The 'Ca Go' Bike is for families deciding between a second car and a cargo bike, and thus it has all the features of an automobile. This includes high and lo...
Hub motors have the tradeoff of not being able to benefit from gearing. So while cargo bikes aren’t really built for speed records, gearing with a mid-drive should allow for climbing hills with a heavier payload, all else the same.
In this video’s case, I shudder to imagine how much a hub motor would struggle to climb a hill with 200+ kg of payload. With a mid-drive, I’m still somewhat concerned, but lesser so.
But I do agree regenerative braking would be nice for downhills. To that end, I would prefer to see a mid-drive cargo bike with a hub motor on the front wheel, for a small boost to acceleration but a huge advantage for conserving energy. Alternatively, an Eddy current hub brake would suffice, still on the front wheel, which would only provide braking but would be electronically modulatable and can dissipate more energy before fading, essentially limited only by the melting temperature.
Hub motors have the tradeoff of not being able to benefit from gearing. So while cargo bikes aren’t really built for speed records, gearing with a mid-drive should allow for climbing hills with a heavier payload, all else the same.
In this video’s case, I shudder to imagine how much a hub motor would struggle to climb a hill with 200+ kg of payload. With a mid-drive, I’m still somewhat concerned, but lesser so.
But I do agree regenerative braking would be nice for downhills. To that end, I would prefer to see a mid-drive cargo bike with a hub motor on the front wheel, for a small boost to acceleration but a huge advantage for conserving energy. Alternatively, an Eddy current hub brake would suffice, still on the front wheel, which would only provide braking but would be electronically modulatable and can dissipate more energy before fading, essentially limited only by the melting temperature.