Mountain Biking for All in Costa Rica as Electric Bikes Arrive

[Shannon Farley]

If you’ve always wanted to go mountain biking in Costa Rica, but thought it beyond your ability, there is hope.

In Costa Rica, the northwestern province of Guanacaste is a big place for biking tours. Especially mountain biking due to its rugged terrain of mountains and volcanoes.

Now electric mountain bike tours in Costa Rica are making the sport of mountain biking accessible to everyone. This new technology allows people of all abilities to explore the Costa Rica countryside by bike.

“You can climb any steep hill or ride on difficult terrain like sand with ease,” says Franck Daléry of Electric Bike Costa Rica. “The electric technology gives you extra power to do what your legs alone could not do on an extreme mountain bike tour. Very steep hills, which normally would be too difficult on a traditional bike, are conquered easily on an electric bicycle.”

However, they are called electric power-assisted mountain bikes for a reason. Electric bicycles are not for complete slouchers. They are neither mini scooters nor mopeds, and you can’t just let the motor do all the hard work. You still have to pedal and do physical exercise to put an electric bike in motion. The motor only kicks in once you start pedaling, and you can set the level of power assistance that you want.

The Adventure Center at Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin in Guanacaste recently acquired four state-of-the-art French electric mountain bikes from Electric Bike Costa Rica. The Moustache brand Samedi 27/9 OFF 3 Electric Mountain Bikes have BOSCH Performance 250W engines, which provide power assistance from 50% up to 275% with a top motor speed of 25 km/h. To go any faster is up to human or gravity power.

“These are the best engines in the world for electric bikes,” says Daléry. “It is a real bike and you have to pedal to make it work. The electric engine augments your power, and there are four levels of power and a 10-speed transmission. If you switch off the motor you have a regular mountain bike.”

For instance, you can start out on your own power, and if you need a little boost at any point, you just switch on the electric motor and continue your adventure. A full battery will usually let you cycle from 80 to 180 km at 20 km/h on a flat road (for a 70-kg rider), or 50 to 120 km with varied terrain depending on the power mode chosen, wind, gradient, etc., according to the Moustache bike specs. And unlike electric cars, if the worst happens and you run out of battery power, you can still get home under your own steam.

Batteries get a full charge plugged into a regular electrical socket in 4.5 hours, and 50% in only two hours.

You can go on regular and electric mountain bike tours in Guanacaste at Rincón de la Vieja Volcano with Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin. Tours ride on singletrack trails and dirt roads through beautiful forest and to waterfalls.