Riding Again After Years of Hip Pain: A Real Test Ride on the Relaxed Body 26-Inch E-Bike

A Rider Who Hadn't Been on a Bike in Years

Most of the test rides we film are with people who already ride. They know what a good bike feels like, and they can tell you in a sentence or two whether a new model is better or worse than what they're used to. This one was different, and honestly, it's one of my favorite rides we've captured.

Dev joined us at sixthreezero to try a few bikes. Her story is one a lot of you will recognize. For a long time, her hip was so bad she couldn't do much of anything. She could walk, but getting back on a bicycle had been out of reach for years. She wasn't looking for speed or a spec sheet. She wanted to know if there was a bike out there that would let her ride without paying for it in her hips and knees afterward.

The bike she climbed on for this ride was the Relaxed Body 26-inch e-bike. It was the third bike she tried that day, which matters, because by the time she got to it she had something to compare against. Keep that in mind when you get to her verdict at the end.

The first few seconds told her something

Dev barely made it out of the lot before she noticed it. Her first reaction was a surprised "whoa," and then she put her finger right on the reason: the pedal position. On this bike, the pedals sit forward of where they'd be on a conventional frame. Her own estimate was that they were roughly four inches further forward than a regular bike, and she said she could already feel how comfortable that was for her leg.

That reaction is worth slowing down on, because it explains almost everything else she felt on the ride.

On a traditional bike, your pedals sit almost directly under your hips. To get your leg extended properly at the bottom of the stroke, the seat has to go up high. That means you're perched on top of the bike, your feet don't reach the ground easily when you stop, and every pedal stroke asks your hip to flex sharply at the top. For a healthy rider, that's fine. For someone whose hip has been the problem for years, that sharp angle at the top of the stroke is exactly where it hurts.

Moving the pedals forward changes the geometry. Your leg pushes out and slightly ahead of you instead of straight down. You can sit lower and still get good leg extension, and the angle at your hip doesn't close up as tightly with each revolution. That's the whole idea behind the forward pedaling design you'll find across our comfort e-bikes, and Dev felt it before she'd even hit the road.

Why I trust a reaction like this

When someone who rides every week tells me a bike is comfortable, I take note. When someone who hasn't been able to ride in years says it within the first thirty seconds, I pay a lot more attention. Dev didn't have a reason to be polite about it. If the bike had hurt, she would have felt it, and she would have said so. She's not a bike industry person, and that's precisely why her impressions are useful to anyone shopping for e-bikes for seniors or for riders coming back after an injury or a long stretch away.

Then she rolled out onto the street, and the real test began.

Once Dev was on the road, she settled into fourth gear and pedal assist level three. That's a sensible middle-of-the-road setup, and it's roughly where I'd tell most new e-bike riders to start: enough motor help that you're not straining, enough gear that your legs aren't spinning wildly, and plenty of room to go up or down in either direction as the terrain changes.

Then she pointed the bike at a hill.

Her reaction says more than I can: "Oh my gosh, this is so easy. That's crazy how easy it is." For someone who hasn't ridden in years, hills are usually the deal-breaker. They're where knees ache, where you stand up out of the saddle and twist your hips, and where people decide cycling isn't for them anymore. Dev stayed seated and kept pedaling, and the bike did its share of the work.

How pedal assist and gears work together

If you're new to electric bikes, it helps to understand what's happening on a climb like that. The pedal assist level controls how much help the motor adds while you pedal. Higher levels give more push. The gears control how hard each pedal stroke is for your legs. Lower gears are easier to turn but move you forward less with each revolution.

The two systems complement each other. On a hill, you can raise the assist, drop a gear, or both. Dev held her settings and still found the climb easy, which tells you the assist was doing meaningful work. Later in the ride, she did the opposite. On a flatter section she said her legs were "whizzing around," so she shifted into a higher gear to give her pedals some resistance and slow her cadence down. That's exactly the right instinct. If your legs feel like they're spinning without pushing anything, shift up. If each stroke feels like a grind, shift down or add assist.

