Once again, r young Canadian wizard!Great post Tom, one of if not the best posts on the topic I've read. Should be mandatory reading for all those new to our sport. Thanks.
I Ricardo,I live in São Paulo, Brazil and have a Stromer ST1 with the 14.5amp battery (the gold battery). The city has many hills and I think there are some hills more steep than the one from New Zeland. Sometimes I cannot go up the hills pedaling and I have to walk the bike which is a lot of work, since the ST1 weights a lot. I am looking to buy a Riese and Muller GX Rolhoof HS, but after reading all the pages of this thread I am not sure anymore. Also, I saw that the R&M has the Bosch HS performance engine with only 350W but 65NM of torque? Whereas the Stromer ST5 has 850W and only 48NM of torque. Are these torque ratings correct? Anyone has used an ST5 on a steep hill? Anyone here has ridden the ST5 and the Riese and Muller? I would love to know how they compare. Also, the roads here are TERRIBLE. The asphalt is completely uneven and full of pot holes, so are middrives better? The are some good places with bike lanes, but since they bike lanes do not connect the whole city, sometimes you have to get out and use regular roads that are pretty bad (like the one in the picture). When I have to leave the bike lanes, my body suffers, because the ST1 has only the front shocks.
Rear G310 Kit, Advanced PAS, Custom Build Motor Winding 1 x MG310_Std Include Rim? 1 x Rim275_Alex Include Spokes? 36 x Sapim Strong 13-14g Butted Spoke, Black Include Wheel Build? 1 x WheelBuild Controller (Baserunner Requires Downtube Battery) 1 x Baserunner V3 Cycle Analyst 1 x CA3-DP Include Auxiliary Input (for changing presets or limits) 1 x CA3_DAux_Slim Pedal Sensor Type 1 x PAS_12P Throttle Choice 1 x T-Lever eBrake Cutoffs? 1 x EbrakeWuxD Include Tidy Wiring Kit? 1 x WireRouteKit | Edit | US$705.40 | US$705.40 | Remove item |
Browneye, you're paying more for the torque sensor, and the Cycle Analyst. You're getting a G310, which is not an especially powerful motor, but a nice one for a mild mannered bike, with a 20A sine wave controller. Its gears allow it to climb better, but it's still a little motor. $705 CDn is $528 USD, about twice what my last ebike motor/controller cost ($275 USD), but that was a cadence sesnor.
The entire RAD and Voltbike community are riding ebikes with cadence sensors, as are about 10 million people in China. Most of the six+ ebikes I've converted use KT controllers with 5 level PAS. Whatever they do on their cadence sensors feels pretty natural to me. Above 10 mph, I can find a pedal speed and a gearing where I'm getting assist and I know I'm doing some work. Below that, I'd have to turn off assist, because cadence sensors cannot operate well at slow speeds like a torque sensor. You probably want a torque sensor for certain types of trail riding, etc. Maybe no assist and a throttle works better there too.
Anyway, if you're just reading about ebike features, everything sounds great, but you have to really experience them to see if you really need them.
And yes, an internet import is often less than buying just the motor/battery.
I live in São Paulo, Brazil and have a Stromer ST1 with the 14.5amp battery (the gold battery). The city has many hills and I think there are some hills more steep than the one from New Zeland. Sometimes I cannot go up the hills pedaling and I have to walk the bike which is a lot of work, since the ST1 weights a lot. I am looking to buy a Riese and Muller GX Rolhoof HS, but after reading all the pages of this thread I am not sure anymore. Also, I saw that the R&M has the Bosch HS performance engine with only 350W but 65NM of torque? Whereas the Stromer ST5 has 850W and only 48NM of torque. Are these torque ratings correct? Anyone has used an ST5 on a steep hill? Anyone here has ridden the ST5 and the Riese and Muller? I would love to know how they compare. Also, the roads here are TERRIBLE. The asphalt is completely uneven and full of pot holes, so are middrives better? The are some good places with bike lanes, but since they bike lanes do not connect the whole city, sometimes you have to get out and use regular roads that are pretty bad (like the one in the picture). When I have to leave the bike lanes, my body suffers, because the ST1 has only the front shocks.
I have had kits from both. The eBikes.ca setup is much nicer. Grin has worked with Bafang to tweak their kits. It’s a difficult process. Not understanding the nature of the beast is at the heart of your confusion. Personally I’d do a kit from eBikes.ca and a battery from EM3ev. MAC kits have old style JST connectors. I really dislike them. The eZee kits are sweet. Use the motor simulator. https://www.ebikes.ca/tools/simulat...wheel=650b&axis=mph&autothrot=true&throt=83.2A MAC kit from EM3ev - China, is just over a grand, shipped. Laced up to a nice Alex MD35 rim, and a 14ah shark bat.
