Stockholm commuter

[Stephane Gautier]

Hey all,

I'm a Canadian living in Sweden for 15 years and I'll be buying my electric bike anytime in the coming weeks to commute to work. I was going to buy a very nice regular bike but I'll be doing around 55 km a day on that bike so I decided to opt for an electric bike to make sure that I wouldn't chicken out over a little bit of rain or even some frosty mornings.
I'll be buying a Haibike SDuro trekker (with the yamaha engine)
http://www.haibike.de/produkte_detail_en,,22699,detail.html
I've tried a few bikes with the engine in the wheel and I felt that as an avid biker a decade ago, I wanted to keep the feel of biking while getting the assistance needed on long runs daily. The wheel engine had a scooter feeling to it and not many of them had the range I was looking for.

Anyone else has a good experience with the engine in the pedal hub?

Cheers!
/Stephane

 

[flecc]

Yes, not with the Yamaha, but with other crank drive units. Whether wheel hub motor or crank drive is really as much a matter of preference than anything else, but it's true that those who enjoy their unpowered cycling often have a preference for crank drive.

In other areas both have their advantages. Most crank drive units are very reliable and well proofed against water ingress, and their installations are generally very neat. However they do wear the transmission more since both rider and motor drive through it. That means somewhat more maintenance cost and frequency as chains and sprockets wear.

Wheel hub motor e-bikes don't suffer that of course, but their installations tend to be less neat with their components scattered around the bike. The interconnections that entails can also cause the odd waterproofing problem if the sealing is not the best.

I've owned both and like both for their particular strengths, so don't consider either ever to be a wrong choice.
.