Electric Mountain Drive™ for most bikes and trikes.
For the first six years of EcoSpeed's existence we didn't make our drive systems to fit conventional upright bikes. After all, we reasoned, plenty of manufacturers make electric uprights and kits, so what could we offer? After six years of customers asking us for upright bike drives and after experience riding and repairing lots of electric upright bikes, we decided we had a lot to offer.
There are two ways to go if you want an electric upright bike: you can buy one built as an e-bike, or you can buy a conversion kit. The former are well made and cleanly styled. Unfortunately, with a few very expensive exceptions, they are also terrible bikes once the battery runs down or you decide you just want to pedal. Kits give you the option of putting electric assist on a good bike, or just saving a bit of money by using a bike you already own.
Most of the kits available are hub motors. Elsewhere on our site you can find comparisions of hub motors with multi-speed systems such as our Electric Mountain Drive and Mid-Drive, but for now suffice to say that mid-drives walk all over hub motors in performance.
There are also a few mid-drive kits from other manufacturers. The challenge with making a mid-drive kit is not in the motor or battery as with conventional assists, but in simply attaching it to the bicycle. Others use flat aluminum plates and bolts, or U-bolts, or some similar generic means of attaching the unit to your bike. The problem with that is that the forces involved are simply too high. With several hundred pounds or kilograms of force pulling on your bike frame it is easy to bend or crush tubes or pull the drive out of alignment. A partial solution to that problem is simply to use a very small motor, which is what most mid-drive manufacturers do.
With our Electric Mountain Drive, we've taken the Exact Fit Technology™ attach system we developed for recumbents bikes and adapted it to the upright world. Precision machined clamps designed to fit specific frames along with careful structural engineering allow our systems to handle high power motors without overstressing or damaging your frame.
The result is performance never before seen from an electric bike conversion kit, or indeed from any electric bike costing under $5000. Efficiently cruise at 20+ mph with burst speeds of 30 mph possible. On a mountain bike, you have enough power to climb steep singletrack grades where you can barely keep your front wheel on the ground. Cargo bikes can haul hundreds of pounds up moderately steep grades.
The Electric Mountain Drive (EMtnD)is descended from our Electric Mid-Drive (EMD) for recumbents. As such, it shares all of its advantages: use of the bike's gearing, high speed motors for light weight power, no motor drag while pedaling, etc. Also, in keeping with our philosophy, we don't do one size fits all. There are already several versions of the EMtnD.
EMtnD1 fits most mountain bikes, road bikes, and long bikes. EMtnD2 fits tadpole trikes and many short wheelbase recumbent bikes. And more to come.
