Originally Posted by
DarthSensate
Nice and clean build.
I have been using two front direct drives from Ampedbikes myself since 2008 and a 2010 for the second one. Love 'em! I was under the impression that the geared motors had better overall torque for hill climbing. Seems like most of the people on the Ampedbikes forum with FS bikes and rear motors went with geared for this reason.
How do you like the Diamondback? I'm a fan of Raleigh bikes and they own the Diamondback brand. I still ride my old 83 Raleigh Pro and I just rebuilt a M20 for my son's friend. His old huffy got run over, frame bent, and later dropped all of the crank bearings in the middle of the street while they were out riding.
P.S. Have you joined the Ampedbikes forum?
There was another guy on Ampedbikes forum that had the same issue with his brake caliper... or is that you? :>
[URL="http://ampedbikes.com/forum/"]
-DS
Darth,
Yes, I have joined the amped bikes forum. I'll probably do a "final" pix and post it to the amped forum.
I think I got that thing about geared hubs from the endless sphere forum. I think the quote was something like: You can't expect a small diameter motor to pull you better than the larger pie sized ones. I could be wrong, though. Another benefit that I remember is that the geared motors make a slight noise while the DD ones are whisper quiet. Important for me since I ride some MUPs. Also, they tend to wear out quicker than DD since there are moving parts in there. DDs are pretty much indestructible.
I like this Dback. I only did a short ride on it w/o the motor installed. MTB geometry really makes you want to drop curbs and ride some bumpy terrain. We'll see how it holds up.