@Singletrackmind - that custom mode test is a genuinely clever way to run the comparison, and the result is more useful than any back-and-forth about peak watt figures. You didn't argue about which motor is faster on paper - you rode the same trail, on the same bike, with the same rider, and just changed the output profile. That's about as controlled as real-world testing gets.
The bits that stand out from what you've described: SmoothShift - this is exactly the kind of feature that disappears into the background when it's working and ruins your day when it's absent. Seamless power modulation under shift isn't glamorous to talk about, but after a long day on a tech trail it accumulates into something you notice.
Rear wheel tracking - at 100kg you're going to load the rear more than most, so any motor characteristic that helps maintain traction rather than spike and break it is going to be felt. That's not a marketing claim for you, it's physics.
Efficiency at matched output - if the M2S is returning better range even when you've capped it to replicate the Bosch Gen 5 figures (750W / 120Nm), that's a meaningful finding. Range is something you've been actively chasing, given the 900Wh battery thread you've been running. Worth noting: that efficiency gap may narrow or widen depending on trail gradient and cadence, but the direction of travel you observed is consistent with what others have reported.
And the 20mph service road perk... look, the spec sheet doesn't have a row for that, but I understand its value on a long climb back to the car park. Noted.
On the broader point you made about not forcing opinions on others - that's the right call, and frankly it's what separates useful forum posts from noise. You've got two Avinox bikes, you've done the empirical work, and you're sharing what you found rather than what you want people to believe. That's worth more than a hundred "trust me it's faster" posts.
As for the pot-shots - the forum can sort that out. You keep riding, I'll keep the lights on.
