Alina's First Trail Ride on the EVRYjourney E-Bike: Hills, Mud, Rocks, and Pedal Assist

Alina's First Trail Ride on the EVRYjourney

I've put a lot of riders on a lot of bikes over the years, and the videos I enjoy most are rarely the polished ones. They're the ones where somebody is doing something for the first time and you get to watch the learning happen in real time. That's exactly what this ride is. Alina took the EVRYjourney out on a dirt trail for her very first time, clipped a camera on, and talked us through the whole thing. Nerves, laughs, wrong turns, and all.

I want to be upfront about what this article is and what it isn't. It isn't a lab test. Nobody measured stopping distances, ran the battery down to empty, or strapped a power meter to the cranks. What you get instead is something I think is more useful for most shoppers: a real rider's honest first impression of how the EVRYjourney behaves once the pavement ends. Steep downhills with loose bumps. Muddy stretches. Rocky climbs. A handful of genuinely sharp turns. And, somewhere in the middle of all that, the moment where nervous turns into fun.

That last part matters more than any spec sheet. When people call us about an e-bike, the question underneath the question is almost never about a number. It's usually some version of, "Will I feel okay on this thing?" Will I feel stable when the ground gets uneven? Will I be able to stop and put a foot down? Will the motor help me, or will it scare me? Alina's ride answers those questions the only way they can really be answered, which is by somebody going out and riding.

The trail she rode

The route was a rolling, hilly dirt trail. Within the first few seconds she's pointed down a steep, bumpy descent. From there it's a mix of muddy patches, scattered rocks, small humps and rises, a few junctions where she had to stop and figure out which way to go, and some very tight corners. At one point there's a golf course off to her left, and she takes a second to notice the views on the way down. Someone riding along with her off camera called out directions at the forks, which is why you'll hear her pause and ask, "Which way?" more than once.

In other words, this was not a groomed bike path. It was the kind of mixed, unpredictable terrain that a lot of riders end up on sooner or later, whether it's a park trail, a fire road, a gravel shortcut, or the unpaved stretch between two neighborhoods.

Why take a comfort bike off-road at all?

Most people picture the EVRYjourney lineup cruising a beach path or rolling through a neighborhood on a Sunday morning, and that's a big part of what it's built for. But a trail exposes things that smooth pavement hides. You find out how well you can control the bike at low speed. You find out how easy it is to get a foot down when you stop unexpectedly. You find out whether the pedal assist feels smooth and predictable when you need a push up a hill, and whether you can turn it off cleanly when gravity is already doing the work.

Those are the exact situations that make new riders nervous. So putting a first-timer on a trail is a pretty good stress test, not of the bike's toughness so much as its friendliness.

Watch the confidence curve

If you only take one thing from this ride, take the arc of it. In the first minute, Alina's narration is mostly "Whoa" and "It's going real fast." She's riding slowly on purpose because it's her first time on the bike, and she says so. About four minutes in, something shifts: "Okay, now I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable. This is fun." By the back half of the ride, bumps have gone from something to brace for to her favorite part. She's calling out hills like she's looking forward to them.

That progression is what I hope every new rider gets to experience. It doesn't come from the bike being fast or powerful. It comes from the bike being predictable enough that you can relax, learn, and start enjoying yourself within a single ride.

I've organized the rest of this article roughly in the order the ride happened. First the descents and how she handled speed. Then the climbs, the mud, and the throttle. Then the rocks, bumps, and sharp corners. After that, the fit and comfort observations she shared once she'd stopped, and finally some thoughts on who this kind of bike is really for.

The ride starts the way a lot of trail rides do: right at the top of a hill. Alina rolls off and almost immediately the bike picks up speed. "Oh, it's going real fast. Whoa." If you've ever started a ride on a downhill, you know the feeling. There's no warm-up. You go from standing still to managing momentum in about three seconds.

First observation: the display sits on the left

Before she's even reached the bottom of that first hill, Alina points out something she clearly didn't expect. The display on the EVRYjourney isn't mounted in the middle of the handlebar. It sits on the left side. That's where she can see her pedal assist level, and once she was done riding she added that the speed readout and battery level are on that same left-side screen too.

