road2rally

I'm thinking of getting a hub motor as it is cleaner looking than my current chain driven motor...

My only question is torque....

Can they climb like a chain driven motor or are they mostly pedal assisted?

thanks...

morph999 

Oh yeah. I have yet to find a hill that my 5303 motor could not climb. The 5303 is not the best climber. The Ezee hub motor is probably the best economical hub motor to climb hills. The crystalyte 5305 will climb probably every possible hill that you can throw at it. The nine continent's are probably pretty good too since they have good torque. Either a Ezee, 5305, or a nine continent 2807 would probably do pretty well.

nwmtnbkr

I would suggest you go to the forums at Endless Sphere. Morph's in Indiana so his idea of hills and mine are totally different; I'm in NW Montana, west of Glacier National Park and we have real hills here (sorry, Morph, both of my parents were from Indiana and I've been there often enough to know the topology well). There are some members on Endless Sphere who live in mountainous areas and have hub motors and can give you input on how various models perform on steep hills. I believe one member on ES is in Montana, a bit east of me, and swears by his 5305. Of course, your controller and batteries will play a big role in how well you can harness the power of the motor. Good luck.

Geekybiker

Well a hub motor can climb given enough amps and batteries to support it. A Geared hub can climb with less worries about amps, and batteries. No hub will climb as well as a chain drive of a similar wattage unless its wound ridiculously slow.

The beauty of chain drive is you can use tiny motors and small battery pack, still climb *and* have a reasonable top speed.