Maybe yours is set up differently to mine, but I can pedal as hard as I want to. I just have to select the gear and power level to give me the cadence and effort that I prefer. The motor gets up to speed and then I can add effort to decrease the power consumption or just have an easy ride. Just the opposite of my Bosch motor, but that feels more like a normal bike, however, it's harder work than the Bafang, as you might expect.