macribs
10 MW
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2014
- Messages
- 3,702
Been thinking of a conversation last week for the past days. A co worker tried my bike and returned without the e-grin. He "kicked the tires" walking around and finally said electric bikes are fun but they lack any serious punch. First I laughed because I thought he was making a joke, turns out he was dead serious.
I told him hub motor like on my bike was not the best motor for trial riding, and that a mid motor would most likely give him what he needed. I told him about astro builds from Matt. Then about the gearbox astro from tangentdave, the LMX and the Neematic, and even hub motors as mid drives with jack shafts.
Few days later he had been reading up on the matter. Watched videos, visited websites and still couldn't grasp what e-bikers are doing things this way. I was thinking he meant he couldn't get enough torque to the wheel, but the torque was not enough he said. Because of the "spin up time", comparing electrical motors to turbo chargers. Then I remember the first comment as he was done with the test ride, the lack of punch.
He was actually missing the clutch. When I asked him he said he used to be a trial rider. And for his style of riding clutch control as well as throttle control is what makes vertical climbs possible.
Has anyone ever tried to do a clutch on a mid drive? Will a clutch make it easier to ride trial style over big roots, jump canals, climb almost vertical rocks and whatever else crazy stuff trial riders do every weekend?
Would a rekluse style clutch do the trick you think? The more I have thought about this the past days the more it seems like a worthy project to test. Not that I would ever ride crazy hard core trial style, but a little more punch at take off could be a good thing also for oldtimers.
I told him hub motor like on my bike was not the best motor for trial riding, and that a mid motor would most likely give him what he needed. I told him about astro builds from Matt. Then about the gearbox astro from tangentdave, the LMX and the Neematic, and even hub motors as mid drives with jack shafts.
Few days later he had been reading up on the matter. Watched videos, visited websites and still couldn't grasp what e-bikers are doing things this way. I was thinking he meant he couldn't get enough torque to the wheel, but the torque was not enough he said. Because of the "spin up time", comparing electrical motors to turbo chargers. Then I remember the first comment as he was done with the test ride, the lack of punch.
He was actually missing the clutch. When I asked him he said he used to be a trial rider. And for his style of riding clutch control as well as throttle control is what makes vertical climbs possible.
Has anyone ever tried to do a clutch on a mid drive? Will a clutch make it easier to ride trial style over big roots, jump canals, climb almost vertical rocks and whatever else crazy stuff trial riders do every weekend?
Would a rekluse style clutch do the trick you think? The more I have thought about this the past days the more it seems like a worthy project to test. Not that I would ever ride crazy hard core trial style, but a little more punch at take off could be a good thing also for oldtimers.