I'm doing a reversible conversion on my old steel touring bike, and I've been encountering a lot of friction in getting everything ready.

First, I got a Gouach battery, which is cool in theory because the 18650 cells are socketed and can be swapped out, but in practice the firmware can't be configured if you don't have a very mainstream device with bluetooth (my old phone and linux laptop wouldn't cut it [I had to visit a more square friend, and their windows-chrome setup worked instantly]), and the company seems to consist of a small team of engineers with no dedicated support. The BMS chip does have a data cable socket (though it resembles a display bus more than USB), so maybe the thing can be made to behave more sensibly, like being able to plug it into a computer and have local software for it, in future. I'd advise most readers to skip Gouach until the company gets its shit together.

So I got the battery looking the way it's supposed to more or less, identified as XT90 the cable needed to connect it to the mid-drive motor system I got, then found that my handlebars are too fat to mount the system's throttle and display. All sorts of legacy options for bottom bracket widths, but no allowance made for thick handlebars? It took me some time to learn that handlebar risers, which mount to the handlebars and float a thinner bar above them expressly for accessory mounting, exist. I guess it makes sense, since there is so much more to mount than just a bell and a headlight nowadays.

I anticipate further trouble when I install the motor and it's time to calibrate it. The motor also expects me to get the app and to manage it with bluetooth. Fucking hate how smartphones have become a pretext to ship incomplete products. I hope in the end I can configure everything to my liking and then disable the antennae on both the motor and battery.