BY DAVID NORTH
Former Chair
Los Alamos County Transportation Board

What are the electric drive options for bicycles, and how much do they matter? They boil down to throttle or not, mid-drive or hub, and cadence or torque sensors. We’ll take them one at a time.

Throttle is easy: get it if you can. It’s great for getting started uphill, at a light, or just giving full oomph on a small hill. Or, shamefully, just toodling along with no effort. There are two common types: twist (like a motorcycle) or thumb throttle. Both have their fans, but I find either type just fine after you learn to use them.

But if you have a torque sensor, throttle is not so important. The idea is to sense how hard you’re pedaling and fortify that by some percentage, which is usually adjustable. Torque sensors tend to react quickly and can be set high enough to get you started or handle any hill you’re likely to encounter. However, if you have no throttle you must always pedal to get assistance from the motor. They work so well that you can get by with just the torque sensor alone, but you will get more exercise — at the level you like.

Cadence sensors really just know if you’re pedaling at all, and will generally supply the same amount of force no matter how hard you pedal. They tend to be a bit insensitive to your pedal speed and slow to get started. Usually they have several levels of assistance they supply, so it’s kind of up to you how much oomph you get all the time. This sounds more imprecise than torque sensors, and it is, so it’s commonly on less expensive bikes. But it works just fine, especially when you have a throttle to get started. Once you’re up to speed and going at a steady pace you’ll have trouble telling the difference.

Mid-drive motors contribute their force to the crank (the axle between the pedals). They usually have torque sensors and tend to be a bit more expensive, but not always. Hub motors are actually in the wheel hub and involve internal gearing. They are usually in the rear wheel, occasionally in the front wheel, and rarely (I think this would be fun) in both front and rear wheels.

Mid drives put more stress on the drive train because they’re driving the crank, chain, chainwheel and gears. Hub motors actually remove some of that wear. Ultimately I suspect hub motors will be how things end up, but right now they’re not as fully developed, so there isn’t much reason to favor one over the other — bike drive components, especially on ebikes, are very strong.

No matter what setup you get, you’ll probably wonder what the other one is like. And after you get some practice with your setup you’ll almost certainly find that it’s good enough. So there’s no reason to fret about all this, but it does help to understand the options.

You’ll also hear about horsepower, or watts, or battery size, etc. Most ebikes will have more than enough power or battery to get around town. If you’re commuting up Pajarito Road you might want to juice up, but generally a 500-watt nominal motor with a 500 watt-hour battery is more than adequate. It’s rare to see anything smaller, so this probably won’t require a lot of research.

Most bikes come with gears. Seven speeds are more than enough for most people because of the help you can get from the motor. But some bikes, especially those with belt drives, come with only one speed. If you fall in love with one of those, don’t fret. Startup tends to be a little more challenging, but if you have a throttle on that style of bike there’s no problem at all. And they are quiet.

Because ebikes are heavier, you should favor hydraulic disk brakes if you can get them. I think most models come that way now, and you certainly can manage with mechanical disks, but rim brakes are basically a no-no.

Really, it’s hard to go wrong. Talking to folks about their various bikes, everybody seems pleased with their purchase. And I haven’t yet tried one that I simply wouldn’t buy.

Dave North spent four years dealing with bicycling issues during his tenure on the Transportation Board and rides bikes almost daily. This is an exclusive series to The Reporter about how to get the most out of cycling in Los Alamos County.