That is a good question, why do I ride an E-Assist bike for touring. Well I don't need to, it was just an experiment at first, then it worked so well that the wife wanted to start riding but she did need some assist so... Here we are both of us riding an E-Assist and it works but would not if she didn't have one... I'm actually thinking of taking mine off, just because of the fail factor of riding an E-Bike most people have and the more satisfying doing it 100% yourself factor one gets afterwards...