The motor assist on this bike is purely pedal assist, though it’s more fair to call it “pedals are moving, motor is on” - since that what it seems to be. Start pedaling, and the motor will chime in at some power, mostly dependent on what you’ve set on the handlebar control. It pretty much does that until you stop pedaling or hit a brake lever. Do recall that this bike was designed around 2008, so a lot of the more modern stuff didn’t exist. However, BionX was around, with their I2C torque sensing motors, so there’s at least some better stuff available. It’s no substitute for a chain, but in a friendly community (such as a retirement community on a lake somewhere), it’s probably good enough. Downsides include complexity, lack of repairability, and adequate braking at best if you have hills. The braking feel is also very springy - there’s no real feedback in the lever, just an increasing force that goes all the way to the bars, and increases braking effort. It might lock the rear wheel up on ice, but that’s about it. It’s using an internally geared rear hub with a straight chainline, well protected inside a plastic housing to keep it clean and to keep you clean. I wouldn’t want to take it off any jumps due to the lack of suspension, but it’s not really meant for that, either. This is a relaxed, upright cruiser that has the ability to handle a fairly wide range of riding trails. It’s a heavy city cruiser with a little bit of power bolted on, driven by a battery pack that makes no sense except as a way to gather press for a particular type of battery. To charge the battery pack, you have to take it out of the bike. It comes out easily, but this is quite annoying, given that you charge the bike pretty much every time you ride it (or, at least, you will be, with this small a pack). With the assist running on low or medium, the bike rolls smoothly and lightly, and the assist blends smoothly with pedaling. That being said, I also didn't get much extra range beyond miles, even after I set the pedal-assist at level 3. In the past, the range you got depended on how much work you were willing to put into it. On my older e-bike (also a Schwinn) I get about the same 20 miles of range at level 5, but I also get closer to 40 miles at level 3. But it's one of the least expensive ones you can buy from a bike company. Respectfully, most of the e-bikes you find online come from companies with alphabet-soup for names that may sell just as many portable batteries as they do e-bikes. The first thing you'll notice about the Coston CE e-bike is that is built like a tank, which is both good and bad. It's good because everything on the bike feels solid and borderline rugged. The downside is this bike feels about as heavy as a light-armored vehicle. But it’s just not a good bike for this - it’s heavy and slow. The standard batteries that come on our Marshall, Coston CE and Coston DX bikes are good for up to 45 miles of riding. But Schwinn knows many riders want to go farther, so we developed higher capacity batteries that are super easy to install (you'll only need a screwdriver). These additional batteries extend the riding distance up to 80 miles on both our Coston and Marshall series of bikes.