizer from that point of view," she says.
According to Doe, e-biking is enticing to people who may not consider a road cycling trip, but would like to take advantage of the "opportunity to explore Ireland by bike and get really up close and personal with sights, sounds, smells, and also covering a little bit more distance than you can on foot." In 2024, Wilderness Ireland offered its first e-bike only tours, which require different considerations than road bike tours. "The pacing is different, the experience people are looking for is slightly different," she says. "People are looking for more experiential, more culture, they're not there just to get the miles in."
Cristian Levy is founder and CEO at Amity Tours, which has offered cycling tours in Chile since 2003. He says he's noticed different types of cyclists have different desires. "The mountain biker is more self sufficient, and they really focus on their riding," Levy says. "They pick a tour based on what it can offer for the riding aspect. They can trade off accommodation. If they have to sleep in a tent, tipi, cabin, or basic lodge, they would if the riding is epic."
Maria Elena Price is co-owner of ExperiencePlus! and her company has been offering bike tours since 1972. She says itinerary planning for e-bikes has to include a number of considerations. For example, trailers may not be able to navigate some roads, so operators may need to drop it in a secure location and retrieve it later. She says educating guests about how to manage the power on an ebike is also vital. "Sixty, 70, 80 mile days are harder to manage on some e-bikes, [people] really need to manage the power," Price says. “Having spare batteries, boosters, or extenders on hand is key.” ExperiencePlus! also sends out educational material before a trip and recommends that people who have never ridden an e-bike try one out ahead of time.
Educating people about properly caring for expensive e-bikes is also important on a multi-day trip. Fuenzalida highlights the importance of teaching clients how to take specific precautions – such as not leaning against a fence in Patagonia, where fierce winds can easily topple an e-bike and cause expensive damage. Because of the price point, he also says having the right number of bikes is important for operators. “That’s a lot of capital there sitting in the garage if you don’t sell enough trips,” he says.
E-bikes are generally larger and bulkier than traditional bikes, and they also require care beyond a typical bike maintenance schedule, including things like software updates. They may also require specialized assembly, such as installation of software that requires specific licensing. The bikes themselves can also require specialized care, especially when traveling in remote environments.
Andrew Bassingthwaighte’s company, Namibia Individual Travel, has offered cycling tours since 2005. The trips include many of the sights in the expansive country, visiting locations such as the Namib Desert, massive sand dunes at Sossusvlei, and wildlife viewing locations like Etosha National Park. He dubs the trips “bike safaris,” and, while e-bikes are growing in popularity on his tours, he says more of his clients still prefer mountain bikes. E-bikes can help cover more ground each day, but they come with considerations, especially when traveling remotely in the desert. He says the heavier and larger e-bikes can be more challenging to load, and charging is a consideration, though he says bringing generators helps with that. However, the harsh desert climate is also a factor.
"They are a little more delicate. We’re a dusty, sandy country," he says, noting the charging ports can become clogged with grit. "Obviously, [ebikes have] more technical challenges, whereas a bike is a pretty simple machine."
While e-bikes are becoming very popular, some prefer to stick with the original model. Backroads has even begun offering trips that cater to the “acoustic” bike enthusiast. Their new “Unplugged” bike tours focus on those who prefer trips with pedal-only power. The exception is if someone less experienced is joining an acoustic rider, they can use an e-bike to enable them to ride together.
Tom Hale is Backroads' Founder, President, and CEO. He's been running bike tours since the company began in 1979. While many of the company's clients utilize e-bikes now, there are many who prefer the classic model. "It turns out that there are a whole lot of people who are on acoustic bikes who would like to be with other people who are on acoustic bikes because the dynamic is so much different," he says.
Hale says in the past, many on acoustic bikes were leading the pack, but e-bike speeds flipped the dynamic, with acoustic pedalers coming into lunch later, for example. Hale also says the spirit of physical camaraderie is not the same with e-bikes, and many acoustic bike enthusiasts are looking for an option where they can bond with fellow acoustic bike riders, which is why his company is offering the "new" tours. "It’s a brand new segment that’s not really new—it's back to the future," Hale says.
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