Taking the motor out tomorrow for a 33 mile ride with my adult son; he's thrilled that "moms" will be more able to keep up with him and he won't have to wait for me to catch up all the time. He paces at 22mph average so riding with me, unmotored, is a drag...literally.
Today I took it out to make sure everything was set properly as I haven't ridden with it for a little over a week. I discovered that by going up two gears and keeping the same cadence I normally ride (80-85rpm), with the motor on level assist 1, it's a hell of a lot of exercise. The motor at that level with a two gear jump pretty much makes the gearing feel like my usual gear and effort. Maybe even a little bit harder. And I'm going faster so I can get an exercise run in even when I don't have an hour or more. My standard exercise only run is about an hour and I did it today about 20 minutes faster. Mph normally is around 12 average and with the increased gearing and motor, I was flying at 16mph. And sweating. It's nice to know I can get a really good workout using the motor and my gears. On my Dahon Mu Uno (single speed) it doesn't work that way, I actually spin out pretty quickly, but that's my transport/cargo bike so I don't care.