mwesleyroper said:
You had me thinking Luna may have indeed lost their marbles when you mentioned the aluminum cassette. However, after going to the source and reading about their cassette I think Luna made one of the best choices in cassettes. The cogs are made of steel while the carrier is aluminum. SRAM claims, "The PG-1230 is the only Eagle cassette that meets durability requirements for E-MTB applications". Sounds legit to me.
That does not sound legit to me at all, since SRAM is based in Germany and would only make a statement like that in relation to domestic E-MTB bikes... "350W peak"
Karl did an article about this issue, riding Luna ludicrous, and explains the issue pretty clearly: https://electricbike-blog.com/2019/02/14/the-rear-fathub-that-just-refuses-to-die-dt-swiss-big-ride-350-197mm/
I don't agree with all of his points or conclusions but he's absolutely right to be concerned about aluminum HG-spline freehub bodies, I would never expect this interface to deal with 2000W power levels. However, since the PG-1230 is HG spline, it should actually be okay on a hub with steel driver body (Onyx, DT Swiss, Hope I think has steel option too, etc). I don't know which rear hub they used, but based on the other oversights I'll point out shortly, I would not be surprised if it was aluminum driven cassette.
I was somewhat mistaken in my previous post, in stating the NX Eagle was XD-driver... It is absolutely HG Spline, I'd even looked that up a few months back. The remaining issues are more troubling: the 12-speed chain, and good narrow-wide 12 speed chainrings. Luna dove head-first into a very dangerous mix of unknowns... We don't know if any of the 12-speed chains can survive these power levels, and the 12-speed chain is so new that few good chainring options exist. Jumped the gun, and for what? There is already mounting evidence that 1x11 drivetrains have unnecessary gear range on an ebike, and weaker chains than 8/9 speed. Diving into 1x12 with so many unknowns... Unreasonable.
Then again, I'm almost tempted to applaud them for pushing the limits and getting a crazy M600 bike out there... I just feel bad for the guys who bought this and will push it to full ludicrous power... I don't think they will spend much time riding.