Originally Posted by
Liv0life
Thanks. I'd like enough power to haul a trailer and myself up a hill. I am hesitant to go with pre-installed motors because of this. Could it be cheaper to do it yourself?
Bosch makes the Cargo Line motors designed for hauling kids and cargo and are found on some excellent cargo bikes. They have 85nm of torque and are really easy up hills and with cargo. Your kit motors only seem bigger because a lot of them list their maximum power not their nominal power like all the major players. Without their max power their are puny motors generally or their are still problematic in various ways.
You might save a small bit of money at the time of purchase but that is where it ends you usually put more in the back end. You will also void the warranty on your frame amongst other potential issues but they can sometimes be OK but for cargo and stuff I would rather have a dedicated system with good support. Without good support you are on your own and that can be really tough. Some people are good mechanically and that is fine but if not you may not want to deal with it. We did kit bikes for a few years and just didn't have good reliability long term and customers weren't as happy and we weren't happy and it wasn't low quality stuff or lack of knowledge it was just not the jam for us. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence as well that people have kits that work just fine.