MarcusT

My history with Ebikes is high range FS emtb with Bosch motors. I wanted a good bike for mtn trails. Rocky ascents and gnarly descents.
I always looked at hub drive bikes as cheap chinese alternatives. I rented one once on vacation and it was a novelty that I would never take off road.
Then I had a friend come to visit for a while. As I could not take time off work, my bikes are too big for her and I live in a hilly area, I bought a cheap hub drive city bike for her to use. The bike had no name components, the brakes were shoddy, but you get what you pay for. I tuned the bike up and I did a short test ride. All worked fine, the motor was not very responsive but it worked. In the end, she used the bike once and now I have a new bike sitting there.
The other day I needed to go to the next town and thought; why not?
After getting used to the controls, the late response and the brake disengage, I was actually impressed and took the long way home. 10 kms and the battery was still at 100% (if reliable). As I don't like using a target rich emtb to run errands, I may use it as a commuter now, with some component substitutions.

cat0020

There are good reasons why delivery folks on ebikes mostly use cheap, hub-motor ebikes.
In NYC metro, there are tens of thousands of them that are abused 24/7, in all weather; yet people are still using them year after year.
For majority of cycling population, a cheap, hub-motor ebike is all needed for 95% of the usage.
IMO, mid-drive ebikes are similar to SUVs on the road, most of them don't operate in any serious off-roading.

2old

Marcus, my first "e" was a DIY front hubbie (as some say) used for errands,and I had a great time with it. Then I learned that it was pretty capable off road too. Alas, my daughter wanted an "e" cruiser, and the system was used for her bike.

2old

This is what it looked like at Burning Man this year:

Polaris OBark

One thing I learned when I did a conversion was that 100% indicator is accurate (if at all) only when you have the correct voltage programmed into the hardware.

Smaug1

Congrats on being open-minded. So many people these days aren't.

I've never tried a mid-drive or eMtB, but would like to at some point. I can see how the superior balance of a mid drive would be required on a bike that will be airborne at times. I also like the idea of the motor using the bike's gearing; seems like it would climb ANY hill with ease.

cat0020

Not I consider a ebike snob. Most if not ALL of the ebikes I own are under $2K
I recently received a refund from AliEx, along with rebates & holiday special pricing, I bought a $349 e-bike for free.
To my surprise, it was a decent ebike, no thrill, just plain, basic ebike.
350w motor, 3-level pedal assist, 36V 7.8Ah battery, no throttle, 6-speed, just plain joy of cycling.

CrimsonEclipse

Now that's an interesting tire choice.

tallbikeman

Wife and I have respective RAD City models which are hub driven bikes. First one bought in 2019 and still working like a charm. Second bought several months after first and still working like a charm also. Our RAD bikes are well thought out designs with very reliable components. Both bikes are up around 4000 miles now with no failures and batteries still working like new. We ride about equal amounts of on and off road with these bikes. No jumping gravel road riding is what we do. We did add Kinekt suspension seatposts to both bikes which we highly recommend. These seatposts take all the jarring of gravel road riding and leave you with a nice smooth ride. Best suspension seatposts I've owned yet.

2old

I think those early "Rads" had direct drive motors, and if so could last indefinitely (some individuals on endless sphere report 25,000+ miles). Here's a yard-find from a company that's been out of business for 10+ years. I cleaned up the wiring (not shown in the picture) and replaced the on/off switch and it runs perfectly.