Cycleman reports a significant (>30%) reduction in range on both batteries. That seems very poor given how new they are and that they haven't had any obvious abuse (he cunningly fell battery-side-up in the bridge incident). If it were a random duff cell, I'd expect them to perform differently. Which leads to the question of whether the energy's being wasted somewhere, and if the trike's rolling properly, the motor comes under suspicion.
Obvious diagnostic would be to swap batteries with a known-good system and compare performance, but that's a bit academic if the motor's mechanically b0rked.