Originally Posted by
Mike_Kelly
In engineering there is something called maximum power transfer. In two systems, in order to transfer the maximum power they have to have the same impedance. In the bike the impedance is the cadence. THe problem with a hub motor is that it has one gear. Think of it as a fixie. This means that the gear choosen might be good for flat riding but not climbing or the other way around. You are stuck with it.
And common 7-speed freewheel cannot compensate for the gear range needed for majority of ebike riders?
Originally Posted by
Mike_Kelly
WIth a mid-drive you have the drivetrain of the bike. Just like your own legs you change the gearing for the hills because your legs want to pedal best at a certain cadence. The motors are the same way they want to spin at a best cadence and you want to match the load to what the motor wants. With a mid drive you can change gears on the drive train to match the load (hill) to the motor just like what you do for your legs. With the hub drive it has to work at the fixed gear inside no matter what you do shifting for your legs. They are decoupled. So if you ride in varied terrain the mid-drive is a better choice.
Have you seen the video in few posts back of a hub-motor cargo ebike climbing the 3rd steepest hill in the US?
do you think majority of ebike riders do their riding in "varied terrain" that encounter hills similar to that on the video?
Originally Posted by
fooferdoggie
myself I have owned 4 mid drive e bikes and I have ridden over 30,000 miles on them in 3.5 years. including 10,000 on a mid drive tandem. if you peddle the hub drive bike as much as a mid drive the drivetrain will still need lubed and cleaned the same amount. though I only get around 2500 miles on a 10 speed chain it would be hard to compare as almost no hub drives have 10 speed drivetrains.
I've converted over a dozen of MTBs and DH bikes into ebikes with hub-motors & mid-motors since 2013,
some well capable of 40+ mph on pavement.
In the past 5 years, I've owned nearly a dozen of different hub-driven ebikes and pedaled thousands of miles with them.
For my riding purpose in NYC metro, likely similar to majority of ebike riders who ride less than 2000 miles a year;
I don't have the need to spend over $2k for an ebike.
I sell or give away my own ebikes to promote the usage of ebikes among people I work with,
because I care about reducing their dependency on cars or reducing their risks in crowded subway commutes during a pandemic.
Thousands of delivery folks on cheap, hub-motor ebikes that ride 24/7 in all weather.
If they are not reliable, I doubt they would be so popular since their income depend on their ebikes being operational.
I have experienced similar as those thousands of delivery folks on ebikes,
hub-drive ebikes are just more reliable than mid-drive ebikes and far cheaper to buy,
to fix and to operate for long term.
If you have no data to rely on for hub-motor with 10-speed drivetrain, does that automatically present they can't be more reliable than mid-drive ebikes?