Aventure.2 motor power - how does it compare to a mid drive?

[newheights]

What are the limitations of the bafang hub motor in the aventure.2? I am more familiar with mid drive motors, and was under the impression hub drive would not work as well for steep prolonged grades. I was told otherwise by a LBS selling the aventure.2.

For example, could the hub motor handle an offroad 11% average grade for 2.4 miles while loaded with 350 lbs? I have tried this with a brose mid-drive 90 nm and was able to manage it ok. I was previously told the hub motors need to keep a certain speed up to maintain optimal RPM up or they'll lose power under heavy load, as compared to mid-drive which can keep high torque output at lower speeds due to using the bikes gearing, is that accurate?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Ben J]

could the hub motor handle an offroad 11% average grade for 2.4 miles while loaded with 350 lbs?

With or without pedaling? And at what speed?
I think at 11% you could probably do it without pedaling at around 10MPH, but the motor might overheat. I have no sense of how long you could go before that happens.

 

[newheights]

With or without pedaling? And at what speed?
I think at 11% you could probably do it without pedaling at around 10MPH, but the motor might overheat. I have no sense of how long you could go before that happens.

I would be pedaling unless somehow it was too difficult with the torque sensor vs cadence.

Have you ever overheated the motor? How long did you have to wait for it to cool off and work again?

 

[Ben J]

With pedaling I go up a 20% grade every time I leave my house, so 11% should be no problem.

I don't know if I've overheated the motor. There are reports from owners sometimes that the bike "just turned off", and I've seen that. I always ride in ECO, and sometimes (rarely) I'll go to pedal and feel a lot of extra resistance and realize it bumped to OFF for some reason. I don't know if that's a bug or if that's telling me that I overheated or something. It always goes right back into ECO and stays there.

Scoping out google maps I see a hill near me that might be 10% for 1 mile, so not quite your stress test, but maybe I will include it in a ride this weekend to see how it goes.

 

[newheights]

With pedaling I go up a 20% grade every time I leave my house, so 11% should be no problem.

I don't know if I've overheated the motor. There are reports from owners sometimes that the bike "just turned off", and I've seen that. I always ride in ECO, and sometimes (rarely) I'll go to pedal and feel a lot of extra resistance and realize it bumped to OFF for some reason. I don't know if that's a bug or if that's telling me that I overheated or something. It always goes right back into ECO and stays there.

Scoping out google maps I see a hill near me that might be 10% for 1 mile, so not quite your stress test, but maybe I will include it in a ride this weekend to see how it goes.

Great, thanks!

 

[Ben J]

For a 9-10% grade I went up it at 12MPH with pedaling, about 6MPH without pedaling. The only issue I encountered is one I've found on many hills: It's hard to get 100% assist on a steep hill without the throttle. It will ramp a little up and down through your pedal stroke. On every PAS level. I just hold the throttle down to avoid the choppiness. It's fine on shallower hills and at higher speeds. I think the issue is just that it's normal for its assist output to mirror your pedal stroke, but when you are "clipping" (it hits max power on your pedal stroke) then you end up with lower average power than you'd like, so it helps to just nail down the throttle to avoid the low points.

Someday when there's less traffic I might go down that hill and take the lane so I can see just how fast you'd go. I was feeling a bit sketchy going over 30-35 while staying in the bike lane.

 

[newheights]

@Ben J thanks for the test, that's really helpful and pretty impressive from the motor. If you don't mind sharing, roughly how much weight on the bike with rider + cargo?

 

[Tom@WashDC]

What are the limitations of the bafang hub motor in the aventure.2? I am more familiar with mid drive motors, and was under the impression hub drive would not work as well for steep prolonged grades. I was told otherwise by a LBS selling the aventure.2.

For example, could the hub motor handle an offroad 11% average grade for 2.4 miles while loaded with 350 lbs? I have tried this with a brose mid-drive 90 nm and was able to manage it ok. I was previously told the hub motors need to keep a certain speed up to maintain optimal RPM up or they'll lose power under heavy load, as compared to mid-drive which can keep high torque output at lower speeds due to using the bikes gearing, is that accurate?

Thanks for any insight.

Your answer(s) can be found here.

Motor Simulator - Tools

Our ebike motor simulator allows you to easily simulate the different performance characteristics of different ebike setups - with a wide selection of hub motors modeled, and the ability to add custom batteries and controllers and set a wide variety of vehicle parameters you'll be able to see...

ebikes.ca

 

[Ben J]

@Ben J thanks for the test, that's really helpful and pretty impressive from the motor. If you don't mind sharing, roughly how much weight on the bike with rider + cargo?

More than 300, less than 350