Those of you who've added a motor to your cargo bikes, or who just know about this kind of thing, how much does the motor compensate for gearing range?
Basically I've got a Kona Ute and am considering adding a mid-motor (leaning towards Tongsheng, but maybe Bafang). At the moment it has 26/36t chainrings. With a motor I'd obviously go down to a single ring up front and lose some of the range.
I don't use the bike for very heavy duty stuff, mainly hauling my six year old daughter around. But I definitely need the 26t to get up some of the steeper local hills at the moment.
I'm assuming that at a minimum I'll need to replace the stock chainring with something lower like a 32 or 34, but would I need to go even lower to make up for losing the 26t at the front?
Or is the motor likely to give me enough oomph to get up those hills in a higher gear?
Those of you who've added a motor to your cargo bikes, or who just know about this kind of thing, how much does the motor compensate for gearing range?
Basically I've got a Kona Ute and am considering adding a mid-motor (leaning towards Tongsheng, but maybe Bafang). At the moment it has 26/36t chainrings. With a motor I'd obviously go down to a single ring up front and lose some of the range.
I don't use the bike for very heavy duty stuff, mainly hauling my six year old daughter around. But I definitely need the 26t to get up some of the steeper local hills at the moment.
I'm assuming that at a minimum I'll need to replace the stock chainring with something lower like a 32 or 34, but would I need to go even lower to make up for losing the 26t at the front?
Or is the motor likely to give me enough oomph to get up those hills in a higher gear?