Hub Drive or Crank Drive?..

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Hi guys,

What do you own?
Hub drive or crank drive? GO!

Feel free to comment too.
Which do you prefer?
Does one work better for you?

Regards
Martin

 

[flecc]

I can't vote, partly because I've owned both and like both, partly because it depends on the application and partly because it depends on how good the pedelec implementation is on each.

So one of each.

 

[trex]

I've had 8-Fun SWX hub motor before and now BBS01 crank, the crank is quieter and faster than the hub - no contest really.

 

[jackhandy]

I have a Kraken fitted with the 8fun front hub, a bouncer with a gng crank-drive & a shiny new Trek Mamba with aCyclezee mk2 rear hub.

The front hub does the job, but is a tad boring now, except on slipperish uphills, when it gets quite interesting at times:

The bouncer is for strictly offroad play & is surprisingly agile considering it only gives 17a max.

I've only done about a hundred miles or so on the Mamba, but it's feeling like we're going to be good frinds for some while: It gives somewhat more than 20a when my speed drops uphill (820w, according to Speedict).

 

[Cyclezee]

Wondered when you were going to come out of the 'closet' Pete

 

[jackhandy]

Wondered when you were going to come out of the 'closet' Pete

I wos biding my time, John.

Proper write-up on the kit-fitting (29" wheels & awkward bb/crankset caused fiddling) & performance review will follow, following a sensible elapsation, timewise.

 

[Woosh]

I have to say that I am currently for the hub drive.
This is 'cos we've just had our new Sport TS with torque sensor built into the motor and its great!
Gives a very natural, smooth ride and fast too. I really do like it and I'm quite difficult to please....



Hatti

 

[jateureka2]

I have both hub motored e-bikes and crank drive also and agreee that they each shine under different situations.
FreeGo 250W hub motor for relatively flat/small hill rides
Ezee 350W hub motor for rides that have a few more hills
Cyclone or Aprilia crank drive for the hilly rides.

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Thanks to the people who have clicked on the poll so far.
Very interesting to read some of your comments too.

Regards
Martin

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Thanks to the guys who have voted.
WOW over 7000 users and 13 people have clicked on the poll?
Interesting, I know not everyone is active on the forum but was expecting a little more users clicking.

Regards
Martin

 

[flecc]

At the moment there are 26 members logged in and 137 guests viewing, but many of those guests will be members who haven't logged in and are just looking. Clearly many just don't bother to vote or haven't an opinion on the question, the latter not surprising since most will only ever have tried one type. That's probably the main reason for not voting.

Also there are quite few long term members who only pop into the forum intermittently, certainly less than once a month.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Maybe it's because there's no answer to the questions. You can't prefer one to the other because they both have advantages and disadvantages that depend on so many things. One day a crank drive can be better, but another day a hub-motor is better. At least we haven't had daft answers like "crank drives are better because they have torque sensors" like we used to get. The motor is only a small part of the overall system. It's the control system that gives a bike it's individual characteristics - how it responds to throttle or PAS input; how much power it feeds to the motor; etc. Even a Cyclamatic becomes a very nice bike to ride and will out-climb your average Bosch bike if you use a similar control system and feed it enough amps with enough volts.

I can't vote because I have both.

 

[Wander]

Yep but Martin wasn't asking for an opinion (in the poll question), he wan't asking for a preference either (there), he just asked:-


What do you own?
Hub drive or crank drive? GO!

obviously this precludes the likes of you d8veh but you are probably the exception!

I think it would be because the
Polls, Surveys and Research
section is so far down the front page few people will scroll down to see it. Probably only those using the 'What's new' button are the most likely to actually come across a poll.

 

[jackhandy]

There may be 7000 users registered, but how many actually contribute to the forum?

A couple of dozen regular posters & occasional new members who pass through fleetingly & don't post again once they have the advice sought.

It really is quite a small comunity.

 

[flecc]

Yep but Martin wasn't asking for an opinion (in the poll question), he wan't asking for a preference either (there), he just asked:-


What do you own?
Hub drive or crank drive? GO!

No poll need for that question, I can tell Martin with total confidence that the vast majority of e-bikes on the road in Britain are hub motor. I'll also confidently add that this will remain true for many years to come. I can further confidently add, as Frank Curran of Powabyke remarked in here long ago, that this forum isn't remotely representative of e-bike riders at large.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I predict that after next season, crank-drives will start to go out of fashion.

 

[trex]

not a chance. There are fundamental reasons why crank drive will always give better satisfaction!

 

[flecc]

Not sure about next season, but I think Dave is broadly right. It's an old truism that history repeats itself and we've been through two of these "crank better than hub" sales cycles before, one in the 1980s and the other from the late 1990s to the mid 2000s.

The current expansion of crank drives in the early 2010s is already being answered effectively by the hub motor producers, so with most possible performance advantages being countered, the attractions of the low hub motor costs are likely to win out with makers once more.

It's important to note that this isn't an area of consumer choice, they mostly haven't a clue and just buy what is being offered in any one period, whether hub or crank drive.

 

[trex]

the bulk of sales will always be German, Austrian, Swiss and French (Matra, Peugeot, Decathlon, Moustache) bikes - Bosch not Panasonic or Tranzx will continue to dominate and the Chinese are not likely to get more than 30%. Even among Chinese companies, new crank motors come out every few months.

 

[flecc]

That's a pedelecs forum view Trex, and our membership are in no way representative of the well over 100,000 e-bike owners out there in the UK. It's necessary to look much wider.

Chinese hub motors dominate the UK market and the wider world market. In the largest market of all for what we recognise as pedelecs, The Netherlands, hub motors again totally dominate sales since they have no hills to speak of. Indeed their manufacturers have given up making crank drives, Gazelle being the last to abandon them.