So I've gotten to put about 40 miles on my bike so far... with about 35 of that being on roads (and 2 miles of that in a vicious thunderstorm) and 5 miles of it being on some pretty muddy trails and through quite a few puddles.
Here are my impressions:
- The way Pedal Assist works kind of surprises me. I was expecting Level 1 to maybe only give me 100-200W of power and level 5 to max out the power (up to the 20mph threshold). But in reality, the motor still gives you the full power even at pedal assist level 1, it just cuts off at like 10-12mph. So far to me this hasn't been a pro or con, just an observation.
- The bike is fun to ride. Climbing hills is a piece of cake now. On steep ones, you can pedal hard and see if you can give the motor a break but it's probably going to keep assisting you. This is a great commuter bike.
- The bike handles the mud pretty well though there were a few times when it slid around a bit. But these were very muddy trails after a big downpour. If you plan on riding on wet roads or trails, I definitely advise getting fenders because I got a face full or dirt and mud over and over again.
- The throttle works really well, though I have noticed that I have pressed the red throttle button a couple of times on accident mid-ride without noticing it and when I next went to use the throttle, it didn't respond and I had a momentary panic attack.
- The battery charge indicator on the LCD screen isn't great. It can vary between reading 2 and 5 bars (out of 5 possible) when it is at near full charge based on... well, I'm not exactly sure. It seems like it gives a more accurate reading when on level ground but I'm not exactly sure.
- I so far have only been able to change between gears 6 and 7. When I try to go to gear 5 the thumb shifter just doesn't go. I need to give the bike a look and check and see if this is an easy fix because right now, I've only been able to use 2 of the 7 gears... and I assume that probably hurts my battery life a pretty good bit when climbing hills.
- Overall, love this bike for my intended purposes: taking it offroad and using it to commute. Kills 2 birds with 1 stone coming from someone who was in the road cycling world.