Exactly. You don't fix a hub, you replace it. If you don't want to build a wheel and lace a motor in yourself, you pay a shop or order online a wheel with motor laced in. Same with controller - on a hub it's not a part of a motor, you buy a new box and plug it in.
Rear hub vs mid drive
- Thread starter John Thompson
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tomjasz
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IF the wheel build is decent it's simple to just change out the internals. Lyen controllers can use a CA2.4 orCA3. Good for thousands of miles. I'm an eBike whore. I like them all, the nine continent DD has dozens of clones! But the originl is a good value. Ezee, MAC. Leaf and MXUS all have great motors.
AHicks
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OR, if you are just unhappy with what you have and want to try something different! For instance, my '17 Rad City is on it's 3rd rear hub. The 750w original direct drive, the 1500w direct drive, and I finally have it right with the 1000+watt MAC 12t geared hub! All were purchased with wheels pre-laced. You would never be able to have an existing wheel or hub relaced as inexpensively as you can order one already done.
I prefer hubs. Just the delays in shifting under power is reason enough for me. I have ordered 3 Of the new Wattwagons with a rear hub GMAC motors instead of the Bafang mid drive everyone else is getting. I ride on mostly rail trail and streets. Maybe as we start traveling I will see more off roads and find a need for a mid drive but until then hubs for me. Hope to do some week long trips on these bikes i don’t think I will be missing anything due to motor placement
AHicks
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Would love to hear about you experiences here. Considering the same move. I REALLY like the MAC 12t, but we spend a lot of time in an area with a lot of rolling hills where good regen would be really nice to have! Have also been consideing a GMAC conversions....
Cyklefanatic
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Pedago can give a 5 year warranty on hub drives what’s the best Bosch can do?
Alaskan
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That does not mean that Pedago believes the hub will last five years. It just means that they charge so much for the bike that they can afford to replace relatively inexpensive hub motors and still have a nice profit.
Dapu motor may easily last 5 years, and so may Bafang or Shengyi.
But Pedego is a little beyond the scope of the discussion.
It is not within the OP budget and Dapu is not a "usual" hub - they are unavailable on aftermarket and very expensive when you have to pay dealer to replace it. It might not be in your best interests if Dapu lasts +5 years
. Btw, Pedego will only honor the warranty if you service it annually at an authorized Pedego dealer.
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My Dapu on the Bh is nothing special, noisy, doesn’t feel like 500 watts and full of gremlins!
AHicks, not sure when I will see the bikes , months?. I bought the Bh as a spare and to hold off till the WW arrive, doesn’t look like it will make it...
AHicks, not sure when I will see the bikes , months?. I bought the Bh as a spare and to hold off till the WW arrive, doesn’t look like it will make it...
rich c
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At what part of ownership do you worry that much about cycling? I have two mid drive Bosch motors. 3,900 miles on one, 3,200 miles on the other. The worst case for me was a Bafang gear hub motor that failed at 1,600 miles. Suggesting you can't travel from a big city without worrying about reliability is a wild exaggeration. There are folks that tour across entire countries on eBikes.
Ravi Kempaiah
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@Cyklefanatic , @Alaskan , @Alex M
Just to give you some background information....
I have owned several bikes with the DAPU hub motor.
Perhaps I was one of the earliest to own BH E-bike with Dapu motor back in Feb 2014.
I put 3000 miles on it and another 3 thousand miles on BH Nitro E-bike.
It was small (less than the diameter of 160mm rotor), powerful for it's weight/size and did not give me any issue.
I know @J.R. has one and with over 10,000 miles. They do last a long time. I was speaking with the former CEO of BH last month and he said, he dealt with DAPU for over 8 years and never had issues business-wise or technical/warranty related. They are a Japanese company that builds motors to high standards and have factories in China to produce them.
They are more expensive than Bafang or MXUS motors but they work really well.
@opimax , I think it has more to do with electronics than the motor. Motor works as per the signals sent thru the controller. I will be curious to read about your experience of the GMAC motor. It's a powerful motor and hope you are picking the right dropout/frame. With the constant forward power and regen and 1000 W power, it needs a very rugged dropout.
Just to give you some background information....
I have owned several bikes with the DAPU hub motor.
Perhaps I was one of the earliest to own BH E-bike with Dapu motor back in Feb 2014.
I put 3000 miles on it and another 3 thousand miles on BH Nitro E-bike.
It was small (less than the diameter of 160mm rotor), powerful for it's weight/size and did not give me any issue.
I know @J.R. has one and with over 10,000 miles. They do last a long time. I was speaking with the former CEO of BH last month and he said, he dealt with DAPU for over 8 years and never had issues business-wise or technical/warranty related. They are a Japanese company that builds motors to high standards and have factories in China to produce them.
They are more expensive than Bafang or MXUS motors but they work really well.
@opimax , I think it has more to do with electronics than the motor. Motor works as per the signals sent thru the controller. I will be curious to read about your experience of the GMAC motor. It's a powerful motor and hope you are picking the right dropout/frame. With the constant forward power and regen and 1000 W power, it needs a very rugged dropout.
AHicks
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They've considered the amount of rocking back and forth torque that might be placed on the drop outs. To reduce that to a minimum (or completely pretty much), to the point where I would have no further concern, they have designed this awesome torque arm that appears to be maybe twice as long as what we're used to seeing, and it attaches directly to the hub via splines. It's a work of art when considering it's purpose. There's very little twisting load placed on the drop outs. The axle is even round for a little extra strength, with no wire running through it! -Al
Ravi Kempaiah
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Sure, there is a whole video about it.
It's not the most elegant solution with the long torque arm plus clamps but it should work well.
The more challenging thing would be to couple this to a nice torque sensor and tune the controller. If you purchase their ready-to-roll kit (https://www.ebikes.ca/shop/ready-to-roll-kits/rear-rtr/gmac-ready-to-roll-kit.html), then they might configure that as well.
I wasn't aware that Pushkar was offering a hub option? What are the other components of your build?
Shimano DI2 and the rest of the bike...wheels , batteries etc ...trusting Pushkar...it has to be better quality than a ST5 and faster
Ravi , doesn’t seem to have the same 500 watts the Stromers have other wise I don’t doubt what you wrote, noisy though
...trusting Pushkar...it has to be better quality than a ST5 and faster Ravi , doesn’t seem to have the same 500 watts the Stromers have other wise I don’t doubt what you wrote, noisy though
tomjasz
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You’ve heard the adage, rolling stone gathers no moss? Fits pushcart and his creations. Always developing, never to be under rated. A jewel among the coal.
Alaskan
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You auto correct bungled the name.
Deacon Blues
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Imo this is a little bit comparing apples to oranges since Bosch just manufactures the motor/batter but pedego is a bike builder.
Pedego overcharges a lot and some of it should cover the repairs. That being said, 5 years is impressive and reliability of the Dapu motors should be playing a role in this.
Moreover, bosch mid drive adapters like RM, Trek also way overcharge their models yet they still give you only 2 years of warranty which is the same as Bosch's own warranty for their products. When something goes wrong with the motor/battery it is handled by Bosch itself not by them. So I'd say RM, Trek etc probably have even a larger profit margin than Pedego.
And Stromer, they charge a lot, but regardless of the warranty period their service and reliability in the States seem to be lacking.
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