I have only got about 50 miles of ride time on an Ultra so far and am thankful for all the warnings I had in advance about possible preventable faults.
I chose a derailleur based system because it is what I understand but after some rides have come to the conclusion that having a tight gear ratio is a good thing, at least how the stock programming is set up, as it rewards am acitve spin to keep me on top of the motor which is fine with me. In stock form there is plenty of runout that makes the shift for you while you back off pressure on the cranks. Although I have a shift sensor coming I doubt I will use it.
I can see exactly the possibilities that the OP presents due to the combined backlash of the rear hub, at least on my bike, and the cranks that don't engage very smoothly either. For rear hubs traditionally the more pawls of engagement you have the better. Not sure what my stock hub has but a known favorite is the DT350 that has 36t of engagement.
It would be interesting to know the specs on the Ultra pawl system? But whoever said they should have used a sprag clutch is probably right? I'll look forward to your pics also BCBeaver.
