Got a chance to test shifting today and to my surprise I had no issues shifting all 12 gears in the RH 29 Expert with the stock Bafang 44T chainring. I did go ahead and installed the brake cutouts to help with shifting without a shift sensor. That battery came with my first hub drive build 3 years ago with a kit from Dillenger. It's 48v -14aH.

My BBS02b kit came in last evening. It took me all of 5 hours today to complete this build. However, it's cold today and the sun is setting so I only took a short test ride. All is good. I have the chain in the highest (smallest) gear and haven't tested shifting yet.

I went with the stock Bafang 44T chain ring and used 2 BB spacers on the drive side of the motor. I didn't install the Bafang cranks as they were pretty close to the chain stay on the left side. Luck would have it that I had some left over FSA offset Cranks from the previous bike I built and they are l175mm vs 170mm OEM Bafang cranks.

The downtube on the RH is pretty thick. This prevented the motor from being rotated as fully up into the frame as expected. But that's no biggy, it's just a 1/2" or so lower. Everyone was correct about only being able to use the one main ring nut and not the nut cover. I plan to order the Lekkie One Nut. I think that will be better.

So, after putting on the last of a dozen cable ties I rode .2 of a mile in high gear and PAS 6 at 21mph and all worked as hoped for. Tomorrow a longer ride with gear changes to check it all out.

As of right now, I don't plan to use a gear sensor or brake cutouts. My previous bike had both and I didn't find them all that useful. Maybe I'll fee different on a longer ride.

Just an update - I ordered the BBS02 and I'm getting ready for it's arrival in 2-days or so. I stripped out the crankset and BB, So, I'm ready to go.

Whoever at Specialized installed the TruVativ Power Spline BB really powered on the crankbolts to the frame. Wow. The spec calls for 30 ftlb of torque but it took hundreds of pounds of force on a 20" breaker bar to get each one loose.

By the way, in discussion with Johnny in a consult, he felt I should go with a stock Bafang 44t chair ring until I can be sure that the 42t bling ring would be needed. So, we'll see.

I have the exact same bike and I'm getting info about adding the BBS02b motor. This will be my third ebike conversion, my second with the mid-drive but my first with the RockHopper 29 Expert with the 1X12. My main question is about the Sram Bottom bracket. I know it's 73mm so that's not an issue. But my 2022 RH Expert 29 uses the Sram TruVative BB with "Power Spline" pedals. I assume, once I remove the pedals, crank and TruVative BB it will simply be a case of inserting the BBS02b into the frame and proceeding as normal with the supplied chainring and square tapered pedals. I'm I correct in this assumption or does the TruVative BB add any new issues.

I too plan to remove the 30T OEM chainring and replace it with either the stock 44T or get a Lekkie bling ring with a closer 36T.

Any help from anyone with experience in this bike with this spec is greatly appreciated.

new size chainring = new chain. you can save the old one though if you ever need to make the bike normal again, slap on a new master link and the stock chain/ring setup is good to go

You will need a new chain or to lengthen the old one. If you have a local bike shop they may have partial chains to use for lengthening.