@evan Well there are advantages of belt driven compared to hub motor especially in regards of torque. However I still feel that belt driven system have too much parts to maintain. Cleaning is horrible when you ride in almost rainy weather every time. Nevertheless belt drive needs to be adjusted frequently to make sure that the belt are tight, aligned and screwed properly as they tend to vibrate alot.
Hub motor single speed should be the future of electric longboard. Its a complete elegant solution. Its cheaper than purchasing motor, mount, belt and pulleys. Making it possible to go for dual configuration in slightly more pricier category. But the torque, the setup feels better. I believe higher torque, belt drive system are nice for mountainboard drive. They require more torque and made for special purpose of climbing, jumping, etc. Since longboard are made purely to be ridden on normal street path, hub motor is ideal the way I look at it.
@Hummie Yes I know jacob and your hub motor build. They are awesome and still in production - development. One two small thing that I don’t envy on jacob hub motor is the mounting option on standard truck axle. They need to be twisted to lock into the axle and the hold by a grub screw. Locking into axle have consequences like jacob stated that these eboards have power to accelerate and decelerate. It means torsional load are applied clockwise and counter-clockwise. So during acceleration or deceleration it could undo the locking, thats why the grub screw are to lock it further. It’s fine solution but somehow I have bad experience with twist lock mechanism to handle torsional load since I have ridden friction drive before. Also all hub motor are open designed and not sealed for heat exchange. The Netherlands is always misty and 80% of the days are cloudy and wet. I don’t cruise when it rains, but its unavoidable to go home completely wet.
Honestly if I have the ability to create my own hub motor, I would start from scratch. Starting from wheels, hub and axle. The specs would be
- Weather sealed but not heating up easily.
- Custom truck axle design is fine (buyer will need to buy the hub motor anyway, so the axle could be an all in one package too). As buyer I don’t mind getting a nice axle for hub motor config if they are mechanically excellent. Even if the truck axle is one piece with the stator axle, if they could align perfectly minimizing the wobble, i’ll be fine.
- It would be great to have varieties of different wheels replacement from color, size and durometer or even brand. That means the “seller” provide a lathed / cut branded wheels from Orangatang / abec 11 as wheel replacement. So we as longboarder could have the same wheels feeling as common longboard wheels.