Andy, I have noticed that in this and several other posts you have made it very clear, in a condescending way that you don’t like Bosch mid drives, for whatever reason, so I would like to present my experience.Firstly, I would like to thank you for the topic, really interesting.
But, as a confirmed rear hub user on two bikes that I have owned, and several others I have borrowed and tested, I have read nothing here that would convince me to buy a mid motor bike, in fact, the complete opposite.
I have ridden both of my bikes in huge downpours and through streams (Not yet any rivers!), the worst that happened was the LCD display got water inside, as did my throttle. I sealed up the display, except for a small opening underneath, to allow air expansion and contraction, since then, no more problems. The throttle took several days to dry out, in fact I was of the opinion that the controller was damaged for a time, as it took 4 or 5 days to dry out. I even looked inside the controller for water, but it was completely dry, wasted effort!
I am and was very happy with the balance of both my bikes, (and I have been riding on 2 wheels for over 60 years), as the battery on my latest is in the crossbar, and the motor is at the rear of course. What some mid motor fans say about hubs, rear ones at least, are complete and utter fairy tale rubbish - probably sad that they wasted their money on a mid motor.
My current bike was really cheap, and including transport and import fees, for well under €1,000 (around £910), I got a full set up, two batteries, and all the other extras. The only bad point was that the upper headset bearing was wrongly installed in China, and it took a long time for the supplier to send a new one.
Once installed, the bike has had no further problems, just charge the batteries and pump up the tyres and ride ride ride.....Oh yes, and occasionally a cleaning and rub down with WD-40, avoiding the brakes of course!
Furthermore, even if there are any future problems, I have saved more than enough (and had already several years riding) in comparison, so that I could replace many expensive parts and still not be out of pocket, as I do all the work myself.
Friends and acquaintances with trouble free mid motors, are usually the "Sunday rider", only in the summer, who stays at home when it rains!
Many of the others have had expensive arguments with Bosch one way or another...
I know no one with any other make of mid motor, sadly.
Andy
Myself and two friends have owned Bosch mid drives for just over three years covering 2500 miles per year mainly on very rough ground off road up inclines as much as 33%. When I clean my bike, which I do quite often, I use a bike jet wash. None of the three of us has had any trouble with either the motor or battery. I have replaced chains and sprockets but consider these consumables and if the motor was to develop a problem now I would consider this a consumable. Actually, I would probably just get another bike with a Bosch motor.
I know very little about controllers, tweaking ampage and voltage or battery maintenance, all of which seem to dominate the process of owning a hub motor. At a guess I would think that at least 75% of problems on this forum refer to hub motors and controllers but I would not think to condescendingly rubbish them on this basis.
I do have some experience of hub motors in that I holiday in Spain twice a year and hire electric bikes for a week which are invariably hub driven. These cover roughly 200miles off road. My personal opinion of these is that they have been very unsuitable for the type of off road cycling that I do, which would lead me to never considering purchasing one.
