I'm wondering why there are no geared hub motors available, with really good industry grade gears inside. All we have are crappy nylon + steel gears with tolerances up to a mm! I keep reading everwhere that the problem is noise, but this is not necessarly true. If you take quality gears (like neugart %co), you can have 10 000 rpm BLDC motors with 10:1 planetary reductions which are well lubricated, well sealed and barely audible from 1.5m.
The clue is helical or even hypoid gears, perfect match, zero tolerance, good bearings and proper lubrication. It should be possible to make 3Kg motors, with gears able to handle 100 n.m or more @1000-1500W without stripping immediatly. Than comes the cooling issue, that's another question.
I understand this would mean extra costs, yet there are many cases in which hub motors still beat mid drive (MAINTENANCE!) and where people would be ready to pay a premium to have good gears.
The clue is helical or even hypoid gears, perfect match, zero tolerance, good bearings and proper lubrication. It should be possible to make 3Kg motors, with gears able to handle 100 n.m or more @1000-1500W without stripping immediatly. Than comes the cooling issue, that's another question.
I understand this would mean extra costs, yet there are many cases in which hub motors still beat mid drive (MAINTENANCE!) and where people would be ready to pay a premium to have good gears.