Friction motors have always been terrible, I expect this one to be no exception.
Yeah, if I was going to convert a bike I think I'd stick with a traditional mid drive or hub conversion kit.
Front hub conversions in particular are very easy to do and produce reliable, efficient and nice to ride bikes. Bafang even has a plug-n-play set of controllers and torque sensing bottom brackets that can do proper torque assist. I'm using one of their BBs with my current non-Bafang setup and it's spectacular. It makes riding my bike pure joy. 😁
I'm currently using a light read hub, but if I was building a new bike, I'd go with a light front hub on a steel fork. The total weight would be down even after adding the extra weight of the fork and the rear drivetrain can stay stock.
Plus it turns your bike into a unicorn!
I would interested if they had one that attached to the rear wheel as I don't like extra weight on the front.
lol. I was also thinking the bike looks like a unicorn.
I remember reading about a rear mounted friction drive previously. No clue about the quality. i m pretty sure I’ve seen others, but this was the first one I found while searching.
That much weight cantilevering off the front fork seems like a nightmare for stability and steering.
I see no mention of weight anywhere, not even on their website.
Unless it's 20lbs, I don't see that as an issue. I probably would never use one, but I can see the appeal if it can be transferred across multiple bikes easily.
