Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
Respectfully, you are overthinking this. Go re-read the Dead Grandpa's post again. I think it is a succinct summation of what you can expect from a torque sensing system. The only people they don't work for are folks who need pavement ripping power from 1000W systems that are very hard on the plastic final drive gears of the stock TSDZ2. I had the option of getting a metal final drive but if that breaks ... $$$$. Shifting should not be that much of a chore that you avoid it. You may not have to do any shifting at all with a TSDZ2, I don't know where you ride. I do know that the TSDZ2 is available with a very neat torque arm that the Bafang Systems do not have. If you specify that your kit is for a recumbent the torque arm will be supplied and it grabs the boom in such a way that the motor cannot rotate to the top of the bottom bracket.
Yes I am probably overthinking this, but it's not something i can reverse if i get the wrong thing; my budget will allow just one conversion. I use very little power, I rarely go over 15 mph, I have a slow cadence around 50rpm because i need to use my bike to keep and build my leg muscles due to my medical condition (i'll save the long explanation). Much of my riding is stop and go city street riding since it is my car as well - one or two blocks, stop, take off, rinse and repeat. As a result, I found picking one gear and riding like a single speed worked well for me on my 2 wheelers - easy enough to take off from a stop and strong enough to get some resistance while pedaling. Speed didn't matter because i was stopping so often. Shifting up and down was just an annoyance every couple hundred feet. Now I also do ride the Bay Trail for fun and exercise but my city riding is the priority because i have to be able to run all my errands and get places. The Trail rides are optional. i may have freaked myself out a bit when reading an article about mid-drives:
How To Ride a Mid Drive Ebike Without Breaking It – Tales On Two Wheels