Front wheel kit vs rear wheel kit

[ecyclist]

Greetings...

I was looking at golden motors do it yourself kits, and I noticed they carry and front wheel kit and rear wheel kit. Other then the obvious difference that one is for a front wheel and one is for a rear wheel are there any other differences between the two? Is it just personal preference? I'm just wondering which one would be better suited for my bicycle.

Thanks!

[OneEye]

The hub motor is the same size, rating, &c.  Obviously there is a size difference between the two wheels for the gears, but the motor itself is the same. 

Users I've heard recommend the front kit for most situations in order to have a good weight distribution around the bike.  If you get a rear wheel kit almost all the weight (rider, battery pack, hub motor) comes down on the rear wheel.  There is a slight price premium on the rear kit due to the additional cost of gears.

-Mike

[Brandnew]

I did choose the rear wheel kit because my front fork is too narrow. I agree about the weight distribution and would have prefered the front wheel kit.

[ecyclist]

Thanks for the response!

[pacrat]

I also was wondering about the benefits of rear vs front wheel kits.  I have a Schwinn trailer that I take the kids in, or to the grocery store, and I am wondering if the rear wheel kit will still allow space to hook this up?
If the front kit doesn't have gears like the rear end kit, is there any difference in speed?
Thanks

[Philip Lynott]

If you want to use a powerfull motor like the 1kW motor my advice is to go for a rear wheel motor.

I have had both front and rear 1kW motors-the front wheel motor feels unsafe and may damage the front forks.

A front wheel motor my be more suitable if the motor is low powered ~ 250 - 500W.

[Perbear]

My personal recommendation is to go for a 250W minimotor in the front. The minimotor design have a built-in planet gear increasing motor torque 440% while keeping the weight to less than half of the direct drive (500W and above).  I just feel that the direct drive motors are too heavy for my hilly commute.

The drawback of the minimotor is some gear noise and the risk of stripping the plastic gears inside the motor if you overload the motor.

I am currently building a sub 12 kg ebike including 180-200Wh batteries giving a 20 km range. It is based on a cyclocross bike. For this ebike even a minimotor is heavy! 

[Perbear]

I forgot to mention that the minimotor has a built-in freewheel mechanism that:

• remove coasting resistance from the motor - which is excellent
• makes regeneration/electric braking impossible - that is bad

Loss of regen is probably not very bad, depedning on route, speed and braking pattern. Typical range extension caused by regen is around 10% so by using a 10% larger/heavier battery you can easily compensate for loss of regen. That weight increase is much less than the weight you gain by going from minimotor to direct drive currently required for regen.   

In a high-speed commute vehicle like a velomobile, regen is much more important since captured energy is proportional to the square of the initial speed before braking. Increasing speed from 20 km/h to 40 km/h would theoretically increase regen energy potential four times. So for velomobiles, a regen capable motor is much more important.

[Hardcore]

go for the mini motor

[floatbike]

mini motor is great, lots of torque.  It will last forever on 24V, I run 36V and have had not problem yet, but the gears do make some noise under hard acceleration at low speed.  It is much quieter on 24V, almost no gear noise.

[Perbear]

mini motor is great, lots of torque.  It will last forever on 24V, I run 36V and have had not problem yet, but the gears do make some noise under hard acceleration at low speed.  It is much quieter on 24V, almost no gear noise.

I understand you use the same motor on both 24 and 36V. Do you use a 36V minimotor or 24V, or are they identical? I looked into this once but do not remember if they are equal or not...