I give my haughty opinion about everything e-bike

[parajared]

I just realized that I have in fact been there and done that enough to become opinioned and arrogant, therefore I must haughtily present my opinion on everything e-bike.

Which is the better choice hub or mid-drive?
Answer: I must superciliously answer with the only true answer: the hub motor of course! Mid-drives gobble through belts and chains like a New York bum on a ham sandwich. They take maintenance to keep them going, and they can quit on you when you are out in the middle of no-where. They will do wheelies on you all the time if you are not careful and quite frankly they are cantankerous and hateful.
Now some say they are better than hubs in that you can off-road in mountainous area, and you can strap a mighty big mid-drive to a bicycle, where you can only go so big with a hub, but that’s all the credit I am giving these silly silly contraptions.

Sure, but what is the best hub motor?
9c, or maybe crystalyte of course.
Magic Pie spokes suck and break like crazy, but the motor dissipates heat really well, and climbs like a beast; crystalyte has a problem where your hub wants to eat your phase wires; 9c has a problem with tiny phase wires that overheat and melt, interplanetary gear motors wear out and fall to crap. 9c is the least expensive, the wires can be modified, and it requires no maintenance. 9c seems to be the winner, the winner for sub 3000 watt use that is.

What say thee about monitoring thine voltage?
Though much can be said about ebike.ca’s $150 cycle analyst and the handy ability to limit your power to the hub and have your wh/mi calculated on the fly, you can get by with much less. The $25 turnigy for instance displays watts, volts, amps, and ah, or $10 BVM-8s gives you a little %bar for your voltage. It’s much more useful to look at your display and see your batteries are half depleted than to look at your display and see 46.8 volts.

What is the best bike ever for doing an e-bike conversion?
Downhill/freeride bike. If you toff about like a little old lady then yeah, any bike is fine, but if you want to actually use that e-bike of yours then you need something stout and cushy. When you crank that bike up past 40mph you will find two problems. Your bike becomes a dainty little feather that flaps about at the whim of every pebble on the road, and your buns become a seat violating target. I have toyed around with road bikes and mountain bikes, but your dual suspension downhiller is the only way to go. You need wider tires for high speeds, and cushy suspension.

 

[Ataturk]

I would add the MAC motor sold by Cell-Man to the list of contenders (em3ev.com). It boasts composite gearing like its expensive brother BMC but at a much more reasonable price. I have had absolutely no issues with the motor and it is silent as a squirrel.

What about batteries? Ping is probably the safest bet and has a long track record of reliability. Again Cell-Man's A123 pack is a contender and has served me well (although the company may not be around for much longer).

 

[oatnet]

A lot of your design criteria align with mine, so some of my preferences are similar to yours. However, I am cautious about saying something is the best - what I like best on the street, might actually be the worst for someone who rides track or trail. Lithium rocks, but for someone with limited finances lead-acid might be the only way to acheive the EV grin - hence the best for them. It is always sad when someone posts that their solution is better than everyone elses, because they just insulted dozens of people and projects representing months of hard work. For every outdated ebike technology that is out there, I bet I could come up with design criteria that make that tech the best choice.

I've been doing ebikes for 6 years, worked hard at building/experimenting with every ebike variety I can get my hands on, and while many solutions rock not a single one is perfect. Each one is a series of tradeoffs...

-JD

 

[fizzit]

Which is the better choice hub or mid-drive?
Answer: I must superciliously answer with the only true answer: the hub motor of course! Mid-drives gobble through belts and chains like a New York bum on a ham sandwich. They take maintenance to keep them going, and they can quit on you when you are out in the middle of no-where. They will do wheelies on you all the time if you are not careful and quite frankly they are cantankerous and hateful.
Now some say they are better than hubs in that you can off-road in mountainous area, and you can strap a mighty big mid-drive to a bicycle, where you can only go so big with a hub, but that’s all the credit I am giving these silly silly contraptions.

A mid drive can be a lot more efficient than a hub, have much higher power to weight ratio, and avoid the large negative effect that a heavy hub has on handling.

I would also add that your statements about the belts and chains and your statement about reliably is completely dependent upon the setup. And any wheelies are definitely an advantage