A long-distance e-bike tour can become much more than a personal adventure. It can raise awareness, generate support for an important cause, and inspire others to discover what is possible with an electric bicycle.

Create an Adventure That Makes a Difference

One thousand miles is a serious undertaking. Organizing such a journey requires imagination, preparation, patience, adaptability, and determination. When the adventure also raises money and awareness for a meaningful cause, every mile can reach far beyond the rider.

This fund is for the person who looks at a map and begins to imagine a possibility. It is for friends who decide to cross a state, a province, a region, or an entire country together. It is for riders willing to build their own journey rather than simply joining one that has already been organized for them.

If you are planning an independently organized long-distance e-bike tour through the United States and/or Canada and want your adventure to support a charity, hospital, or medical center, please fill out the form before your departure.

Tell us where you hope to ride, why the cause matters to you, how you will organize the journey, and how your story could inspire others.

Your e-bike can carry you more than 1,000 miles. Your initiative can turn those miles into something much greater.

The E-Bike Lovers Charity Fund recognizes individual initiatives. It is intended for a rider—or a small, independently organized group—who creates an epic e-bike adventure of more than 1,000 continuous miles while raising money for a charitable organization, medical center, or hospital. E-bike Lovers would love to be part of your journey.

Benefits

Participation in the fund can strengthen your fundraising campaign, build credibility with your charity, attract media attention, and share your adventure through the E-Bike Lovers Inspirational Stories series.

Demonstrate credible support to the charity. Your fundraiser can show the selected charity that E-Bike Lovers is prepared to consider a contribution of up to $2,500 after the tour is completed and verified.

Strengthen the fundraising campaign. Potential donors may be more willing to contribute when they know another organization or individual donor is considering a meaningful contribution to the same cause.

Create momentum. The possibility of an additional contribution can encourage friends, relatives, businesses, community groups, and other supporters to help the rider reach or exceed the minimum fundraising target.

Gain recognition through the E-Bike Lovers Inspirational Stories series. Qualifying riders may have their journey featured on Ebikelovers.com through photographs, a written story, an interview, or a combination of these formats.

Attract additional sponsors and supporters. Preliminary recognition from E-Bike Lovers may help demonstrate that the tour is carefully planned and worthy of support from local businesses, e-bike companies, cycling groups, and community organizations.

Preliminary approval must not be described as a guaranteed donation. Until the tour, fundraising, beneficiary, and documentation have been reviewed and final approval issued, the rider should describe E-Bike Lovers as a prospective or conditional supporter rather than a confirmed donor.

Requirements at a Glance

We recognize that the list of requirements may initially appear long. However, each requirement serves a practical purpose and is based on common sense.

We want you to stay safe and healthy on the road, follow traffic laws, use a properly maintained and legally permitted e-bike, and make responsible decisions about weather, traffic, route conditions, battery charging, rest, and personal well-being.

The requirements are not intended to make participation in the fund unnecessarily difficult. They are designed to protect the rider, the charity, the donors, and E-Bike Lovers while preserving the fund's credibility.

If you carefully plan your journey, ride safely, document your progress, raise at least $1,000, and honestly share your story, most of the requirements will naturally become part of organizing a successful long-distance charity ride.

The Rider Must Organize the Adventure

To qualify, the rider must take a meaningful role in creating and organizing the tour. This includes developing the concept, selecting or helping select the route, planning the schedule, arranging the logistics, organizing the fundraising campaign, and documenting the journey.

The fund is not intended for people who register for or participate in a ride organized by a charity, cycling association, tour operator, event company, or another established organization.

Unless approved by E-bike Lovers, participation in an organized charity ride, commercial bicycle tour, mass-participation event, or prearranged expedition does not qualify, even when the event covers more than 1,000 miles and the participant raises more than $1,000.

A charity may support, promote, or benefit from the journey, but the charity cannot be the primary organizer of the ride. The purpose of the fund is to encourage individuals and small groups to imagine, organize, and complete their own ambitious adventures.

