mid drive hub motor advantages?

[amberwolf]

If you just use them on the power lead to the halls, or the signal lead(s) from them, you can snag those thermal breakers out of many old laptop batteries for free. Sometimes they have them in old small UPS units as well, right on the SLA battery. The type you'll find in either of those is only about 5mm x 2-3mm x 10-15mm.

[Whiplash]

How would I search them if I wanted to buy them new??

[amberwolf]

I think one brand name is called Klixon.

[Whiplash]

Ok thanks!

[Whiplash]

These look interesting the 4bt2 version with a -56 rating seems about right.. Wonder where you could order these from and how much?? So you could just run this to your brake cutout no?

[Quajochem]

Better than cyclone - because no gears and overheat.
Better then motor-wheel because spinning weight removed from wheel - more effeciency and removed gyro effect.

Anyone know if much faster spinning gears inside a front MAC motor have alot to contribute to that gyro-effect?

[kevo]

Rollado wrote:

If a hub motor (or any motor for that matter) is rated at some wattage, how do we know how far we can push it and not let it overheat?

Can be difficult and expensive to answer. I stand on the shoulders of giants (Justin et al), and if the hub is in Justin's [url]ebikes.ca/simulator/[/url], it not only answers how long, but is empirically based on dyno measurements. If the hub is not in the pull down choices, several can be derived from Justin's existing collection. Questions like how far will my battery pack take me with this hub and how long before overheating are answered (hint: look for never)!

[Tench]

My view of the mid-mount through the gears v wheel motor

Pro's
Running the motor through the gears allows you to use lower gear and higher motor rpm's in relation to a hub motor for climbing hills, this results in greater efficiency and less heat created.
Gear can be selected for best efficiency.
The centrally mounted motor gives far better weight distribution.
Lower wheel inertia meens the brakes will be better.
The ability to coast, only better than using a dd hub motor.
Drastically lower unsprung mass of the rear wheel, when used on a full suspension frame this is a huge bonus in suspension performance.

Cons

Slightly higher electrical consumption when cruising due to extra mechanical losses in the drive train.
More complex system that will require more maintainence/parts replacement.
Extra complexity could result in worse reliability.
Makes a little more noise than a DD hub.

I have owned both and would say the midmount is far better than a wheel mounted hub motor, but then that is my opinion based on the way i like to ride and the terain i ride on. For a person using their bike as a pure commuter the priorities could be quite different and a hub motor in the wheel could be the favourite.
On ES you fill find fans of both setups, we each respect each others point of view and accept that there is not a single option that is "best" for everyone so look at what you want to do with the bike and build it suit your needs and remember that the pro's and cons above are just my opinion and i am a mid-mount fan.

That makes me feel like we should all sit in a circle, when its my turn i will stand up and say, Hello, my name is Simon and i'm a mid-mount fan!

Simon.

[Rassy]

That makes me feel like we should all sit in a circle, when its my turn i will stand up and say, Hello, my name is Simon and i'm a mid-mount fan!

Good post Simon.

I really like the quiet performance and installation simplicity of front hub motors.

Because of steep hills, I went to one and two wheel pusher traillers, some setups combined with a front hub motor. I loved my pusher traillers, but once the rig had two or more motors the weight of motors, batteries, and trailers became an issue.

Once I converted the tadpole trike to a mid-drive I too became a mid-mount fan. Now with the NuVinci auto shift system it's even better (for my use).