Mid-Drives and Cheep Cassettes

I have just around 320 miles on my bike with a mid-drive , I have been taking it easy only up to around 30 amps at most and mostly 20 amps or under with 16s battery pack ( sometimes a 14s pack ) .
Today I felt the drive train slipping , the motor was still running but it was not going anywhere.

I thought I had stripped the splines where the cassette and freehub body meet , or stripped the Paws .

To try something else I shifted to a lower gear , it seemed to work, then shifted up two more and it worked. it got me
back home.

With the wheel still on I felt some play at the rear cassette so thought one of the two above problems happened.

After Getting the wheel off the bike , I took off the Cassette and one of the plastic spacers was broken and fell off while loosing up the lock ring , After getting off the 9 speed cassette ( It was gouged and stuck to the freehub body )
I noticed the small cog fell off, so looked at the rest of the cogs that are pinned together and saw that the pins had bent , they were bent enough to allow the small cog to rotate .

So much for cheeps Cassettes and mid-drives ! I thought they were better because they are heaver , clearly not the case.

I bought the cassette because it went up a 36 tooth at the largest cog ,


The Cassette I bought ( 2 really ) is the 9 speed Shimano HG 400 12t-36t

So a warning here to others thinking that it would be a good 9 speed cassette because it goes up to 36 tooth , it is a bad cassette for mid-drives/ebikes .

I see the Sram PG 990 has larger pins holding the cogs together , almost twice the diameter as the Shimano HG 400 !
one problem though , it only goes up to 34 tooth at the largest cog, and it is expensive !

It is time to have someone make better Freehub Bodies and Cassettes for the stresses of good power mid-drive e-bikes .
Cassettes and Freehub bodies that have at least 3 times the depth of the splines,
and
Cassettes that have that spline the entire length of of cogs .

So I have been searching the net of different drivetrains.

The best thing to have is a cassette that goes up to 48 or even 50 tooth, they will not be used because of the chainline so with that kind of cassette I could at least use the 3 one down , and 2nd and up for best chain and cassette life span.

I Looked into Sram's Eagle , but the price is prohibitive at this time , and there are two problems with the lower NX groupset.
First is that to get a 12 speed front chainring the largest available that I could find in a 104 BCD 4 bolt pattern is a 34 tooth.
( I need at least 42 or better 44 tooth for the speeds I need on the flat roads )
Second is that the NX groupset / the cassette really, will not work with a XD driver . just the regular splined interface that is typical on most bikes )
The GX and up will work with XD drivers , but that price ! $ 200 for just the cassette !!!


I would like to try XD driver system to see if it is stronger at the interface area between the XD freehub body and the cassette .
Right now on my splined Shimano/Sram freehub body there are gouges where the freehub body and cassette meet .
Note : I have a wheel set that had a XD driver on it, I I took it off and put on a regular splined shimano/sram freewheel so that I could use my , and most existing cassettes on the market.

But I am now thinking that with a mid-drive an XD driver freewheel and XD driver compatible cassette is best for mid-drives ?

++++ Anyone have experience with the difference between the splined shimano/sram freehub body and a XD Driver freehub body ? +++

Anyone here feel like making 12 speed . 104 bcd / 4 bolt pattern chainrings that are 42/44/46 tooth ?

Know of a anyone who makes a 9 speed or 8 speed cassette compatible with XD Drivers ?
( There is a need for this, 12t or 13 t up to 50 tooth cassette )