Ohio’s Amish Country: Ground Zero for E-Bikes
The story of the Amish using e-bikes is not a new one. Particularly in Holmes County, Ohio (but also in other progressive settlements), the zippy transporters have been on the rise for years now.
I remember seeing them used by Amish there for the first time in 2018 (though they’d been around a while already). Suffice to say it catches your eye when you see an Amish person flying uphill at speeds impossible by sheer foot power.
Several years ago, we had a look inside an e-bike shop from one of my past visits to the community. Nowadays, the community is filled with thousands of the “juiced” bicycles.
A new article at Forbes tells more of the Amish e-bike story. Here are a few segments that jumped out. This first bit surprised me:
Though it’s a rural region, Ohio’s Amish country in the eastern portion of the Buckeye State has become a bigger, more mature market for e-bikes — which retail for between $1,500 and $2,000 — than cities like Cleveland, Columbus and even New York.
“We’ve sold in the range of 10,000 e-bikes over the last 10 years in Holmes County,” Jesse Lapin, cofounder and COO of Magnum, the top brand in the area, told Forbes. “The adoption rate there is so much higher. People, even six or eight years ago, were much more likely to know about, own and ride e-bikes in Holmes County, Ohio, than they were in Manhattan.” Lapin said the company sells thousands of bikes a year through Amish distributors in the community. And the market there is so enthusiastic, it’s become a testing ground for new models
And this from David Kline, an explanation on how this technology got a foothold in the community:
“They came in with the working Amish who work maybe five to 10 miles away from their home, in a woodworking shop or wherever,” said David Kline, a retired dairy farmer and writer who’s also bishop of an Old Order church near Mount Hope, Ohio, that permits its members to use e-bikes. “The owners of those businesses bought e-bikes for their employees because it was a lot more cost-efficient than hiring somebody to pick them up in a car. That’s sort of how they slipped in the backdoor before we were aware of it.”
And on Holmes County’s status as the #1 Amish e-bike community:
Still, Holmes County is something of an anomaly among Amish communities, as e-bikes aren’t yet as prevalent in other North American communities.
“In Lancaster County, with a very large Amish population, very few Amish ride bikes,” said Steve Nolt, a professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College, in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish region. “At one point, 10 or 15 years ago, I could have safely said that none of the Amish here ride bikes, even just the pedal variety. That’s not true anymore. Some do, but riding bicycles here has always been one of those symbolic separators.”
Traditional bicycles are generally popular in northern Indiana, home to another large number of Amish churches and communities, said Nolt. But e-bike sales in that region don’t rival those of Holmes County, according to Magnum’s Lapin.
In the article it’s suggested that the hilly terrain of Holmes County is one reason e-bikes have really taken off there. Generally speaking, northern Indiana is similarly progressive when it comes to tech, but the area is much flatter on the whole.
Holmes County’s Amish community has even been described as “ground zero for us to test” by one manufacturer.
Our friend and contributor Joe Donnermeyer added some nice context as well:
“It’s the most Amish county in the country,” said Joseph Donnermeyer, a professor emeritus at Ohio State University who’s studied Amish communities for decades.
Though they don’t embrace many types of modern conveniences and typically aren’t connected to utility grids, landline telephones or the internet, the Amish are not anti-technology. Views on what’s acceptable are determined gradually, with an eye toward upholding religious tenets that emphasize a need for some separation from non-Amish communities, said Donnermeyer, citing 2 Corinthians 6:14 as a foundational Biblical passage for Anabaptist religious groups (which include the Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites). “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
“What it boils down to is they interpret the symbolism of that. So we can have a solar panel that charges a battery that runs the electric bike, but we’re not connected to the electric grid,” he said. “The Amish concern over technology, it’s not technology per se but its effect on the community.”
Finally, a note of concern from a “traditionalist” in the community:
“My biggest concern is they are exchanging the Amish mode of travel for higher-speed transportation that will eventually lead to the car,” said Miller, a retired farmer and bishop of an Old Order Amish church near Mount Hope, Ohio. “We have a lot of people out there where the parents do not own a horse and buggy anymore, so the children will not learn how to use a horse and buggy.”
The introduction of cyclist safety gear that comes with e-bikes is also a concern.
“It brings along a totally different lifestyle,” he said. “The dress mode is different, and I don’t blame them, but a hard bike helmet and all the clothes they wear, they are totally not respectful to the way Old Order Amish should dress. That’s just the way it is.”
Read the whole thing here.
