Mid-Drive or Hub Motor – Which Should I Choose?

Whether you are researching a suitable electric bicycle configurations currently on the market, or trying to decide between different all kinds of models, the motor will be one of the first things you look into. The information below will explain the differences between the two types of motors found on electric bikes – hub motor and mid-drive motor.

Mid-Drive or Hub Motor – Which Should I Choose?

The motor most commonly found on the market today is a hub motor. It is typically placed on the rear wheel, although some front hub configurations exist. The hub motor is simple, relatively lightweight, and quite inexpensive to manufacture. After some initial testing, our engineers concluded that the mid-drive motor has a number of key advantages over the hub motor:

• Performance: Mid-drive motors are known for higher performance and torque when compared to a similarly powered traditional hub motor. One key reason why is that the mid-drive motor drives the crank, instead of the wheel itself, multiplying its power and allowing it to better take advantage of the bike’s existing gears. Perhaps the best way to visualize this is to imagine a scenario where you are approaching a steep hill. You would change the bike’s gears to make it easier to pedal and maintain the same cadence. If your bike has a mid-drive motor, it also benefits from that gearing change, enabling it to deliver more power and range.

• Maintenance: Your bike’s mid-drive motor is designed to make maintenance and service extremely easy. You can remove and replace the entire motor assembly by simply taking out two special bolts – without affecting any other aspect of the bike. This means that virtually any regular bike shop can easily perform troubleshooting and repairs. On the other hand, if you had a hub motor in the rear wheel, even basic maintenance tasks such as taking off the wheel to change a flat tire become more complicated endeavors.

• Handling: Our mid-drive motor is positioned close to the bike’s center of gravity and low to the ground. This helps improve the overall handling of your electric bike by better distributing the weight.