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Comment by Reason077 | Hacker News Reader

Conversion kits that add a front hub motor are relatively affordable and easy to install. Should work with most cargo bikes if you can find one that's compatible with your wheel size. Something like: https://swytchbike.com/

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Also: I'd not recommend hub motors with cargo bikes. There is a reason all cargo bike makers switched away from hub motors. They're low-power and often not strong enough mechanically.

Yes, there’s no doubt that mid-drive motors are the ideal. But in most cases, it’s not realistic or affordable to install a mid-drive motor as a retrofit.

And not all hub motors are low-power. You can get Chinese ones with insane power output. (5000W! … just remember that Europe has strict power restrictions on e-bike motors.)

Here's my cargo bike: (non-e variant): [1]. The company got bankrupt a couple of days ago.

It has three wheels. Two smaller ones at front, one back. As such, I'd prefer to install the motor on the back. We do have that speed limit of 26 km/hour (my current e-bike has it as well), but since more force is required, the kit would need to know this as well.

I got it second hand, same as my e-bike. Otherwise, these aren't affordable for me. 6k EUR for a cargo e-bike is just insane IMO.

[1] https://www.babboe.nl/media/akeneo_connector/media_files/b/a...

Also an owner of a non-electric Babboe. We looked at converting it to electric but very few companies would actually do it and the one that we finally got to give us a quote basically said it wasn't worth it. They would've had to replace the whole brake system due to the higher speed of an electric bike. We ended up just buying a different electric cargo bike.

I believe your story, the thing is... once my Babboe is driving, I can reach 20 km/hour. The problem is, it takes some time, and I'm fine with the 15 km/hour to 20 km/hour taking time or effort. I'm cool with staying at 15 km/hour as well. The problem is only after I am completely at 0 km/hour at a traffic light or stop sign, getting velocity. I wouldn't need better brakes there. Since I would never go higher than 20 km/hour electric, I wouldn't need better brakes. If they say I shouldn't go faster than 15 km/hour, I'll stick to that, no problem.

But for people who'd reach the max 26 km/hour, if they'd need better brakes, then if they reach such speed manually (going downwards, for example) would suggest my current brakes aren't adequate either. But I'm not interested in going from to 20 km/hour ASAP. I am interested in getting a little of help at 0 km/hour going forward. After that, the electric part can go off for all I care.

Swytch are great in marketing, not so much in engineering. Very proprietary system that keeps changing every year or so. We have one kit, but I'd not buy from them again.

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