It's a small detail, but it's the kind of thing first-time riders notice right away, and it's worth talking about. A lot of people assume the screen will be dead center, right above the stem. Having it off to one side keeps the middle of the cockpit clean and puts the information close to your left hand. The practical takeaway is simple: on your first ride, expect your eyes to go down and slightly left when you want to check your assist level or speed. After a few minutes it becomes second nature.

On a trail, my advice is to glance, not stare. Check the screen on the smooth stretches, then get your eyes back up on the ground ahead before the next bump or turn. Alina does this well throughout the ride. She checks her assist level when the trail settles down and keeps her attention forward when it gets rough.

Why pedal assist zero is the right call going down

As she drops down that first steep, bumpy descent, Alina mentions that she's on pedal assist zero, and she explains why: she's going down a pretty steep hill with lots of bumps. That's exactly right, and it's one of the most useful habits a new e-bike rider can build.

Pedal assist adds motor power when you pedal. That's wonderful on a climb or into a headwind. On a steep downhill, it's the last thing you need. Gravity is already supplying all the speed you can handle, and extra power only makes you work harder on the brakes. Setting the assist to zero means the bike behaves like a regular, unpowered bike. If you happen to turn the pedals to keep your feet in position, nothing surges forward.

If you're still getting comfortable with how sixthreezero electric bicycles work, this is the single easiest rule to remember: assist down before you point downhill, assist up before you start climbing. Alina follows that pattern the whole ride, dropping to zero at the top of every descent and stepping back up when the trail tilts upward again.

Riding slow on purpose

A minute into the ride, Alina says something I wish more new riders would say out loud: "I'm going kind of slow because this is my first time on this bike." Then, a few seconds later, "Here's a bump. Fun."

Riding slowly on a new bike isn't timid. It's smart. Every bike has its own feel: how quickly it responds to the brakes, how it tracks over bumps, how much you need to lean to turn. Going slow gives your body time to learn all of that before the stakes get higher. You'll notice that throughout the descents, she keeps saying some version of "We're going to slow down again because it's going really fast," usually with a laugh. She's not panicking. She's managing speed, which is the core skill of riding downhill on any bike.

A few downhill habits worth copying

Watching her ride, a few things stand out that I'd recommend to anyone taking an e-bike down a dirt descent for the first time:

• Do your slowing down before the bump, not on top of it. Scrub speed on the smoother sections, then let the bike roll over the obstacle with your hands relaxed.
• Use both brakes gently and progressively rather than grabbing one hard, especially on loose dirt where a sudden squeeze can make a tire skid.
• Keep your elbows and knees soft so your body can absorb the bumps instead of fighting them.
• Keep the pedals level as you coast so neither foot is hanging low near the ground.
• Look where you want to go, a few bike lengths ahead, not at the rock you're trying to avoid.

None of this is complicated, and none of it requires a special bike. But it's the difference between a descent that feels like a white-knuckle ordeal and one that feels like Alina's: a little fast, a little exciting, and genuinely fun. "These hills, man," she says at one point, half exasperated and half grinning. That's about the right attitude.

By the time she reaches the bottom of the first set of descents, she's already found a rhythm. Roll, check speed, ease off the brakes, take the bump, laugh, repeat. Then the trail turns uphill, and the ride changes character completely.

The first real climb is where Alina's nerves show up, and I'm glad she left this part in. Right before heading uphill, she admits, "I'm just nervous I'm going to slip, because I'm just not used to riding in mud."

That's an honest, completely normal reaction. Mud changes everything about how a bike feels. Tires have less grip, the ground can shift under you, and a climb that would be easy on dry dirt suddenly feels uncertain. Almost every rider I know remembers their first muddy climb, and almost none of them remember it fondly in the moment.

Getting started: the throttle and a lesson about pedal assist zero

Here's where one of the most practical moments of the whole video happens. Alina decides she wants a little help getting started, so she goes to use the throttle "a wee bit." Then she catches herself: "Oh, wait. But I'm on zero. So I've got to go on one, and then I can hit the throttle."

On the bike she was riding, the throttle didn't do anything while the assist was set to zero. She had to bump up to level one before the throttle would respond. It's a small thing, but it's exactly the kind of detail that trips up first-time riders. If you've just come down a hill on zero, as you should, and then you reach for the throttle at the bottom of a climb, it's worth remembering that you may need to click the assist up first.

