Riders above 110kg: Belt Drive System or Hub Motor?

Since I’m a 122kg rider, I wanted to ask other heavy riders here which types of motors worked for them or if there was no difference between them since I’m still comparing parts.

I weigh about the same as you. Although I haven’t tried hub motors myself, I wouldn’t recommend them for riders our size. Belt drives are great because they allow us to use a high gear reduction like a 3:1 to compensate for the added load while hub motors have no reduction at all. If you plan to climb any hills, then you’ll want dual motors.

I’ve been riding around my own dual hub motor setup on 10S with dual VESC on FOC. To be honest, I am a 100% belt drive but not too sure what it is exactly yet but Hub motors are pretty darn sweet.

They of course are slower on start-up and can’t climb hills as well but once they are up to speed they are pretty fun. Still haven’t figured out what’s fun about it could be just I’m overly shocked and surprised at how well they perform.

I’d say if you have no hills or very small hills 10% or less. Dual hub motors wouldn’t be an overly bad idea. If you have hills 20-30% range I’d suggest going belt drive if you plan on climbing 5-6 hills on a frequent basis. 1 or 2 hills shouldn’t be overly bad.

I’ve climbed some steep hills with the dual hub motor setup 20-25% inclines the only thing is you need pretty good momentum and you can’t lose the momentum going uphill. The brakes going downhill are also not as great - although i probably just need to adjust my setting and try again.

Pretty fun though. Hub motors do get hot overtime but so do regular geared motors too.

After testing, I have no doubt hub motors are here to stay. Not everyone will be climbing steep hills. Waiting for the 90mm hub motor wheels to ride 90mm. I do think that single hub motor might cause a lot of heat and probably wouldn’t recommend it personally.

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I’d go belt drive. I just rode a quarter mile up a slight hill with almost 130 kg on a dual drive raptor. (Combined weight of wife and I, she was on my shoulder).

It definitely felt different than just with me on if. I know for sure any hubs could not have done that. If I was above 100 kg I’d look into two 6374 motors on a dual diagonal set up. Have torque is the most fun part and I would not want to give that up even if I weighed a lot so I’d do what I could to get the most torque.