Mid drive for Yuba Mundo V5

Hi All

I am thinking of buying a mid-drive motor for my Yuba Mundo V5. I am tossing up between the Bafang BBSHD 100W and the Tongsheng TSDZ2 750W 52V.

I just have a couple of questions if anyone can help me out. Firstly – which of these motors would be best for heavy loads? I have two kids – 4 and 6 years old – and they are getting heavier by the day I want to make sure I don’t fry the motor or rip apart any cogs. I understand you can leverage the bikes gears to minimise stress on the motor – but I just want to make sure the motor I buy can handle the heavy loads.

The other question I have is what is the difference between the 36/48/52V Tongsheng TSDZ2 – as they are all 750W and I have read somewhere you can run them off od any battery anyway? Like you can run the BBSHD off of a 52V battery even though it’s designed for a 48V battery.

The last question I have is whether it’s worth waiting for anything new an exciting on the horizon? Is there any new mid drive about to be released that would make these teo motors either obsolete of drop the price significantly?

Terrain is probably more of a concern than load. I see the electric Yubas with either one or two kid seats on the path in the mornings, and they're making good time. Those Shimano and Bosch mid drive motors are only rated at 250 watts, but with gearing, they seem to do pretty well. Hills may be a different story.

I saw your post and since I have a Mundo V4 with a BBSHD-1000w-48v battery I thought I could help you out.
Here's my bike: https://imgur.com/hvZiaS5

First 750 watts is probably enough to handle most loads provided you're keeping your speed down and/or not climbing really gnarly hills. I'm over 250 lbs and occasionally ride with total load weights over 600 lbs. (bike, motor, rider, cargo) I'm known for riding around with buckets of rocks, compost, etc.: it's a Yuba.

Specific tips for the Yuba BBSHD build:

• Installation of motor on bottom bracket will require Bafang specific wrench. Must have.
  I had installation problems until I put some 3mm spacers on my bottom bracket.
  You'll need an aftermarket chain ring to get your chain line right: use the smallest teeth # available.
  The BBSHD uses cadence sensing so make sure your LCD/controller has 9 PAS settings.
  The BBSHD likes low gears better than high gears.
  Do NOT track stand or hammer the cranks in a high gear. This breaks the BBSHD clutch gear.
  20 mph is a horrible speed to hit a pothole on a Mundo. The frame will not flex at all so the rider eats the shock. I'm speed limited by road conditions: not power.
  48v-17amp-hour battery is lots (too much) of power. Power falls off below 50% charge. Fully charged I can go up a medium grade at 20 plus mph. Being able to boost through intersections is nice.
  You'll need Grin Bottle Bobs to mount a Hailong battery on the Mundo.

I hope all of that helps. Message me if you have more specific questions.

Thank you so much - this is really helpful. At the moment I am thinking of getting the tongsheng tsdz2 750w - and if I find that it is not powerful enough I can put it on my wife's bike and buy the BBSHD.

I still want to have the cycle experience and have read that the BBSHD is more like a motorbike - although that also sounds fun.

As a mundo V5 owner I cannot stress enough the gearing comment by the earlier user, and if you can have upgraded front suspension it should take the worst of the pain out of the bumps.

Once again, for a fully loaded mundo you cannot have enough torque. As a corollary to this, the more power the better, you can make the torque out of the gearing, I'm running a Luna Mighty Mini 30t to a rohloff 14 speed IGH.

Thank you. Sorry I got late to this post. I ended up getting the BBSHD - it is really good. I have only had it a couple of days so am only just getting used to it but so far so good.

awesome bike by the way!!

Hi. Do you have any experience with a 30 or 36t chainring on an 8 speed cassette on a yuba Mundo? Or running a 40t sprocket on the cassette - I'm trying to make sure I can climb steep hills with a couple of kids on the back. Thanks