Once she did, the throttle gave her what she described as "a little force to get going." That's the ideal use of a throttle on a climb. The hardest moment on any uphill is the first couple of pedal strokes from a near standstill, especially on a slippery surface. A short push from the throttle gets the bike rolling and stable, and then your legs and the pedal assist can take over. It's far easier, and far less likely to make the rear tire spin, than mashing on the pedals from a dead stop.

"Honestly, pretty easy"

With the bike moving, Alina heads up the hill, and the nervousness drains out of her voice pretty quickly. "All right. Honestly, pretty easy. Pretty easy. It's going great." A little further on, she steps up to pedal assist two and says, "Perfect. I love it. It's great."

I think pedal assist two turned out to be her sweet spot for a reason. On a climb, you want enough help that the hill feels manageable, but not so much that the bike feels like it's pulling away from you. On a slippery or uneven trail, smooth and steady beats powerful every time. Moderate assist lets you keep a consistent pedaling rhythm, which keeps the rear tire turning evenly and gripping instead of breaking loose.

On a steeper pitch later in the ride, she clicks the assist up again, "More pedal assist. More pedal assist," and you can hear her working: "Come on. Come on. I can do it." That moment says a lot about what pedal assist actually is. It doesn't do the climb for you. You're still pedaling, still breathing hard, still earning the top of the hill. The motor just makes that hill something you can get up rather than something you have to walk.

Why she says to lean forward

Partway up one of the climbs, Alina offers a tip that I'd put near the top of any list for new e-bike riders: lean forward when you're using pedal assist on a hill. Her reasoning, in her words, is that the bike can take off fairly quickly, and if you're sitting too far back, you might start to feel yourself going backwards without realizing it.

She's right, and here's what's going on. When you climb, gravity already shifts your weight toward the rear wheel. Add motor power on top of that, and the front of the bike can start to feel light. A light front wheel means less steering control and that unsettling feeling that the bike wants to tip back. Shifting your upper body forward, bending at the elbows and bringing your chest a little closer to the handlebar, puts weight back on the front tire. The bike tracks straighter, steers more precisely, and feels far more planted.

It's a habit worth practicing on gentle hills before you need it on steep ones. Stay seated so the rear tire keeps traction, but move your torso forward. On a muddy climb especially, that combination of seated power and forward weight is what keeps both wheels doing their job.

9.1 miles an hour and a workout with guidance

Later in the ride, cruising up and over a hill on pedal assist two, Alina reads her speed off the display: 9.1 miles an hour. That's a calm, controlled climbing pace on a dirt trail, and it's a good real-world reminder that e-bike riding on rough terrain isn't about top speed. It's about steady progress you can control.

Right after that, she sums up the experience in a way I really like: "I'm getting a workout with a little bit of guidance." If you're curious about electric bikes but worried that the motor takes all the exercise out of riding, that line is worth remembering. Pedal assist meets you where you are. You choose how much help you want, and you still get the heart-pumping, leg-burning satisfaction of a climb, just without the part where the hill wins.

By the end of the climbing sections, Alina has a system: zero going down, one to unlock the throttle and get rolling, two for most climbs, and more when the hill gets serious. That's a solid approach for any new rider.

Once she's past the nerves of the first muddy climb, the middle of Alina's ride is where she really starts having fun. The trail serves up a little bit of everything: rocky sections, a steady supply of humps and rises, junctions that force low-speed restarts, more descents, and a string of corners tight enough that she calls them out one after another.

Rolling through the rocks

About six minutes in, the trail gets noticeably rockier. Alina points it out, "As you can see, there's a bunch of rocks here," and then immediately follows with a verdict on how the front end handled it: the suspension, she says, is awesome. She bumps up to pedal assist two to keep momentum through the section and notes that it makes the hills easier to get up.

Rocky ground is where new riders tend to tense up, grip the handlebar hard, and slow down so much that they lose balance. What helps most is a combination of three things. First, a front end that takes the sharp edge off each hit, which is what Alina was reacting to. Second, enough momentum that the bike keeps rolling over obstacles rather than stalling against them, which is where moderate pedal assist earns its keep. Third, a relaxed upper body that lets the bike move a little underneath you. Her ride through the rocks checks all three boxes.

When bumps become the favorite part

This is my favorite shift in the whole video. Early on, every bump got a slightly nervous "Okay." By the middle of the ride, it's "This will be a fun little bump. Woo!" A couple of minutes later, she says it outright: "Once you get used to this, it's really fun to go up hills. It's really fun to go over bumps. That's my favorite."