 The E-bike Lovers-sponsored cross-country tour is featured in this documentary.

Only One Rider May Apply for Each Tour

Only one rider per tour or event may apply for support from the fund. A qualifying adventure can include two or more friends riding together, but the group must designate one person as the official applicant.

For example, if two friends decide to travel across the United States together, only one of them may apply. The second rider remains an important part of the journey and may be featured in the story, photographs, and interview, but cannot submit a separate application for the same tour.

Dividing one expedition into separate applications, charities, route segments, or individual fundraising campaigns does not create multiple eligible tours. E-Bike Lovers will treat riders who share substantially the same route, schedule, purpose, and journey as participants in one event. Only one potential contribution of up to $2,500 will be considered for that event.

Who Can Participate?

The fund is open to riders using a lawful Class 1, Class 2, or Class 3 e-bike. The e-bike must comply with the laws and regulations of every state, province, municipality, park, trail, and other jurisdiction through which the rider travels. Because e-bike classifications and access rules vary, particularly between the United States and Canada, riders are responsible for confirming that their e-bike is permitted on every part of the route.

A qualifying tour must take place entirely within the United States, Canada, or a combination of the two countries. Tours extending into other countries are not eligible unless E-Bike Lovers provides written approval before departure.

Riders may travel solo, with other cyclists, or with a support team. Supported and unsupported tours are equally welcome. A support vehicle or bicycle (also an analog bicycle) may transport supplies, batteries, camping equipment, food, camera equipment, and other necessities. However, miles traveled by car, truck, train, bus, ferry, or other forms of transportation cannot be included in qualifying mileage.

What Is a Continuous 1,000-Mile Tour?

The rider must complete more than 1,000 miles as part of one continuous, planned journey. Separate weekend rides, commuting miles, training rides, organized events, or unrelated tours cannot be combined to reach the required distance.

“Continuous” does not mean that the rider must cycle every day. Rest days, weather delays, illness, mechanical problems, family emergencies, route closures, and necessary repairs will not automatically disqualify a tour. The journey must nevertheless remain one identifiable expedition with a defined starting point, destination, route, purpose, and general time period.

All qualifying cycling miles must be completed on an e-bike. A rider may use a replacement e-bike if the original bicycle becomes damaged or cannot be repaired, but the replacement must also be a lawful Class 1, Class 2, or Class 3 e-bike. Miles completed on a conventional bicycle, motorcycle, electric motorcycle, moped, or another vehicle will not count.

Transporting the rider or e-bike around a dangerous, closed, or legally inaccessible section may be permitted when necessary. Still, the distance traveled cannot count toward the required mileage and must be disclosed in the completion report.

Proof of Completion Is Required

Riders must provide convincing, verifiable evidence that they completed 1,000 consecutive miles. Evidence may include complete GPS tracks, Ride with GPS or Strava records, daily mileage logs, dated and geolocated photographs, lodging or campground receipts, charging records, social-media updates, media coverage, and confirmation from tour partners or support personnel.

The submitted records should establish the tour’s starting and finishing locations, dates, route, daily progress, total distance, and use of an eligible e-bike throughout the journey. A screenshot showing only a final mileage total will generally not be sufficient.

E-Bike Lovers may request original GPS files, additional photographs, receipts, interviews, references, or other supporting information. E-Bike Lovers will determine whether the submitted evidence provides adequate proof of completion.

Raise at Least $1,000 for Your Charity

The rider must raise at least $1,000 for the same charity, medical center, hospital, or hospital foundation nominated for the E-Bike Lovers contribution. The $1,000 must come from documented donations associated with the tour and must not include the possible E-Bike Lovers contribution.

Acceptable proof may include a statement from an established fundraising platform, a fundraising campaign report, donation receipts, or written confirmation from the beneficiary organization. Uncollected pledges cannot be counted. The applicant must demonstrate that the designated organization has received the funds or has an established process for transferring the documented donations.

