Mid Drive vs Hub Drive Electric Bike | What’s the Difference?

What are the differences between a Hub-Drive and a Mid-Drive ebike? We'll show the pros and cons of each motor to help you decide which electric bike is right for you.

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[bobpatty]

Three years ago I was rear ended on my Bafang Ebike and my rear wheel was destroyed. I needed a rear wheel anyway so I purchased a rear hub motor and the result is wonderful! Two separate drives guarantee that I get home. Both are 72v 70ah now and my American made 26” is nearly impossible to beat across an intersection. 8400w rear and 4200w mid drive systems allow me to cruise at highway speeds and avoid the “crazies”. The hub gets me up to speed then the overdriven mid drive keeps me going cheeply on battery loss. Sprockets are 60/12 and top speed is faster than I will look down during. Lol.

[turbofan]

Mid drives are only more popular in the mountain biking and road biking scenes. But hubs are by far more popular in the commuter ebike world.

[KingAlakdan_]

im sorry to say but hub motor are more popular then mid bike in Europe

[alandavey]

Would this be helpful for someone like me who is disabled 🤔

[hyflyin]

I have watched 4 of these comparison videos on hub drive vs. mid drive. The one big feature you all fail to mention (because you all favor mid drive) - is that a mid- drive ebike goes NOWHERE unless you are pedaling !!! Why avoid that issue???

[craigerskine]

You guys do know about Gates belt drives, right?

[MHH]

Good grief, NO mid-drive exerts more torque than just ONE human leg. We exert more torque with our ARMS on wrenches than most street or trail legal mid-drives. Obviously, the motor delivers that torque more smoothly as well. Torque from your motor does not impact chain life.

You will be turning the chain faster, you are going to climb more hills and go faster, so you will go through chains a little faster. It is not more likely to snap.

Mid-drives are not faster than hub drives. In fact hub drives are often much faster on a flat surface with limited headwinds, for the same wattage motor. Because all motors prefer to spin at high speeds, hub motors very quickly lose their power climbing hills or starting with a lot of weight. They just don't climb hills well and can quickly over heat. This means they aren't a good idea off road.

Hub drives are in every way as reliable as the very best mid-drives. Working on them is no harder except obviously if you get a flat tire (they're heavy). Unfortunately, indeed they do not handle as well. They tend to be far heavier and can be very hard on spokes too. Rare is the hub drive that can handle a modern cassette vs a freewheel. It is easy to catch a hub drive lead when riding off road or even parking near other bikes. Those are not easy to replace.

Hub motors almost always have a throttle because theirs is a cadence based system. You have to turn your pedals a certain distance before the motor kicks in. Rare is the hub motor system with a torque sensor that gives you instantaneous pedal response. Torque sensing systems are more common on mid-drives. This is extremely helpful off road where you need to power out of tight turns and dips. Unfortunately, it appears none of Rambo's motors, mid or hub, are torque sensing either (I could be wrong). Last I checked, Bafang had not yet released their long awaited new torque sensing system, but even it has huge draw backs in terms of proprietary and expensive batteries.