After a three-year hiatus, we spent three-nights in Steamboat Springs this past June. I enjoy this town’s mix of bikes and horses, hiking boots and cowboy boots and flat caps and cowboy hats. It’s a town that reflects Colorado in a big way and that’s why we’ve been visiting for so long (that, and one of my best friends moved to Steamboat more than a decade ago).
We’ve ridden bikes in Steamboat. In fact, biking the Yampa River Core Trail is one of my fondest memories of visiting this Rocky Mountain town. On our recent June visit, however, we rode electric bikes and it was a life changer (when it comes to my bike riding life).
Electric Bikes FTW
Have you ever watched someone biking up a hill and thought “wow, they must be in great shape?” Okay, maybe that’s just me, but that person biking up a hill may be putting forth little effort because they may be on an electric bike. That’s right boys and girls, electric bikes make biking uphill a piece of cake. In fact, they make biking super duper easy.
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We got electric bikes from Pedego Electric Bikes in downtown Steamboat Springs. They rent and sell these amazing bikes. Remember how cool it was to stick a playing card in your tire and ride around the neighborhood with your bike sounding vaguely like a motorcycle? Electric bikes will give you that “cool” feeling again.
These bikes are equipped with pedal-assist and thruster power. Pedal-assist means that once you start pedaling the bike will help you along. I call it “pedal less, bike more.” For me, thruster power was for when I needed to catch up with Ryan (who always bikes faster than I do) or when I needed to get through an intersection quickly (which is always).
From Pedego’s location we could have chosen to ride uphill to Fish Creek Falls, which is raging this summer. However, we’ve been to the falls many time so we decided to head to Storm Peak Brewery via the Yampa River Core Trail because beer is always the priority. I think this paved, 7.5-mile trail is one of Steamboat’s biggest assets.
The sad fact is that I probably didn’t burn off one calorie of the beer because riding an electric bike is effortless. Usually, the day after a bike ride I am sore in places I didn’t know existed, but not this time.
Okay, electric bikes are probably not the way to burn off beer calories or any other calorie for that matter, but they are fun. I have always loved to ride bikes on a nice smooth paved path. However, now I am going to need to ride that path on an e-bike.
Thank you for hosting us Steamboat Springs Chamber.