When several people ride together, their combined fundraising campaign may be considered, but only the designated applicant may apply to the fund. The beneficiary must be a legitimate organization capable of legally accepting a charitable contribution.

Contributions will not be made to an individual, a personal bank account, an informal group, a commercial business, or a personal crowdfunding campaign. When a hospital or medical center is not itself an eligible charitable recipient, the contribution may be directed to its recognized foundation or charitable fundraising arm.

Share the Story and Inspire Other Riders

The fund is part of the E-Bike Lovers Inspirational Stories series. Every applicant must submit high-quality photographs taken during the tour, along with a written account of the journey and/or an interview with E-Bike Lovers.

The story should explain how the idea originated, how the rider or group organized the tour, the route, the challenges encountered, the role of the e-bike, why the charity was selected, and the effect the journey had on the riders and the people they encountered along the way.

By submitting photographs or written material, or by participating in an interview, the applicant grants E-Bike Lovers permission to edit and publish the material on Ebikelovers.com and through related newsletters, social-media channels, videos, and promotional or educational materials. Riders retain ownership of their original photographs and writing unless a separate agreement states otherwise. Applicants must have permission to submit and publish photographs taken by other people.

Follow the E-Bike Lovers Code of Conduct

Participants must read and follow the E-Bike Lovers Code of Conduct throughout the tour. This includes properly maintaining the e-bike, checking brakes and essential equipment, riding at a safe speed, respecting other trail and road users, following battery-handling guidance, assisting others when appropriate, and obeying directions from law enforcement and emergency services.

Riders are responsible for planning a lawful route, evaluating road and trail conditions, wearing appropriate safety equipment, arranging necessary insurance, maintaining their e-bikes, and making responsible decisions about weather, traffic, personal health, charging, accommodation, and daily distances.

Participation does not make the tour an organized or supervised E-Bike Lovers event. Each rider accepts responsibility for the risks, expenses, logistics, and decisions associated with the journey.

Inform Before Beginning the Tour

Prospective applicants should contact E-Bike Lovers before beginning their tour. The initial submission should describe the proposed route, approximate dates, anticipated distance, type of e-bike, names of other participating riders, support arrangements, selected charity, fundraising goal, tracking method, and plans for documenting and sharing the journey.

The applicant must also explain who conceived and organized the tour. E-Bike Lovers may request additional information to confirm that the journey is independently organized and is not an event created or managed by a charity, commercial tour operator, cycling association, or another organization.

When several riders are traveling together, the application must identify the single rider who will serve as the official applicant. Once the applicant has been designated, the other participants cannot apply separately for the same journey.

Preliminary approval means only that the proposed ride may be considered for a contribution after completion. There is no promise or guarantee that E-Bike Lovers will make any contribution.

After completing the journey, the applicant must submit the required mileage records, fundraising documentation, photographs, written story and/or interview material, and confirmation that the designated organization can accept the contribution.

Contributions Are Discretionary

A rider who satisfies the published requirements may be considered for a contribution of up to $2,500. Completing the tour does not guarantee that the maximum amount—or any amount—will be contributed.

E-Bike Lovers retains sole discretion to approve, decline, defer, reduce, or cancel a proposed contribution at any time and for any reason, including after an applicant appears to have met every published requirement. Eligibility, preliminary approval, completion of a tour, fundraising success, publication of a rider’s story, or submission of documentation does not create an entitlement, contract, or legal right to receive a contribution.

All contributions remain subject to the availability of funds, verification of the applicant’s documentation, approval of the beneficiary organization, legal and administrative requirements, and the final decision of E-Bike Lovers. Misrepresentation, falsified records, unsafe conduct, unlawful riding, harassment, conduct inconsistent with the E-Bike Lovers Code of Conduct, or actions that could damage the reputation of E-Bike Lovers or the beneficiary may result in immediate disqualification.