Whats better mid drive or hub drive for touring,

Bigjayvapes

New Member
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USA
I have a industrial trike, that has a top weight of 500 pounds, I want to convert it to a touring bike it is a single speed, I weigh 309 pounds down from 360, I'm playing on riding around 409 miles round trip and I'll be hauling around 110 pounds with me any suggestions.
 
I've never heard of a single speed touring bike. Do you intend to use a throttle? Trikes are not made for speed, The aerodynamics are horrible with you sitting upright. Do you intend to bike pack, or stay in hotels? How many miles do you intend each day?
 
I only plan on going 10-12 miles a hour and do around 60 miles a day I built my own popup bike camper that ways 40 pounds with gear I'm around 100-110, I have done 60 miles round trip camping a couple of time last year. Now I want to go farther, the reason I choose a trike was for my back and my dog that has to come with me. I need to be able to take extra weight, and comfort for him.
 
a mid drive will give you the most miles per watt of battery. plus it will move the load with less effort again saving the battery.
 
Given the weight info you are passing along, this is going to be a tall order in the sense of you will be working your equipment very hard. Being a singlespeed I'd give a knee-jerk response to do a hub motor, but with the weights and distances you are talking about, a strong mid drive really is the only answer. You want a 52v BBSHD. I would not look at the wattage rating of a motor. that number is functionally useless. You want to know what the torque spec is. A BBSHD is 160 Nm. A fat Bafang G060 hub is 80 Nm. Most other geared hubs are in the 40-60Nm range. A BBS02 is 120Nm but that motor is light- to mid-duty and what you are describing is well over into the heavy-duty range.

You REALLY want to be able to set up your trike so it is geared for low speed. The BBSHD will happily power you up to high speed but you want for it to be geared low so you can run the motor at lower power for lower speed but the motor still spins at a good/higher rpm rate. Bog it down with low rpms and it (and your drivetrain) will suffer.
 
Given the weight info you are passing along, this is going to be a tall order in the sense of you will be working your equipment very hard. Being a singlespeed I'd give a knee-jerk response to do a hub motor, but with the weights and distances you are talking about, a strong mid drive really is the only answer. You want a 52v BBSHD. I would not look at the wattage rating of a motor. that number is functionally useless. You want to know what the torque spec is. A BBSHD is 160 Nm. A fat Bafang G060 hub is 80 Nm. Most other geared hubs are in the 40-60Nm range. A BBS02 is 120Nm but that motor is light- to mid-duty and what you are describing is well over into the heavy-duty range.

You REALLY want to be able to set up your trike so it is geared for low speed. The BBSHD will happily power you up to high speed but you want for it to be geared low so you can run the motor at lower power for lower speed but the motor still spins at a good/higher rpm rate. Bog it down with low rpms and it (and your drivetrain) will suffer.
Thank you for explaining everything to me, I know what I have to do now it doubles my budget but that us ok, it only will take a little more time.
 
If you really need to stick with a single speed, you will need a small cog in front and a large on in the rear. Top speeds will be highly limited. The distance between the front and rear is so long that you will not have any cross chaining issues. So why not use a triple ring in front so you at least have three speeds? Just add a tensioner to take up the slack.
 
The wattage is not the issue, it's starting out on a uphill grade from a dead stop with all that weight. It will be as hard on the drivetrain and you, as starting a car out in 4th gear all the time.
 
If you really need to stick with a single speed, you will need a small cog in front and a large on in the rear. Top speeds will be highly limited.
@PedalUma did a better job of explaining what I was trying to get at with regard to gearing down for low speed. @rich c came at it well, also. Your problem is that single speed and what that means when it comes to hills, and starting from a stop on flat land. Ordinarily the whole point of a mid drive is it gives you the ability to work thru the gears to help you get up hills. You typically have to downshift it so it doesn't bog and kill your drivetrain from a standing start. You have to counteract this limitation, and the way to do it is to just stay in a low gear in the first place. That means a little front chainring (Lekkie makes a 36T wheel that I use on one of my cargo bikes) and the biggest single rear cog you can get your hands on. The hill-climbing cargo bike I have that 36T on in front has a 42T in back (it goes to 46 but I can't reach that one thanks to chain line and super fat tires).

If you want to blow your budget all to hell, but REALLY solve your problem, put a front hub motor on for a 2wd solution. I have done several of these and they are positively stellar in hills under load. My flat-land Bullitt is set up like that and I am building another one for hills right now that will do the same thing, but with drivetrain set up for low speed and hi torque, because steep hills.

The front motor kicks in immediately and starts doing work, so the mid drive, which is set to engage at about 5 mph, engages an already-moving bike and doesn't have to kill itself and your chain starting from a stop. the results are amazing. On my first one of these, I did not downshift at a stop, and starting the bike on my 11T rear cog, that cog lasted for 1000 miles before I finally cracked it. Ordinarily if I was doing that you could expect it to die within 50-100 miles, tops.

@Bigjayvapes seriously you are well into the territory where a 2wd solution - 3wd in your case - makes a lot of practical sense. Honestly as I said earlier, making this happen with a single-speed is a tall order. I don't know where you are going to get a big enough rear cog for this. White Industries is where I'd go for one and the biggest they make is 22T. Thats well underneath what I'd be comfortable with and a second motor helping out might be the ticket to make it work (OR give in and put a derailleur on... which has to be cheaper, easier conversion than going 2wd). Give it some thought. Here are some details on the concept. There are fairly detailed build writeups here as well.

 
Most trikes only drive one wheel. It is like driving a tank with only the right tread. This makes handling weird. Trikes with a differential are very expensive and probably only available in Germany and Holland. Although some industrial trikes will have them if they are good.
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Most trikes only drive one wheel. It is like driving a tank with only the right tread. This makes handling weird. Trikes with a differential are very expensive and probably only available in Germany and Holland. Although some industrial trikes will have them if they are good.
This one has a diff. I remember the review and being surprised.


Also evelo makes one with a diff as well.

if the trike doesn't have a diff, then you have to use a front motor... and that means you can't get there from here with that trike, I think.
 
Next year I have a 200 mile round trip ride, a few of them planned I'm going to put a 1000w front motor on for now, during next winter I'll get the 1000w mid drive motor put on for my 600 mile round trip ride, that way I can split up the cost and not make my wife mad.😊
 
if the trike doesn't have a diff,
Sadly I pooched my new build budget when i bought a second trike, Day6 joy, when the Husky proved to be a dud. If I hadnt I think I’d spend the dollars on dual rear motors. But then I am a Grin fanboy.
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