Considering a fat tire mid drive bike as my first general purpose e-bike. Not a technical or serious rider.
Have ridden several mid-drive MTBs (Yamaha etc...) and a few cadence E-bikes and really like the "feel" of the pedaling with the mid drive. Others are more like scooters it seems to me, with the peddles being more of an on / off switch.
I would likely prefer a rear hub motor though if it had the same peddle feel as a mid-drive. Only torque sensing Fat tire bike I'm aware of is Juiced RipCurrent, but I'm not sure the torque sensor used on that one is very sophisticated. After riding a Pedego MTB (Ridge Rider) that had a torque sensor I was very unimpressed. Still felt like an on / off switch (this was a rear hub drive bike).
My kind of casual riding probably would hopefully allow me to not shift that often (flat ground primarily), but I know that the mid-drive motor always uses the bikes gears, in contrast to the hub drive bikes.
I have to have a throttle though due to a knee issue, limiting choices (no Bosch or Yamaha etc..). Like the idea of smoother riding of Fat tire, weight not really an issue, no tight trail riding etc...
So all that said, I'm considering a "Juggernaut" and an unbranded version with a similar setup, both with the Bafang 1000w "Ultra" motor, which features a more complex torque sensing mechanism -vs- most hub drive Fat Tire bikes (that I'm aware of - please chime in if I'm missing something).
I'm looking for any input, generally or on the comparison below:
Same frame of course, but likely slightly different seats, bars etc., but I'm not too worried about smaller things I'd likely change anyway.
Main concerns are gears / drive system, ease and cost of changing it due to wear or issues (thinking rear gears here).
Any input would be welcome.
Have ridden several mid-drive MTBs (Yamaha etc...) and a few cadence E-bikes and really like the "feel" of the pedaling with the mid drive. Others are more like scooters it seems to me, with the peddles being more of an on / off switch.
I would likely prefer a rear hub motor though if it had the same peddle feel as a mid-drive. Only torque sensing Fat tire bike I'm aware of is Juiced RipCurrent, but I'm not sure the torque sensor used on that one is very sophisticated. After riding a Pedego MTB (Ridge Rider) that had a torque sensor I was very unimpressed. Still felt like an on / off switch (this was a rear hub drive bike).
My kind of casual riding probably would hopefully allow me to not shift that often (flat ground primarily), but I know that the mid-drive motor always uses the bikes gears, in contrast to the hub drive bikes.
I have to have a throttle though due to a knee issue, limiting choices (no Bosch or Yamaha etc..). Like the idea of smoother riding of Fat tire, weight not really an issue, no tight trail riding etc...
So all that said, I'm considering a "Juggernaut" and an unbranded version with a similar setup, both with the Bafang 1000w "Ultra" motor, which features a more complex torque sensing mechanism -vs- most hub drive Fat Tire bikes (that I'm aware of - please chime in if I'm missing something).
I'm looking for any input, generally or on the comparison below:
Same frame of course, but likely slightly different seats, bars etc., but I'm not too worried about smaller things I'd likely change anyway.
Main concerns are gears / drive system, ease and cost of changing it due to wear or issues (thinking rear gears here).
Any input would be welcome.
