[FrankPaolino]

OK, I think I have this figured out. The bike is optimized for 0-16 MPH. It takes off quickly, changes gears on the fly and I can cruise at 16 MPH very easily.

It gets to 20 MPH easily as well. I did the test recommended by S1 support, which is get above 22 MPH and shut off the power (switch to Off). I did that and could feel the assistance stop. I did the test on a slight downhill with no car traffic, which helped me focus on the bike.

As I approached 25 MPH, it felt very fast. I am not sure I really want to ride to 28 MPH in any condition, but I wanted to run the bike through its paces.
I actually switched to Gear 9 via the manual option in the Enviolo app, and the resistance was strong, even at 25 MPH. I am not sure I ever was in gear 9 in automatic.

On my road bike, it is near impossible to go faster than 25 MPH on the flats. It takes a lot of power because the wind resistance increases exponentially with speed. This may be a factor on the S1 as well.

So my conclusion it that you get some assist, but it is not a lot like you get at 16 MPH. It is hard to sustain over 25 MPH even with forceful pedaling, but the motor is engaged and assisting.

 

[jasond]

Today I tried cranking up the assist (Boost mode and the Enviolo set to Comfort with a cadence of 50) and was able to sustain mid 20s on flat stretches pretty easily.

Unsurprisingly that level of assist shortens the range pretty significantly - I didn’t take precise measurements but my guess based on miles traveled and battery left is it might reduce range by 1/3 to 1/2.

 

[JoeG]

I think the cadence setting affects the range the most. At a lower cadence your not pedaling as much so your adding less energy to your rides. You may not think your pedaling would have as much affect but to maintain speed at a lower cadence the hub would need to add more power thus using more battery and lowering range. Cadence was the only thing I changed from 80 rpm to 60 rpm and the range dropped quite a bit across all power modes.