For some reason I had been lead to believe E bikes were a bit hard on the ears. Then today while waiting to walk across a street, I noticed a fellow on a folder gliding by with out pedaling, and no discernible sound ( there was some traffic noise ) being produced from it. After noticing his battery, it prodded me to ask, how noisy are they? This fellow was on level terrain. Does that make a difference if hills are involved? Thanks.

My direct drive hub is very quiet. The gear drive hubs make some noise. How much depends on the material used in the gears.

Is there a down side to using a direct drive hub? I'm toying with the idea of a DIY project on my wifes steel road bike, with 26" wheels.

The gears are what makes the noise but even the geared motors I have on some recumbents aren't 'hard on the ears'. The non-geared hub motors are almost silent. The inline geared motors are much more quiet than the cars that drive by.

Most ebikes (95%) are very quiet, and you won't hear them over road noise and traffic.

They don't freewheel so when you aren't using them there is some drag. For me it's kinda like having a 5mph headwind.

If you provide 20 or 30 watts to the motor, the drag is gone. I much prefer the quiet of direct drive brushless motors. The Crystalytes you can barely hear at all, the 9C has a mild hum.

That's same for me Jethro56, and after riding with that drag and all the extra weight, I hardly even know it's there until (of course) on inclines, but thats what the motors for and having the crystalyte hub in my trailer wheel I don't hear it at all...other rider's hardly hear it either

I ride an e-bike (trike) and it's about half the volume as a microwave oven in your kitchen. Cook something and listen... not very loud, but you can hear it for sure as a rider.

If you were riding side-by-side with another e-bike rider you would be able to carry on a completely normal conversation.

I can ride right by people and they don't notice the sound. At full speed your tires are almost making as much noise as the motor.

I'm talking about non-geared hub motors. That's all I know.

As noise is important to me ( quieter the better ) I lean toward the direct drive hub. Any suggestions as to model, for my wifes steel road bike with 26" wheels. As a DIY project, is it huge? How much electrical experience is advised? Thanks again.

You will always have a little bit more noise with a geared drive; that's just the nature of the gears meshing. So, therefore, direct drive will be the quietest option.
The weight of the direct drive motor is typically a bit more than a geared... by a couple pounds usually.
The geared motors may be slightly louder but they do free wheel whereas the direct drives will always drag slightly when no under power. That is the nature of the permanent magnets having to always rotate with the wheel around the stator coils.

As for electrical and mechanical experience required to wire up your bike:
- be familiar with mounting your wheels, truing them in the forks, and torqing down the hub nuts properly on any regular bike. By "truing" them I don't necessarily mean using a spoke wrench to tension the spokes and straighten a rim; I mean centering the wheel correctly in the forks and brake pads.
- Be familiar with battery terminals, positive and negative wire leads, wire and connector insulation, and some basic understanding of DC electric supply. By that I mean know how to connect wires in the correct polarity so you don't short out your controller or dead short your battery terminals, and, if you have to, do not use under-rated connectors or wire leads from your battery pack to your controller.
- The rest of the wiring in the kits is typically simple and only one connector fits any other wire lead to the throttle, brakes, battery, motor power leads, or motor sensor leads.

See my recommendations in my signature below. :>

Personally I like Www.ebikekit.com. Ask for Jason (he answers all the emails). Tell him Mike Fairbanks referred you (not that I get anything, but maybe he'll give me a discount on my next kit).

Anyway, ordering a kit from him is so easy. It's a hub motor. If it's for your wife I'd recommend a front wheel hub motor (much easier to install).

You can install it on your own. If not, a bike shop can easily do it too (but will probably cost you 50-100 extra bucks).

It's really not difficult at all. The first time you do it you might think it's frustrating, but once finished you'll think, "hey, that wasn't so bad."

Then, after a while you'll be able to install, uninstall, and reinstall over and over.

If I had a front wheel ebike kit delivered I could have it finished in an hour, easily, and so could any of the other folks who ever built one.

And they really do work (and work well). They are fun and safe (if you don't overpower them).

The biggest challenge is battery technology. The best batteries generally cost as much or more than the entire kit.

You can get a kit for about $300 and a good battery for 300-500 dollars (for a lithium-based battery that's light).

Thanks for the input, I've enough info to begin, thanks

Electric bikes are whisper quiet. When you start the motor by twisting the throttle, you might hear a sound like a bee sting for 1-2 seconds and that's when the motor starts working. If you keep holding on to the throttle the sound just blends in and you wouldn't notice it when riding.

I didn't know a front hub was even possible. How do they handle in turns? Are there any downsides to them?

Front hub kits are actually THE most common kit. They are simpler to install as you do not have to be concerned with proper gearing on the freewheel to match your rear shifter and derailleur.

You MUST have a steel front fork for a front hub motor install!! Aluminum alloys and carbon front fork dropouts are far too weak to prevent the torque of the motor from "spinning out" and destroying the wiring to the motor as well as the dropouts. Even with steel front forks, it is advisable to use a "torque arm" to re-enforce the drop out.

You won't notice much when riding with a front hub motor. You will notice the additional weight when curb hopping. And you may notice a "different" feel to the steering when you are at full speed. The "different" feeling is due to rotational inertial from the extra mass of the front hub spinning. Think of a gyroscope. But the effect is minimal.

Only downside I would say is the additional effort in curb hopping.

The bike we are planning to use is steel, both frame and fork, so this sounds more doable with each visit to this thread, thanks. I've goggled torque arm but found little. I imagine it'll be understood when I see it in front of me. I assume it is a bar that links the fork to itself for added rigidity?

Here is a typical torque arm.

https://www.ebikes.ca/store/photos/TorqArmRev2.jpg

It fits around the axle on the flats in the hole and prevents the axle from rotating when affixed to the rear of the fork. The arm pulls the wheel in the direction of motion, against the "equal and opposite torque" which operates in the opposite direction of the wheel's travel. Very necessary - get two of them for a front fork conversion. The ones at ampedbikes.com are also excellent, and perhaps a bit more flexible when it comes to fitting them, due to there multiple degrees of freedom of orientation.

Talk to Jason at EbikeKit.com. He'll answer every question, and usually within minutes. Send him an email.

He's really good at explaining things. He's given me far more attention than he should have.

His bike kits are all put together in a very convenient package with good directions. You can get kits a little cheaper, but his is the best in terms of how it's organized.

Like I said before, the biggest issue is batteries. The cheap ones (SLAs) are weaker and extremely heavy. Very frustrating. But they work and are cheap.

Anything else is going to cost you at least 300 bucks, and easily up to 700 bucks.

Right now the best batteries at the best prices are Ping Batteries out of China. He's the man.