It's a 500w motor design. This means, at 500w continuous, even when running at very poor efficiency in stop and go conditions, It will NEVER overheat and melt. It's NOT a 2000w motor. It also means that the common winding you likely have will cruise at full speed, using 500w of 36v. It will barely get very warm cruising at 500w.
But it's not going to overheat if you are careful how you ride it, and don't lug it. Keep it above 15 mph on steep hills, and it will run efficient and cool enough. I have a shitload of these motors in various windings, and have many thousands of miles of riding on them. You will be hard pressed to overheat one running 1200w max unless you have long hills above 10% grade. Or many short hills above 15% grade, or ride too slow in very deep sand. On the street, I could not kill one with 1200w. I tried very hard to, really.
What's 1200w? That was a 22 amp, 48v controller. Some spikes of more amps, but never more than 1200w continuous.
I also say a lot, that 1500w is fine, 48v 30 amps, or 72v 20 amps, won't melt your motor unless you are riding hard on dirt trails.
So many of us have also run 3000w controllers, 72v 40 amps. That gets you into the 40 mph club. That melts your motor too, if you have a battery bigger than 10 ah.
But it's fun for a short run.
Since you have a front hub, I would seriously advise running no more than 1500w. It's real tricky doing front wheel power drifts in the corners at 3000w. And the motor will want to rip right out of the forks really bad at 3000w. A 48v 20 amps setup should be all you need.
