why is this so much money.
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He thinks he deserves a piece of your seamless delivery earnings
i should probably splurge on the ebike specific chain for my mid-drive bike, yes?
I’m using stock chains on my spicy curry, have had no dramas. But ymmv obvs.
So I have seen a couple of times now people saying hub motors aren’t as good on hills as mid-drive. My guess would be that the hub drive doesn’t really benefit from the gearing in the rest of the drivetrain. But is it really that big of a concern? Only curious because I’d like to get another e-bike for my wife to ride in a year or so and most of the bikes I see at the price point I like are hub drive.
Mid drive has a transmission. Hub drive has a single gear ratio. Suck it up and get a used bike. Also I laugh at your hills and have two mid drive bikes, but hub drive has been fine too when I have tried it. Mid-drive > hub-drive > regular bike for normies.
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My direct drive hub motor isn’t all that great on hills, but it sort of depends on which hills. Most of what I’ve had to deal with so far are steep and short and it’s enough to get the combined weight of me and the bike (280-ish lbs) up the hill. The more gradual stuff has been fine. Not sure if a geared hub motor would be any better since I’ve never ridden one.
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So it’s not that hilly here, but we do have this very nice bike trail that has a very steep section that you use to drop down to the main trail. It’s not a big deal if you ride a lot but my wife rode up it once and has lived in fear of it ever since. So as much help there as possible ideally!
And I have no problem shopping used for the record lol
You pay for what you get with e-bikes. Hub drives are more accessible and have come a really long way in their power delivery, but will still suffer on steeper hills, reliability and range. Also anecdotally I think hub drive is garbage for cargo because my client has been destroying the gears inside of the rear hub motors by throttling up hills with heavy loads.
Mr Cool Guy from Specialized says that hub drives have higher torque off the line, which is why their new cargo bike has one. I have been begging him on IG for some data on this but keep getting ignored. It was definitely just a price point decision.
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Confused how this works because physics says the opposite.
Yeah, sure Erik, that’s why cars are all direct drive. (I get that electric cars are typically direct drive but that has more to do with cost than off the line. Expensive electric cars that expect to do high speeds have transmissions)
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My atmo here is to go with whatever will make it more comfortable and more likely for her to ride, even if there’s some extra cost involved (assuming a price difference isn’t a make or break thing).
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Whatever bike she likes is the bike to buy.
https://www.rei.com/product/216029/tern-quick-haul-d8-electric-bike
https://www.rei.com/product/187356/tern-gsd-s10-folding-electric-bike?sku=1873560001
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Mavic getting in on the mid-drive ebike game?
fitting completely normal Shimano cranksets into a BB motor is kinda cool
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No, it’s SUPER cool.
this is like a return to the hidden bike motors that people suspected Cancellara of using way back
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Some of them do but e.g. the tesla S plaid does 0-60 in 2 sec and on all the way up to 160+mph on direct drive.
On a bike I don’t think gearing matters significantly. Electric motors have good torque from 0rpm all the way to oblivion. What matters is how powerful the motor is and whether the battery can provide enough amps. I don’t see why either hub motors or mid drive would inherently have an advantage.
I thought I read somewhere that mid drive is usually better because it’s coupled with a crank sensor and provides power in proportion to your pedaling force, so it feels more natural and controllable. Is that true?
Yes. Mid drive is way better ime, but you can get used to anything. It’s pretty nice when starting from a stop uphill with a 200 kilo total mass to have some low gears.
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The Bosch mid-drives I rode like six years ago were really nice and their use of the sensor data felt very well implemented. It felt seamless in a way that my DIY hub drive bike with the same type of sensors does not. If I wasn’t so picky for probably no benefit I’d have just bought the Benno Boost back when it was $500 off due to a local university program and been done with it all.
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Anyone seen/ridden the Cyc mid drive motors?