I 100% agree! There is a lot of talk about the "best" or "better" system out there, but the truth as it has been stated is what is best for your use!
I have made it my goal to follow the KISS principal as closely as possible, but there is a lot of necessary items to achieve certain goals on a particular type of bike.
If you want the hub motor's equivalent in simplicity and ease of use in a mid-drive, you need look no further than the Stoke Monkey.
I used to not understand the non-freewheeling cranks until I realized that this was for a heavy cargo bike that will have groceries and precious cargo (kids) on the back, so you're not going to be hot-rodding it with kids on the back and heavy cargo loads anyway. It just works. 8)
Hard to beat either design for simplicity and reliability, however, just like any design, the Stoke Monkey has it's limits too, it would never be an ideal platform for a high performance E-Bike, but that isn't the point, do you rail against a diesel pick-up because it can't corner or accelerate like a sports car? Of course not! Each design has it's purpose and a good design does what it was intended to do very well.
I had no Idea about Lebowski's accomplishment! Hats off to you sir!
8)
@ Oatnet, I understand what you are saying, and I hope I haven't come off as a "hub hater" far from it, however for my needs (long distance travel, minimal battery) a mid-drive makes the most sense, and I am not trying to bash hub motors, however, for me, in most instances they just aren't near as practical.
I am in the process of building a hub motored bike to be my "rain bike", a bike that will be used in tandem with the local bus service Trimet while I go to school at UBI, and I will be using that for the simple fact that it has so few things to go wrong, dead simple in it's operation, and still weigh light enough to lift up onto the bus rack. At most it will see about 20 miles of operation between charges.
I will most likely use a MAC or other large diameter geared hub optimized for the hills at the cost of top speed, and hopefully it will be of the "Crank Forward" or semi-recumbent style, as I'm not quite ready for another wedgie bike.
I am also building a front hub motor bafang for a friend who has little to no money and needs an E-Assist bike to help him get around, and starting him off with *GASP* SLA batteries. Why? Because he's totally new to the hobby, and I can get some pretty cheap, and even if he does everything wrong, I'm only out a small amount of used batteries, that and he's had several of his bikes stolen, so we are outfitting his BMX because no one looks at it twice, and it will have a very small battery capacity and only used to travel a few miles after it is used with the bus.
If he was more tech savvy, and could afford better, I wouldn't be hesitant to help him use LiPo too, however, in his case, it doesn't make sense yet, it might in the future, but for now a cheap simple 36V system is what the doctor's ordered.
that'll give you more range (marginally, but OK)