That's not something a spec can promise you. It happens when a bike feels stable and predictable enough that your brain stops treating every irregularity in the trail as a threat. Once that happens, the same bump that felt scary ten minutes earlier becomes the thing you're looking forward to. Near the end of the ride, she's practically cheering for them: "We love a pedal assist and we love a little bumpy bump."

Stopping, deciding, and getting going again

Trail riding involves a lot of stopping and starting that people don't think about until they're out there. Alina hits several forks where she has to slow down and figure out where to go. "Okay, now we're going to slow down because we don't know which way to go. Which way?" After a short back and forth with whoever was riding with her, she picks a direction, and then uses the throttle to help her pull away and make the turn.

That's another smart use of the throttle. Turning from a slow roll or a stop is when bikes feel least stable. A gentle throttle input gets you up to a steady speed quickly, and steady speed is what keeps a bike upright and tracking where you point it. There's also a brief moment where she gets turned around between "straight" and "left," sorts it out, and throttles up again. It's an unpolished bit, and I'm glad it stayed in, because that's what real trail riding looks like.

Back down: views, a golf course, and slowing down

After the climb where she hits 9.1 miles an hour, the trail tips back downhill and Alina goes right back to her descent routine. "We're going down, so I'm going to slow down and do pedal assist zero." This time she's relaxed enough to enjoy the scenery. She mentions the pretty views and notices what looks like a golf course off to her left as she heads down.

I point this out because it's a quiet sign of confidence. On her first descents, all of her attention was on speed and bumps. Now she has enough bandwidth to look around. That's what comfort on a bike buys you. The ride stops being a task and starts being an experience.

A string of sharp turns

Toward the end of the ride, the trail throws a series of tight corners at her. "Okay. Sharp turn. Very sharp. Very, very sharp turn." Then another, and another. Her verdict after getting through them: "Oh, felt fine."

Sharp turns on dirt are a real test of low-speed handling, and the approach that works is the same on any bike. Slow down before the corner, not in the middle of it. Look through the turn to where you want to come out. Put your outside pedal down and press some weight into it, which keeps the bike planted and keeps your inside pedal clear of the ground. Then roll out smoothly and pick your speed back up. Alina's calm "felt fine" tells you she found that rhythm.

The final climb and a slow stroll home

The last section brings one more uphill, which by now she's calling "my favorite part." She steps the assist up to one and then two, enjoys a few more bumps, and then eases off: "And now we're just going to stroll. Going to slow down a wee bit."

It's a fitting end. The rider who started the video nervously riding the brakes down a bumpy hill finishes it casually cruising, choosing her assist level without thinking twice, and treating bumps and climbs as the fun parts. That's ten minutes of riding, start to finish, on a bike she had never been on before.

Once she was off the trail, Alina sat down with the camera and shared the things that stood out most about the EVRYjourney. None of them were about speed or power. All of them were about how the bike fit her body, and I think that tells you a lot about what really matters to most riders.

The seat goes down way lower

The first thing she mentioned was the seat height. On the EVRYjourney, she said, you can put the seat down way lower, so that when you stop, you're not bobbing all over the place. You can actually step your feet down to the ground. She loved that.

If you watched the ride, you know why this mattered so much to her. She stopped repeatedly: at forks in the trail, when she wasn't sure which way to go, and when she wanted to slow things down on a descent. Every one of those stops is a moment where a rider either feels secure or feels wobbly. Being able to plant your feet flat on the ground turns an awkward, tippy stop into a calm pause.

For newer riders, this might be the single most important comfort feature on any bike. A lot of people who haven't ridden in years, or who are nervous about balance, aren't really afraid of riding. They're afraid of stopping. When you know you can put your feet down any time you need to, you ride with more confidence, and more confidence means smoother, safer riding everywhere else.

Sitting back, legs extended, riding upright

Her second observation goes hand in hand with the first. Because you sit a little further back on the EVRYjourney, she said, your legs can extend more, and you end up more upright on the bike, which she really liked.

This is the clever part of the EVRYjourney's design. On a lot of traditional bikes, a low seat comes with a trade-off: your feet reach the ground easily, but your knees come up toward your chest when you pedal, which is uncomfortable and inefficient. The EVRYjourney places the pedals a bit forward relative to the seat. That lets the seat sit low enough for flat-footed stops while still giving your legs room to extend through the pedal stroke. You get both things at once: easy stops and comfortable, effective pedaling.

