Like riding your bike — until you get to a steep hill? Want the luxury of cruising to and from destinations with no effort yet with the freedom to get some exercise and pedal simply with the press of a button? An electric bike (or e-bike) may be for you.

Jim Marcucelli, owner of Berkshire Motors, and Danny Mallozzi, owner of the property Berkshire Motors stands on, about a month ago began a partnership dealing e-bikes, both from Berkshire Motors and in Pennsylvania. To test the waters, they purchased just one bike and it sold almost immediately. Due to high demand, it took some time to obtain a stock of bikes, but they had eight on location in Connecticut on September 1.

Both Marcucelli and Mallozzi believe e-bikes are the wave of the future. Currently, there are one billion traditional bicycles in the world, and there will be 40 million e-bikes by 2023, Marcucelli said.

According to bicycle-guider.com, the world’s e-bike market was worth $14.755 billion in 2018. The annual growth between 2019 and 2024 is expected to be 6.39 percent.

Prospective e-bike owners may try out a variety of these new-age bikes, including e-mopeds, e-mountain bikes, e-street bikes, and even an e-fold-up model. They range in price from about $1,000 to $3,900. People may take the bikes for a test spin (powered or not) to help decide which bike is best for them.

The bikes have a pedal assist feature that allows riders to get a little help while continuing to exercise; there are different levels of pedal assist that provide varying amounts of assistance.

According to bicycle-guider.com, hills, lengthy distances, and arriving at a destination drenched in sweat are the top three reasons cyclists surveyed do not ride their bikes more. The e-bike is certainly an option to alleviate these road bumps of pedaling. E-bikes hit top speeds of around 20 or 25 miles per hour, while the e-moped can reach 45 or so miles an hour. Marcucelli and Mallozzi work with a variety of e-bike companies and are in the process of coming up with their own label, appropriately called Berkshire.

Marcucelli and Mallozzi said e-bikes riders follow the same road rules as traditional bicycle riders, so remember your helmet: According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, ncsl.org, Connecticut has the strictest requirements, requiring operators and passengers for all classes of e-bikes to wear protective headgear.

The bikes come in a variety of colors, including black, white, and some lively ones like pink and mint green. They are very quiet, are a clean alternative for transportation and for commercial use as well as recreational use, and some offer such features as a phone charger.

“There’s a bike for every type of person, old, young,” Marcucelli said. Marcucelli and Mallozzi can special order a bike that best fits the owner’s needs, and the bikes are appropriate for children capable of handling the throttle — which all of the bikes possess — on up to adults of all ages.

“People are getting out more, especially with this pandemic — people wanted to get out and get some exercise,” Marcucelli said.

“We were both looking for a new business venture. We did a lot of research and realized this was the wave of the future,” said Mallozzi who, along with his business partner, previously sold scooters and motorcycles.

According to a 2018 bicycle industry analysis, as covered in the article State Electric Bicycle Laws — A Legislative Primer, on the NCSL site, e-bike sales increased 83 percent between May of 2017 and May of 2018, and e-bikes made up 10 percent of overall bikes sales in the US for that time period.

“This is going to catch on,” Marcucelli said of e-bikes.

For information, call Marcucelli at 203-994-6783 or visit berkshiremotors.net.