I understand there are pros and cons to different types of motors. From researching on the interwebs, I have come to realize we have basically three choices (without getting into geared transmissions, which I believe to be a separate discussion).
Belt drives seem to be sturdier (no loads directly on the motor other than the belt), there seems to be more choices for types of wheels, but you can’t really push like a traditional board if you run out of juice and it seems like belts or chains can be a bottleneck for their own sort of problems.
Hub motors seem to do really well in pairs, but even with certain urethane slippage problems mitigated, it seems they are less sturdy than belt drives since they are in contact with the road. You can also push easily when necessary, and there are less small pieces, like belts, which may break.
Direct drive motors, like the carvon direct drive (v3 i think) motors, seem to be the best of both worlds. They aren’t in direct contact with the ground/don’t carry any vertical load and it seems you could retrofit almost any wheel to them (within reason). I have read lots if good things about carvons direct drive esk8s, which piqued my interest and inspired this post.
So my question is this: has anyone successfully taken a hub motor and converted it to direct drive? I assume it would be a question of adapting the right trucks for the job. If it is possible, it seems really appealing to me.
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated!
You can watch his build on endless sphere forum.
And forum member Zeinstra(here) you can search his build threat. And me, but i wont post my build for now, its like carvon v2,5 with different wheels and instead of alu parts im trying laser sintered pa12 parts. Only time will tell;)
