Hub motor off road riding

[TRACTOR DAN]

Hi, i have been wondering if anybody has experience with off road riding high power hub motor on rought and rocky trails?
I build a full suspension e moto from scratch, after doing a full service on the front and rear suspension i noticed the front felt really smooth and tracked the terrain well, on the other hand the rear felt like it oscilated after bumps.
Is it normal for hub motor to have that kind of feel.
Thanks in advance

 

[scianiac]

Just suspension physics, hub motor means lots of unsprung mass, suspension performance suffers. Just the bumps on my driveway my hub bike handles pretty poorly while my mid-drive bikes are smooth. Possible to improve with suspension tuning I'm sure but you can only do so much. Also larger volume tires with lower pressure can help a lot but can't go too low as all that weight will also cause pinch flats.

 

[E-HP]

The shock/spring may not be rebounding fast enough before hitting the next bump. You could mess with spring rates and rebound damping, but it will be challenging with a big motor.

 

[2old]

I had that same problem with rear hubs off road and abandoned the idea. As above, this has never been a problem with mids. I don't like fat tires because they seem to influence the direction of travel too much (for me), but you can avoid the pinch flat problem by going tubeless. Also,not a favorite here (or with me), but some acquaintances use inserts which allow them to "ride home" if they get a puncture that's too big to seal.

 

[neptronix]

unsprung weight is a bitch.. it will make your rear suspension less effective, the more weight you add.
Other than that, a hub motor will work.

 

[TRACTOR DAN]

Thank yall for the reply, i rarely heard people talk about hub motor performance off road.
Im thinking obout converting the hub motor to a mid drive.
I didnt specify it in my first message, i run 24inch maxxis and 17inch michelin starcross tire, havent gotten any flat yet only pulled out a few spoke beacause i used to thin spokes.

 

[neptronix]

With a mid drive you'll have a hard time achieving high speed on small wheels due to maximum chainring size limitation.
But i suppose that's right for the application, isn't it? the smaller wheel is gearing the bike down a bit.

 

[bananu7]

Echoing what others have said above, hubs are too heavy to track the terrain well. They inevitably have worse traction than mid-drive motors, and stress the tyre and the rim a lot. They work great on smooth surfaces, but mid drives outperform them completely offroad.