For riders with joint concerns, this flexibility matters a lot. You get to decide how much effort each stroke takes. On a good day, you can lower the assist and get more exercise. On a day when your hip is talking to you, turn it up and keep the effort gentle. You're still out riding either way.

The handlebars she didn't expect to notice

A few minutes in, Dev brought up something most people don't think about until they ride: the handlebars. She noticed they're narrow on this bike, and she liked it. In her words, it felt good on her wrists, her elbows, and her shoulders.

That makes sense. Wide, flat bars spread your arms out and can pull your shoulders forward, and if you're leaning onto them, your wrists end up carrying weight they don't need to carry. A narrower bar lets your arms hang more naturally from the shoulder, closer to how they rest when you're sitting in a chair. Less reaching means less tension through the whole upper body. It's a small detail, but over a long ride it adds up, and it's the kind of thing you only appreciate when the rest of your body has stopped complaining.

Leg extension without the knee and hip pressure

Dev also said she was able to extend her legs a little further than she expected, and that she didn't feel any pressure on her knees or her hips. (She corrected herself mid-sentence: "my hip... well, I have two hips. My hips." I appreciated that.)

This connects straight back to the forward pedal position. Good leg extension is about more than comfort. When your leg is too bent at the bottom of every stroke, your knee is working at a sharper angle, which is a common source of knee pain on bikes that don't fit well. When the seat goes higher to fix that on a traditional frame, your hip ends up working harder at the top of the stroke. Pushing the pedals forward lets a rider get that fuller extension without trading one joint's comfort for another's.

She summed up this stretch of the ride in a few words: "This is really comfortable. So easy." If you want to see how a bike like this would fit your own height and leg length, our bike fitting tool is a good place to start.

As the ride continued, Dev kept coming back to her posture. At one point she noted that she was sitting straight up, and that this meant there was no pressure on her lower spine. She contrasted it directly with reclining. To her, sitting upright was a better position for her back than leaning back would be.

That's an observation worth unpacking, because it's easy to assume that the further back you lean on a bike, the more comfortable it must be. That isn't always the case. Comfort comes from your spine being supported in a neutral position, your weight being carried mainly by the seat rather than your hands, and your joints moving through comfortable ranges. On this bike, Dev was upright, her arms were relaxed thanks to the narrow bars, and her legs were extending forward. Nothing was being forced.

Her next comment was one I'd happily put on a poster: "Gosh, they really have designed these bikes well for the body. Ergonomically designed." That's the goal. A bike should fit around the person, not the other way around.

Checking in with her hip, mile after mile

Something I loved about watching this ride was how often Dev checked in with her body. She wasn't just riding. She was paying attention. Several minutes in, now in a higher gear, she said she was gauging her hip and didn't feel any pressure. "I love it," she added. Then she repeated that there was no pressure on her knees either, and explained why she kept saying it: it matters if you've had a hip replacement or a knee replacement.

She's right, and it's worth expanding on for anyone in that situation.

A few practical thoughts if you're dealing with hip or knee issues

First, the obvious but important one. If you've had a joint replacement or you're managing ongoing hip or knee problems, talk to your surgeon or physical therapist before you start riding. They know your body and your recovery timeline, and many will have specific guidance on when and how to get back on a bike.

Second, pay attention to the things Dev paid attention to. When you try a bike, notice where your feet land relative to your hips. Notice how sharply your hip has to bend at the top of the pedal stroke and how bent your knee is at the bottom. Notice whether your wrists and shoulders feel loaded. Those are the signals that tell you whether a frame is working with your body or against it.

Third, think about getting on and off, not just riding. A frame with a low step-over makes the start and end of every ride easier on your hips, because you don't have to swing a leg up and over. If mounting is a big concern for you, browse our step-through e-bikes alongside forward-pedal designs. And if balance is the bigger worry, an electric trike takes the balancing out of the equation entirely.