E- Bikes
I was in Holmes County yesterday (August 7) for a very short (1/2day) visit. The electric bikes really got my attention; but what really stood out was the number of Amish wearing bike helmets. I have seen the electric bikes in northern Indiana but not the helmets.
For us traditionalists, I did see an older woman struggling up a hill on a “real” bike. Hats off to her!
Bike Helmets
They likely started wearing helmets for the same reason they put lights and reflective tape on their buggies — safety.
When they first started using e-bikes en masse, the vehicular accident rate skyrocketed for a while, because many handled the e-bikes the same way they did regular bikes and buggies, but the e-bikes are a combination of smaller and faster that proved to be deadly when handled that way, because the bikes handle differently, and the riders would cut in front of cars and whatnot, and they didn’t wear helmets at first. Even when the riders are being safe, Holmes county has a lot of sharp curves and blind hills, and a lot of the main routes aren’t just shared with cars, but with semi trucks, too, making it fundamentally dangerous for any small vehicle. Helmets aren’t going to keep someone alive if they cut in front of a car going 55mph, of course, but they are proven to save lives in other type of cycling accidents.
Bikes
A sign of the times. The Amish have gone to computers cell phones now Ebikes what’s next TV? Guess we have to wait and . Getting more modern every year.
E-bikes
My husband and I were visiting Holmes County about four years ago when we saw a larger Amish woman going up a steep hill with ease. We looked at each other and said “wow” how did she do that? About two years later we realized it was an E-bike. We bought a couple of them two years ago and really enjoy them.
ebikes
So electricity is a no-no but electric bikes are okay? At least it might mean less abused horses.
Electricity
It’s not the electricity itself that’s an issue with the sects that allow e-bikes, it’s the reliance on the non-Amish (or “English” as the Amish call us). Hooking up to the power grid quite literally tethers them to us, which goes against…basically everything they believe. Those sects have quite embraced solar, to the point that I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if more Amish have solar panels on their houses/properties than the English in the area do (in fact, based on my own observations, I’m fairly certain that’s the case).
E-scooters?
Erik,
I do a lot of business in the Holmes County settlement and also in the Geauga County settlement, which does not use bicycles, but scooters. I believe that I have recently witnessed e-scooters being ridden by some Amish youth in Geauga. Has anyone else noticed this trend?
Blaise Prentiss
E-scooters are definitely becoming a thing in Lancaster County, PA. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same trend is happening in Geauga County, but I haven’t been there lately to confirm.
reply
in wood county wi they have e-scooters
It would be interesting to know what type of e-bike is most common among the Holmes County Amish: pedal-assist, which only activate the motor when the rider is pedalling, or ones with throttles that allow the rider to activate the motor without pedalling. The former type seems like it might be more acceptable, but I could be wrong.
Some observations...
Our recent road trip included some time in Holmes County and Lancaster County. While we are not “regular” visitors to Ohio, one of the first things we noticed was the prevalence of e-bikes. (In some cases, it was hard to determine if the rider was Amish.) One Old Order Amish fellow I chatted with expressed his concern over the long-term impacts. His granddaughters are not using them, but enjoy horseback riding. We’ve only been in Lancaster a few days and have not seen many e-bikes yet. (It has been mostly raining.) A young Amish friend tells me that we will likely see more on the weekend as “kids” are using them to attend youth gatherings. I do think it would be interesting to see some “data” regarding capabilities– speeds and distances of e-bikes compared to horse and buggy and scooters.
E-bike speeds
I can’t speak to distance (though that would likely follow as a factor of speed), but the e-bikes are very noticeably faster than regular bikes and buggies (and even if/when running a horse as fast as the e-bikes can go, you’re talking a large “vehicle” that knows how to handle itself at those speeds). There was an adjustment period when e-bikes first started taking off, where Amish-involved accidents went up, basically because they weren’t used to the speed and how it changes interacting with the road and traffic.
When compared to horse and buggy, some youth like them because they are quick and easy to use as well as low maintenance. There is also a sense of independence when using them.
And with more families not having the horse and buggy, well, they will need transportation. And just like what the Bishop said in the story, it will lead to driving cars.
Just another symbol of how many Amish are changing and moving more toward the English way of life.
Amish and E Bikes
David Kline said the E-bikes slipped in the back door. but they didn’t. The ministry knew what they were and what was happening when they said the people may have them
I imagine it’s some of both. As I’m guessing you know already, there are over 300 Amish churches in Holmes County, each with their own ministry, and ranging widely from ultraconservative to quite progressive.