best type of motor set up?

so what do you guys think in the best overall setup for a motor? hub motor? mid drive? side drive? what's the best just for overall satisfaction, performance, acceleration, power, top speed? i would think mid drive would be great because you can have all the power at multiple speeds using gears. but then again, hub motor can have regen brakes, but you don't have the gears. hmm what do you think?

IMHO I think all current systems are a compromise. None of them do best in all of your categories.

What I would really like to see is a hub motor that can do like 2kw continuous and has a built in transmission of some kind to get multiple gears.

Gary

mnplus1556 said:

so what do you guys think in the best overall setup for a motor?

Click to expand...

No such thing.

Lots of factors determine what is best for your particular setup. See the various other threads asking questions like "best motor" and you'll see some of those factors you would have to know to figure out what is best for you.

I agree, the very lightweight nature of an ebike means compromises are made for sure. Once you get heavy enough to really do it all, you may have spent more for less overall performance than you'd get from a honda 125.

That is not to say that a heavier, high performance ebike sucks, nor that some extra expense is not worth it. Gas will inevitably make exhaust, and often more noise, etc. Plus the instant torque of electric riding is really fun.

Refine your question more, and we can say a lot more about what compromise works best for what purpose. Then argue more because we don't all agree. I'm still in the direct drive hubmotor camp, because my climate is harder on planetary gear hubmotors. Chain drive would work better for much of the riding I do because you can shift to lower gears, but I've yet to have any experience with them. I like the nearly silent direct drive hubmotor a lot, and lack the funds to try everything. Hubbies are fairly cheap, so I landed in that camp.