Having ridden a bicycle mostly on the sidewalks for a long time, I quickly learned that things are a bit different when you are mostly on the streets and in the traffic. I suggest always using throttle-only (keeping the pedals from rotating) when speeds under 11 MPH are desired because any pedal rotation will cause the bike to accelerate to about 11 MPH (or whatever Pedal Assist level you have selected. That can be quite inconvenient if you were using the throttle to go 5 miles an hour, then suddenly when you rotate the pedals you are going much faster. However, it is easy to get used to this fact. Another time when the throttle-only feature is useful is at intersections and stoplights. I still suggest starting off in Pedal Assist 1 from any intersection. Note that with the throttle you can accelerate up to full speed no matter what Pedal Assist is selected but in a congested area you may not want to suddenly go far beyond 11 MPH when you start rotating the pedals. Another suggestion is to set Pedal Assist to level 0 when the bike is at rest. The reason for this is to avoid any unintentional pedal movement or throttle rotation which could cause the bike to suddenly move forward.
With level 0 selected, no power is applied when pedals are rotated and/or the throttle is rotated. In fact, selecting a low gear level and having a Pedal Assist level set to 0 is a great way to ride in very slow traffic without the worry of suddenly having the bike lurch forward to go faster. I find it easy to determine what speed I want to go in any situation and once I'm going that speed via Pedal Assist level selection, I then adjust the gear level to provide the desired level of pedal resistance. That way I can get any desired level of exercise just by how hard I pedal. I find if most comfortable to always have a level of pedal resistance as opposed to just having the pedals rotate freely without any effort.
It is just great fun. It is just so much more pleasant than riding a regular bicycle which I used to do every day. It's a very attractive looking, rugged, good performing bike.
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