Cheating? Or are you simply having "too much" fun?

When I bought my first ebike and begun to tell folk about it, I was often met with the response (and still am, by those that don't own them) ..."but ebikes are just cheating". My response to this is always ..."cheating at what?" Cheating at having too much fun perhaps? Quite possibly. I think the "cheating" comment is a round about way of saying that you're not getting any exercise on an ebike. This is a myth. Well, if you were to ride on completely flat ground, then perhaps yes, your exercise would be limited, plus on an ebike, flat ground is boring. But, here in Algodonales, thankfully, everything here is a hill or a mountain. With an ebike, we say that you get get as much exercise out of it as you so wish. Firstly, the bikes come with three modes. Eco, Pista and Boost. If one wanted to cruise up our closest mountain "Mogote" the whole way on boost, then this would be a reasonably easy ride. In any mode, you still have to pedal and using boost the whole way would limit your battery life and in turn, shorten your day out. We normally ride up the mountain on Pista mode and certainly if you whizz up there on this mode without a break, then your legs will tell you about that when you reach the top. It takes some effort. Ebike Algodonales guide Will has ridden from our base to the Poniente paraglider take of in 32 minutes, which is going at some pace through trails, up hill and in Pista mode. That's not bad. Considering that the paraglider vans destined for take off, do it in the same amount of time. Our 50km "3 pueblo" tour, recently completed twice in a weekend with Urubu Parapente includes a 1300m climb over the Puerto de las Palomas col and down into Grazalema. We then make a traverse back around the Sierra on gravel track before meeting the lake path which takes us back in the direction of Algodonales. The col is a famous climb for road bikers. But, our mission isn't to beast ourselves on this route, we take it at a leisurely pace with our guests and if that's labelled by some as "cheating", then that's ok with us.