I have had kits from both. The eBikes.ca setup is much nicer. Grin has worked with Bafang to tweak their kits. It’s a difficult process. Not understanding the nature of the beast is at the heart of your confusion. Personally I’d do a kit from eBikes.ca and a battery from EM3ev. MAC kits have old style JST connectors. I really dislike them. The eZee kits are sweet. Use the motor simulator. https://www.ebikes.ca/tools/simulat...wheel=650b&axis=mph&autothrot=true&throt=83.2
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...www.ebikes.ca
The specs have all your answers. View attachment 39836
why wouldn't you pay for a wheel build by them? AGAIN, use the motor simulator to compare. You can simulate 36V and 48V batteries!
Well if that's the case and you're not willing to have a fairly steep learning curve, then by all means DO NOT KIT BUILD! Doing a kit especially a higher end kit IS NOT cheaper than any number of bikes, like RAD, Juiced, and Biktrix. BUT those bikes also put you in charge of supporting and repairs and troubleshooting. Save up your dollars and go to an LBS with eBikes.
There are much less expensive kits, but they require even more research and tools to sort through a build.
If you were my customer, I'd dissuade you from kit building. ALL the information you'd need to learn a bit of "Greek" is in forums and on sites like ebikeschool.com
I have a Grin controller and it "sees" what voltage I am using. 36V or 48V. I have other less expensive controllers that do the same. Run on 36V or 48V. Bluenergy is over pried for what it is. No name wheel and these Aliexpress direct stores often send crappy wheel builds.Then what? Suddenly that great lower price climbs! I've watched it happen.
So yes, do yourself a favor, buy a finished bike. Quite honestly based on your input here, I'd not want to sell a kit.
EDIT! Don't forget that you'll need some tools if you do a mid drive. Add another $50.
But for many of us building was the best alternative. We had bikes we really liked and weren't willing to give up. When I built my first mid drive there wasn't a single crank forward/Flat foot eBike on the market. I continue to build to get EXACTLY the features I want most. But it was a fairly frustrating first few months., spending $1200 to convert it makes zero sense to me.
>snip
But it was a fairly frustrating first few months.
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2) Less stress and wear on drivechain
With a hub motor bike, the use of the motor lessens the mechanical wear and tear on the chain, cogs, and derailleur system, since it decreases pedal stress that the rider would otherwise put on the transmission. A mid-drive motor does the opposite, putting much more force on the chain and cogs with the motor propulsion now added on top of the rider's input. A normal bike chain drive is fairly robust and can usually handle this extra load without failure, but will wear out at a much faster rate, requiring more vigilant attention to chain stretch, cog wear, shifter alignment etc.
3) Ability to use internal gear hubs (IGH)
This is somewhat related to the above point, but one of the great innovations in bicycle hardware in the past decade has been the production of compact internal gear hubs that are 7-14 speeds with wide gear ranges. With a few exceptions (Rohlhoff and the original Nuvinci N171) these hubs are not rated for the extra stress of a motor drive and will usually have a short service life with more than an extra couple hundred watts from a motor. If you want to use a mid-drive with an internal gear hub, be sure to check whether the hub is rated for tandem and/or cargo use, most explicitly say no.
4) Higher peak power capability
The transmission through your bicycle drivechain also limits the maximum motor power that can be coupled to the wheels. Power levels in the 250-750 watt range are usually fine just with increased wear and tear, but when you are looking for multiple kW of power then you start seeing catastrophic failures with snapped chains, sheared freewheels, broken spokes etc. A hub motor with a properly coupled torque arm has no such limitation.
5) Potential for regenerative braking
With a direct drive hub motor or a geared hub motor that has a locked clutch, the motor can act as a perfectly controllable brake that isn't affected by rain, pad wear, cable adjustment or anything like that. In a similar manner to how a hub motor reduces wear and maintenance on the pedal drive chain, it can reduce and even eliminate brake pad maintenance as well. You can easily do 90% of your braking electronically with only the odd emergency stop needing the mechanical engagement. On a mid-drive motor, there is really no potential for regen (unless of course you electrify a fixie, but we don't see much of that).
6) Ease of installation
Admittedly the BBSXX systems and clones are pretty straightforward to install if you have bottom bracket removal tools and crank tools. But nothing gets quite as easy to fit as a front hub motor, where you are just taking off the original wheel and replacing it with a motorized one. In general we wouldn't emphasize this too much, as the time spent installing any conversion kit is way less than the time you save from riding it and you should install the system that is right for you. If you are concerned about installation and the facility of moving the assist to different bicycles and such, it's hard to top a front hub motor for minimal hassle.
[...]
8) Simpler operation with shifting
For a mid-motor to work well the rider needs to shift through the gears as they speed up and slow down, and similarly back off on the motor power while shifting to avoid seriously harsh shift transitions. There are shift sensor products to make the latter automatic, while there is nothing you can do if you come to a stop in a mid-drive system and forget to downshift first. The motor will start off in a high gear with low acceleration and efficiency. For regular cyclists this is probably no issue, but for those without that background, the simplicity of not having to shift gears all the time is one big appeal of an ebike. The rider can generally leave the bike in a high gear and use the hub motor to quickly get up to speed so there is no need to go through the motions of downshifting and up-shifting at each stop and go.