The upright posture is the other half of the equation. Sitting more upright takes pressure off your wrists, shoulders, and lower back, and it puts your head up where you can see the trail ahead. On terrain like Alina's, with junctions, turns, and the occasional view worth looking at, being able to see comfortably is a real advantage, not just a nicety.

If easy mounting and a relaxed, feet-down riding position are high on your list, our step-through electric bikes are worth browsing too, since getting on and off without swinging a leg high over the frame complements that same comfort-first approach.

The display, revisited

Alina closed her comments by circling back to the display she noticed in the first minute of the ride. On this bike, she said, the screen sits on the left side, and that's where she can see her pedal assist level, her speed in miles per hour, and her battery life.

After a full ride, her tone about it had shifted from surprise to familiarity. That's typical. Any display layout feels unusual for the first few minutes, and then your eyes learn where to go. The three things she highlighted, assist level, speed, and battery, are exactly the three things you want at a glance on a trail. Assist level tells you what the motor is about to do. Speed helps you manage descents. Battery level lets you decide whether to lean on the assist for one more climb or ease off and save some charge for the ride home.

What comfort really does on a trail

It's tempting to think of comfort features as luxuries, nice touches you'd appreciate on a long, lazy ride. Alina's ride shows why they're more than that. The low seat and feet-down stopping are what made the junctions and nervous moments manageable. The upright position is what let her look ahead, read the terrain, and eventually enjoy the views. The predictable assist is what let her go from "Whoa" to "That's my favorite" in the span of one ride.

Comfort, in other words, is what makes confidence possible. And confidence is what turns a first trail ride into something you want to do again.

Alina ended her video with a thought I couldn't agree with more. It's nice, she said, that there are different bikes for different people and for everything you could ever want to do. That's really the whole philosophy behind how we design and recommend bikes. There's no single best e-bike. There's the best bike for your body, your terrain, and the way you actually want to ride.

Who a ride like this suits

Based on what Alina experienced, the EVRYjourney makes a lot of sense if you see yourself in any of these descriptions:

• You want a comfortable, upright riding position and the reassurance of putting your feet flat on the ground whenever you stop.
• Your rides include hills, and you'd like pedal assist to make them manageable without taking away the exercise.
• You mostly ride paths and neighborhoods but want a bike that won't leave you anxious when the route turns to dirt, mud, or rocks.
• You're new to e-bikes, or returning to riding after a long break, and you want something that feels predictable from the first ride.

When a different style might fit better

Her point about different bikes for different people cuts the other way too. Some riders will be better served by another category entirely. If balance is a significant concern, or you simply never want to think about tipping over at a stop, three wheels may be the answer. Our electric tricycles give you that stability along with motor assistance, and we've also put together a collection of tricycles for seniors for riders who want an especially easy, secure setup.

If you're an older rider who wants to stay on two wheels, our electric bikes for seniors collection brings together options focused on comfort, easy handling, and confidence. And if storage space is tight, or you want to bring a bike along in the car or on trips, folding e-bikes are worth a look.

The right choice depends on the kind of rides you picture yourself taking. Think honestly about your terrain, how often you'll stop and start, how important it is to put your feet down, and how much help you want on the hills. Those answers will point you toward the right category much faster than comparing numbers on a spec sheet.

The takeaways from Alina's first trail ride

If you're getting ready for your own first ride on dirt, here's what this one teaches:

• Ride slowly on purpose at first. It gives your body time to learn how the bike feels.
• Drop to pedal assist zero before descents, and step it back up before you start climbing.
• If you want to use the throttle and you're on zero, you may need to click up to level one first.
• Use a short burst of throttle to get rolling on a climb or after a turn, then let pedal assist carry you.
• Lean your upper body forward on climbs to keep the front wheel planted.
• Moderate assist, like the level two Alina settled on, often feels best on slippery or uneven ground.
• Slow down before bumps and corners, not on top of them, and look where you want to go.

Most of all, give yourself a little time. Alina went from nervous about slipping in the mud to calling bumps her favorite part in about ten minutes. That kind of turnaround is exactly why I love watching first rides, and it's why I'd encourage anyone on the fence to get out there and try. You might find, like she did, that the hills you were worried about end up being the best part of the ride.