Opinions

[Silvercat]

Hi,
Curious about thoughts on NCM Moscow Plus versus Trek Allant 7. I am considering a mid drive. Most important issue concerns hill climbing. On one hill that I have to cover each ride, the length is one km (about .6 mile) with an approximate 45 degree slope. On the steepest section (about 100 feet, I can only reach around 10 KPH (6 mph) on my Moscow plus I have heard tha a mid drive motor will be able to easily surpass that speed.
Thanks!

 

[jkvt]

Yeah, mid drive is night and day. I don't have that Trek bike but I've got a bike with a mid-drive Bafang motor and a Moscow Plus. I love the Moscow for flatter stuff, but a mid-drive is more like a diesel engine. It'll just keep going regardless of the hill, but it may not be quite as zippy off the line. You could always convert the Moscow to mid-drive!

If you go with the Trek I'd definitely try it out first. I think they're probably only 250w motors. Even though it's half the nominal of the Moscow it's probably still significantly better on hills, but it is big power difference so if it were me I'd definitely want to take it for a spin a bit first.

 

[Silvercat]

Thanks…appreciate your thoughts!
Trek uses a Bosch motor that I read is reliable but noisier than Specialize‘s Brose motor and Giant’s Yamaha motor. I imagine pros and cons for all 3.
The fit likely needs to be the deciding factor.
Be good to hear from those owners of that Trek Allant 7 and the Giant Explore Pro, and the Specialized Turbo Vado 4.0 and 5.0. All around same price.
Converting my Moscow to a mid drive sounds interesting but would that not be expensive? And, I likely would have trouble finding a shop that would do that. Unless that is relatively simple to do, which I doubt.
Thanks again!

 

[jkvt]

Nah, you could convert for pretty cheap but you probably would have to do it yourself unless there happens to be someone local who would do it. It's really not that difficult, but requires some patients and spec'ing out. There's a ton of youtube videos though.

The Bafang BBS02 or the BBSHD are the ones you would use. BBS02 is 750w and I think runs around $450 USD and the HD is 1000w and I believe is in the $600s. There's a template you can print out to make sure it fits in the frame. I think EBike Essentials has the template on their website.

Bottom line is you don't have to be super handy, but you would need to be comfortable Googling/YouTube(ing?) how to do some things but there is a lot out there. I have been involved in a few conversions to the Bafang mid-drive motors. There's always some small catch you have to work around (ie a shifter cable in the way of the motor, or soldering on new battery connectors (you'd have to do that with the Moscow), but otherwise it's fairly simple, cheap and you get more power than a lot of the brand name bikes for a lot less money. Personally I stay away from the brand names because I feel like you can get better components and more self-serviceable electronics going with generic brands while saving a lot of money, but I totally get why some people want the brand name bikes. They're a more polished product and the motor programming seems a bit more polished/smooth too... and maybe a better warranty as well.