Jolly Jumper said:
In a emergency brake situation where u need front brake you have some more meters brake way becouse your backwheel will lift much earlier with a 12-14kg in this position.
In addition you have more stess in the head-set-bearing and tube and the stearing is more sluggish.
For ebikes that drive not faster than 35km/h it would be OK...
Obviously you have never ridden a front pack, and are armchair engineering - do a search and you will find many builds that might convince you otherwise. Since the battery is behind the front hub, extreme braking drives the mass down the forks, into the front wheel, and improving contact, so braking is actually a bit better than a rear pack that can make the front wheel skid.
The Norco A-Line pictured above does 80+ km/h, and I have many thousands of miles on front packs, and I have not experienced rear wheel lifting under extreme braking. I do have a problem with the front wheel lifting under heavy acceleration though :lol: despite the battery mass up front - I can accelerate much harder with the pack helping to hold the front end down. OTOH many folks (especially offroaders) prefer wheelie machines, so the front pack is not a good choice for them.
Since the top heavy mass of the front battery requires smaller movements (like the broom example earlier) and steering inputs do not need to be translated through a frame (the battery is between your hands, basically), steering is more responsive, regular bikes end up seeming sluggish. Yes there is more load on the headset, that is why I build on sturdy downhill frames that were designed to take shock loads far greater than a mere 28lbs - like 220lbs of man and machine going off a 10' drop at 25mph.
-JD
PS -I keep forgetting to post my pictures from a trip to Amsterdam earlier this year - I was stunned to see how many normal bikes had been outfitted with front racks, and the heavy loads (children, groceries) the locals were hauling around on front racks... IMO Amsterdam is a population of expert cyclists, and if front racks have evolved to such heavy usage, it's probably because it works.
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