You cover a lot of ground. I hope people appreciate how honest you are being about the bikes and the motor. Most of the discussion centers around 1000 watt bikes. Since you mention a 45 amp controller, with a roughly 50 volt battery there is a potential here for around 2,000 watts. I don’t know what the bike will actually do. Everyone has drifted a few time zones from the original California intent, the 750 watt limit and the Class 3, bikes that were locked down to the class and ‘stickered’.
The problem with a kw ebike is that you need a lot of power or you will end up making 45 minute rides. A thousand watts lasts an hour with a kWh battery, but that’s theoretical. Pushing these performance cells can decrease the cycle life, so when is the kwh battery reduced to a level that is unworkable. A conservative estimate for battery size would be 1.5x the maximum peak power, but any bike that maintains a 30 mph speed is going to have limited range on a 1 kWh battery. Fat tires increase rolling resistance. Fat tire bikes are more for trails, I guess, but hills kill batteries. If you go with high AH cells, they tend to have poor cycle lives. If you charge to 85% to maintain capacity, you lose capacity up front. Is the tech really there for 1 kw and up ebikes?
Karl Gesslein just put up a long article about his bikes. He claims that none of his dozen or so bikes is currently ‘in service’. True, Karl is a test pilot who tries to break things, but he is a genuine off road rider, it’s what he loves. So keeping bikes in service is not a trivial matter, and the more power you have the more you are stressing components.
I’m a big fan of the MAC motor. I have the weakest version, but it will pull 1200 watts with a 50v battery. The nice thing is that the motor climbs the hills around here readily, it doesn’t get hot. It’s my favorite motor and it shows why geared motors are the ideal compromise. The big Golden Motor is also a great motor, but it’s not practical to put 20 pounds on some bikes. On the other hand, the MAC that I have doesn’t even have a cadence sensor. It has an excellent throttle and a workable speed controller, or cruise control. Clearly most of your problems with this bike revolve around trying to make a torque sensor version for the newer highest power version of the MAC.
For me it is too bad that someone didn’t make a nice $1500 bike with the MAC, just the standard version with the throttle and cruise. People might have begun to see why spending $200 more for a motor is worth it. Now the MAC is bogged down in a troubled build with tech that seems way more complicated than I want. You and Hicks are like the Holy Grail people. Eric says the HG is a 40 mph ebike, and I don’t know why he thinks this. Clearly it will be unregistered and people will ride it anywhere. Your version is a geared hub with a torque sensor and a 30 mph speed capability, 1,000 watts. So it’s Wild West, either way. Make what sells. You might want to Google “Cyclist kills pedestrian”. Some of the stories are gut wrenching.
The Bafang Max Ultra is a kw mid drive. It also offers a throttle, which makes it fairly unique. Clearly there is a showdown between Bafang and Bosch, though it might be out there a few years. But at some point no hub motor is workable, climbing steeper grades. I don’t know how capable the MAC will be. Once again, of course, there is no comprehensive Ebike Magazine that will run side by side tests on your bike, the Biktrix Ultra bike, some of Lunas pre-built bikes with the BBSHD, or with their ‘ludicrous’ controller. So no one will know, anyway, what this bike can do.
As an off road bike with a high powered geared hub, it’s an interesting proposition. People should admire the technology and the effort. Torque sensor may not make tons of sense for street riding where speed is maintained, but for terrain a good TS is valuable. But who knows what an off-road bike is? Can you really go for long rides with a 1 kWh battery? Will the components hold up?
In his article Karl was talking about people who just ride dirt bikes, the kind you fill up from a plastic gas can. The people who make these bikes have years of experience. Gasoline allows for long rides, I guess, and it is easy to refill the gas tank. There’s no aerobic exercise, but the drive train is more robust. The action around here is ATV’s. Maybe someone should make an electric ATV. What will people really do with this bike?
Good luck. It’s nice to know what people do to build new ebikes. I’d like to see how this bike measures up against some of the competition.
