16 miles in an hour today in mixed conditions! In fairness, the weather held off nicely until the last mile and the ferry ride over the Medina. The TongSheng motor performed flawlessly and was a massive help, not just on the hills (of which there were many) but also in town. IMO, e-assist makes these trikes far less dangerous in traffic as it allows you to pretty much keep up with the traffic and not turn into a rock with wheels up banks and hills. Around the town I was able to hold 20-25mph which most cars are happy to put up with until they can get round you. The indicators worked well, although being a motorcyclist I tend to always put in a “lifesaver” (quick look over the shoulder) when making a move and pop my arm out swiftly in case anyone hasn’t spotted the indicators.
I found myself being waved at approvingly by several joggers and there were plenty of questions from the local ferry passengers who regarded the trike with a great deal of curiosity!

My final thoughts for today on e-assist: you’re safer with e-assist and you’ll have a lot more fun!! I can back today, legs aching a tad, slight heightened breathing and feeling like I’d done a workout! It felt good! The first weeks I owned the trike, before I added e-assist, I came back home with a similar feeling but the difference was I’d ridden 5 miles, not 16. With a proper e-assist system in place, you still have to pedal so you’re always going to get a work out and that’s exactly what I want. What I don’t want is to get a workout covering the same 3-5 miles of hills around our house every time. Now I can ride comfortably anywhere on the island, get all the workout I want and actually see different things each day on new and extended routes. In urban traffic I can keep up for the most part, which causes less stress for motorists who aren’t as keen to get by someone doing 20mph+ as they are to get round someone doing 5mph.

So for me, if you can afford to add e-assist to your trike, don’t hesitate. You can turn it off any time you like (I did several times today) but when you need it it’s an absolute life saver!