The mid-drive stock motor-driven chainring in this 'kit' (don't ask which one) was 46T. Due to serious/critical chainline considerations for the cassette chain, I need to move the drive chain into what would be the middle chainring area. It looks like 46T will fit next to the frame, but if I reduced it to for example 32T, it would fit even better, then I can move it inward even more, and I can use more lower gears (or hopefully all of them) in the rear cassette so it doesn't cross-chain and rub against the drive chain in low gears.
The question is: will going from 46T to 32T up front immediately lose almost 1/3 of the torque, or is the torque curve simply shifted up in rpm and/or cadence, so I just need to use gearing that's a couple cogs lower to get the same torque that 46T up front would provide? Remember this is not a Bafang single chainring setup, it's a dual chainring with one motor-driven and one driving the cassette chain.
For example, with 46T as the motor-driven chainring, if I had enough torque in 18T in the back (which is cog 8 of 11), in order to get the same amount of torque with a 32T motor-driven chainring, I would downshift twice more to the 10th cog which is 13T? Since that's about 1/3 less teeth than 18 and therefore matches the tooth drop from 46 to 32 in the front?
The question is: will going from 46T to 32T up front immediately lose almost 1/3 of the torque, or is the torque curve simply shifted up in rpm and/or cadence, so I just need to use gearing that's a couple cogs lower to get the same torque that 46T up front would provide? Remember this is not a Bafang single chainring setup, it's a dual chainring with one motor-driven and one driving the cassette chain.
For example, with 46T as the motor-driven chainring, if I had enough torque in 18T in the back (which is cog 8 of 11), in order to get the same amount of torque with a 32T motor-driven chainring, I would downshift twice more to the 10th cog which is 13T? Since that's about 1/3 less teeth than 18 and therefore matches the tooth drop from 46 to 32 in the front?