Hi all,
I am not super familiar with the ebike market and am
considering what benefits and options there would be to upgrade one of my bikes with an ebike kit. Rough requirements as I can tell:
- Would be mounted on a 700C hybrid bike, QR & 135mm OLD + disc brakes at first. Square taper BB
- Later on, the need for it on the 700C bike might go away, so it might make sense to transition it over to my cargo bike/tandem. That would be a 20in wheeled bike with QR & 135mm OLD, disc brakes. Square taper BB for now
- I am a year-round commuter, so corrosion resistance is very important
I am a bit hesitant about mid-drive motors of the bafang/tongsheng kind. They seem to be lots of steel and I'm not sure how well they would fare in Ontario salty winter conditions day in and day out. Furthermore, I've been having difficulties confirming that a tongsheng would fit on the cargo bike frame which has some weird tube installations in the bottom bracket region.
So I've been thinking that a rear hub motor could be a very nice drop-in option that preserves most of the drivetrain and possibly encapsules the system better in bad weather (?), and makes it simpler to move the system around different bikes that have different drive trains - as long as I'm okay rebuilding the wheel between 700C and 20in (that's fine by me).
Couple of requirements I can think of:
- I think I would like to preserve the normal cycling dynamics as much as possible - i.e. torque-based pedal assist, not speed sensor or throttle.
- Range: 60km (hill assist, boost cruising speed by a little bit)
- Ontario regulations: 32km/h, 500W.
- The motor should fit the 20in wheel, so it can't have an outstandingly large diameter to build a feasible wheel.
I'm aware of the bafang offerings and something along the line of H630 might possibly work? Yet, it does not list 20in as compatible. Also, what is listed on their website is not very consistent with what I can find on aliexpress/ebay/etc. Where can you source current bafang designs?
What other systems are out there that would fit this application?
Thanks!
alias5000