By providing momentum up hills or giving old bones and tired muscles a little rest, electric assist bikes make cycling a practical option for getting around

Panting down a rough bike path, I struggled to keep up with a rider 13 years my senior who had been ordered not to overexert after recent pacemaker surgery by his doctor. I'm a hardcore cyclist who rides thousands of miles year-round in Minnesota, so who is this guy - a champion bike racer?

No, he was Skip Humphrey, the former Minnesota Attorney General and longtime senior AARP volunteer who was celebrating his 75th birthday the day we rode. What's his secret: Humphrey rides an electric bicycle for sale, a bike with a small battery that increases his pedaling speed.

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"For the elderly, electric bikes are the best option," he said. "I'm sure it will keep me on the bike for another 10 years. I still get a good workout, but it's smoother, which is important to me now that I have a pacemaker. It doesn't hurt my joints .I know I would not ride as much if I only had a regular bike."

Unlike mopeds and motorcycles, e-bikes (short for "electric assist") must be pedaled, can go no faster than 20 mph on most models, and are silent and don't spew exhaust fumes. Humphrey, who got his first e-bike in 2012, says he can ride about 75 miles before the bike needs recharging, which is easily done by removing the battery from the bike and plugging it in An electrical outlet in your home or anywhere becomes.

"It's like someone is gently pushing you," he says of riding an e-bike. This is what the bike feels like at the lowest of the bike's three power levels. On tough hills or long rides, he'll crank up the gas and sometimes turn it off for an extra workout.

Humphrey spends most mornings riding park trails and city streets near his suburban Minneapolis home ("if it's above 15 degrees and not freezing"), and on weekends he spends time with Daughter exploring the area's extensive network of bike paths together. Humphrey also rode his e-bike to meetings, to the grocery store (trailer up to five bags home) or to the local YMCA, where a young man joked that he used the motor on his bike to "cheat ". "Yes, I told him, I was cheating the wind. I was cheating the mountain," he said with a laugh.

No one ever called Dan Bittner a liar when it came to cycling. He led a 12,000-mile trans-African cycling expedition from the Mediterranean to South Africa, and a 15,000-mile Pan-American trek from the north coast of Alaska to the southern tip of Chile.

Now in his 50s, Buettner still travels the world, exploring remote areas where people live longest for his best-selling series, The Blue Zones. He rode his e-bike around his vacation home in Santa Barbara, California.

"I bought a house on a hill, and if I could only rely on my regular bike, I'd spend less time cycling to the coffee shop or buying bread in the morning," Bittner explained. "You're still doing physical activity on an e-bike, and I believe that prolongs life."

Using e-bikes has allowed Buettner to ride more often, he says, "because I've been able to get my friends who don't ride bikes to ride with me—like my girlfriend, who's definitely not a rider, but now she likes to use E-bikes - bikes and are talking about getting a road bike of their own. It's like a gateway drug to cycling."

About 1% of the 17.8 million new bikes sold in the U.S. in 2016 were electric bikes, according to bicycle industry consultant Jay Townley, and about half of those were made by people who had rarely ridden bikes since their teens. Purchased by people of all ages. There are now about 30 brands in the US starting at $2,000.

In contrast, Europe sold 6 million e-bikes, accounting for a quarter of total sales in major bike-using countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In fact, Germany is building bicycle highways to tackle traffic congestion on trips of 5 to 15 miles. "They estimate that e-bikes will take 10 to 15 percent fewer cars on busy highways, saving billions of euros by not adding lanes," said Randy Neufeld, president of the SRAM Bike Fund, which promotes cycling and North America.

People over 50 feature prominently in these plans. "Older people will now ride longer distances because of e-bikes and these new bike highways, and that's becoming a demographic trend in Germany," said Paul Steely White, director of alternative transportation in New York City who studies European bicycle policy.

“Studies in Europe show that e-bike riders ride three times more often and three times longer than on [regular] bicycles,” adds Claudia Wasko, Director Americas, Bosch E-Bike Systems.