Before you even get on the bike, you open the app on your phone. A modern e-bike won’t even activate without it, which already serves as one of the most basic anti-theft protections. After all, who would want to steal a bike that doesn’t work? You press a button on the handlebars to choose how much assistance the silky-quiet electric motor will give you. Thanks to sensors collecting data about your cadence – the frequency at which you turn the pedals – the system adapts perfectly to your riding style. Everything can be fine-tuned and personalised in the mobile app, which effectively becomes the main user interface, just as essential to the ride as the handlebars themselves.
This isn’t the future. This is completely normal, everyday e-cycling in 2026. And it’s an unstoppable trend.
Computers on two wheels
The modern e-bike is becoming a digital platform where the riding experience blends with the possibilities of augmented reality. This transformation closely mirrors what cars have gone through in recent years. The central element is still the human being – the rider – who receives information while riding both from the bike’s own sensors and from the outside world through constant data connectivity.
These data no longer help only with navigation from point A to point B. They can find optimal routes that avoid congestion or heavy traffic, or even locate a free parking space in a city-centre parking garage. Much like cars, bicycles are becoming computers on wheels. Charging via a USB-C cable like your laptop? Of course, an award-winning e-bike showcased at the Eurobike trade fair has already proven that this, too, is possible.
Bicycles don’t just consume data; they also generate it. In the first case, the data concerns the user. Bikes can sense how you pedal or even monitor aspects of your health by sharing data with health apps on Apple and Android platforms.
Traffic data and theft protection
Then there’s operational data. The bike tracks its location in real time and, through its own telemetry, can assess which components will need replacing in the near future. Just as with large construction machinery, it’s reasonable to expect that modern bicycles will soon be able to order replacement parts themselves as their lifespan comes to an end and automatically schedule a suitable service appointment. All service work would then be recorded in the mobile app, much like a service book in a car.
In the event of theft, you can track your e-bike’s location, recover it using the data or pass the information on to the police. You can permanently lock the motor and battery, rendering these key components unusable. But manufacturers of electric drive systems are going even further. At this year’s CES trade show in Las Vegas, a new feature was unveiled that allows users to mark their e-bike as stolen in a globally shared network, instantly turning it into an unsellable pile of metal and plastic.
Why is cycling being digitalised?
Especially in Europe, zero-emission logistics and intelligent mobility projects enjoy strong political support. Dozens of major European cities are striving to reduce or even completely ban combustion-engine vehicles from their city centres. This trend is a powerful motivation for the development of modern bicycles designed for everyday commuting to work or education.
One of the “obstacles” slowing down digitalisation and more intensive data sharing is the cyclists themselves, whose privacy has been protected since 2018 by GDPR legislation. In cycling, this concerns data from apps connected to the bike, location sharing or certain diagnostic information. Increasingly, there is talk of a shift from “hardware” to “heartware”, a term suggesting a move away from ever-denser clouds of information toward a more human-centred approach that organises and simplifies data to avoid overwhelming users. As experience from other sectors shows, technology may step into the background and support us rather than distract us. For cyclists, this should mean intuitive interfaces, fast and seamless connectivity, and ergonomics focused on comfort.
In the end, it will be up to us – the cyclists – to decide, by voting with our wallets, which direction cycling development should take. Some projects we will support and help shine; others we may quietly put to sleep. Even if it sometimes feels like certain developments are heading in a direction that none of us has the slightest chance of stopping.