Fourth, let the motor carry some of the load, especially early on. There's no prize for riding at the lowest assist level. The point is to get out, move comfortably, and build up from there.

Comfort that holds up over time

The other thing Dev's ride showed was consistency. Her first impressions in the parking lot were about the pedal position. Several minutes into the ride, up a hill and through a few gear changes, she was still saying the same thing: comfortable, easy, no pressure. That's what you want to see in a test ride. Plenty of bikes feel fine for the first block. The ones worth owning still feel good after you've stopped thinking about them.

If you'd like to compare a few comfort-focused models before deciding, our bike buyer's guide walks through the main frame styles and who each one suits.

Every ride has its downhill moments, and Dev handled hers the way I'd want any rider to. Approaching a slope, she said she was taking it with a little more caution. Later, on a longer descent, she explained exactly what she was doing: cruising and relying on her brakes, but not too much. Just easily, gently pulling on the brake levers.

How to handle a downhill on an e-bike

That gentle approach is the right technique. Grabbing the brakes hard on a descent can unsettle the bike. A light, steady squeeze lets you control your speed smoothly and keeps you ready to slow down more if you need to. It's also a good idea to check your speed early, before you're already moving faster than you'd like, rather than trying to scrub off a lot of speed at the bottom.

At one point a car came up, and Dev simply moved out to give herself room, then carried on. No drama. Her only comment afterward: "Very comfortable bike." Being able to stay relaxed in a moment like that is underrated. When you're sitting upright with your arms loose and your feet able to find the ground, you see more of what's around you and you react more calmly.

The moment it really landed

Partway through the ride, Dev stopped talking about the bike and started talking about what the ride meant to her. I'll let her words carry this part, because I couldn't say it better.

After a long time of not being able to do anything because her hip was so bad, she said, this was such a pleasure. She walks, but to ride a bike again after so many years was an absolute thrill. She said she had a newfound sense of freedom, and that she was very excited about it.

That's why we make the bikes we make. A spec sheet can tell you about a motor or a battery. It can't tell you what it feels like to get something back that you thought you'd lost. For a lot of riders, the right comfort bike isn't really about the bike at all. It's about getting back out into the neighborhood, feeling the air, and moving under your own power again, with a little help from a motor when you need it.

Dev's final verdict

Back at the end of the ride, Dev gave her summary. This was the third bike she'd tried that day, and so far it was her favorite.

Her reason was the same one she'd spotted in the first few seconds: the forward pedals. She said there was even less pressure on her hip, her knee, and her ankle than on the other bikes, which made it a very easy bike to ride. Then came my favorite line of the day: you get carried away with it and just keep going.

She also mentioned range, saying she thought you'd get about 50 miles out of a full battery, depending on how fast and how far you go. That caveat matters. Range on any e-bike depends on the assist level you use, your speed, hills, wind, rider weight, and tire pressure. Riding in a lower assist level on flat ground will stretch the battery much further than running high assist up long climbs. Treat any range figure as a guide, not a guarantee.

Who this bike is for

Based on Dev's ride, the Relaxed Body 26-inch makes a lot of sense if you recognize yourself in any of these situations:

• You've had hip or knee trouble and want a pedaling position that doesn't close up those joints.
• You're returning to cycling after years away and want something that feels easy from the first ride.
• You want to sit upright with your back supported and your arms relaxed rather than leaning onto the handlebars.
• You like the idea of pedaling for exercise but want motor support on hills and longer rides.

How to find out if it's right for you

The best way to know is to ride one. If you're near us in Southern California, visit our store and take a few bikes out, the same way Dev did. Riding them back to back is the fastest way to feel the differences. If you can't make it in, our 30-day test ride lets you try a bike on your own roads.

Dev's ride is a good reminder that the right bike can do a lot more than get you from one place to another. For her, it meant freedom she hadn't felt in years. I hope it does the same for you.