this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Bicycles

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An older build circa 2017. 1500W of rage in that can next to the bottom bracket. SLX/XT drivetrain. DT rear hub to handle the torque. XT v-brakes. Pedal assist with torque sensing BB.

Let’s keep the momentum going…

@IlIlIlIlIlI@lemmy.world

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[–] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Never seen a mid drive like that, looks pretty cool!

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It was made by a guy in the US on his CNC. The build thread is still around. He made a mid-drive out of a light, high-RPM RC airplane motor and controller with a cycloidal gearbox to reduce it down 40x and then some more via the chain drive. This thing would do equivalent torque at the crankset of putting your body weight on the cranks, but it would do it continuously without overheating. All that in about 3kg. He made some tens/hundreds of these for a few years until he got a stable job at some corpo and no longer had the time for it. It was a crazy machine. Still have the drive stashed somewhere but I no longer use it. Some day I might build a simple fat bike with it for snow shredding. :D

Watch another guy climb a mountain at 30kph. That's the 6kW version limited to 4kW. The noise comes from the cycloidal gearbox, due to general vibration and not-so-great tolerances. They were significantly quieter after a few hundred kilometres, after it got worn a bit.

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

1500W of rage

😆 1500W at the crank. Holy hell. Love it!

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Had similar circa then, but a sane 500Wish (said 250W on the tin, which was important then), with home built LiFePo in a pannier, good fun.

This looks like a riot (in multiple senses)

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nice. That probably ate your chain and gears for breakfast, no?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yup. Snapped an Ultegra chain at a thousand km. Later switched to KMC for ebikes which lasted a few thousand until worn without catastrophic failure. I ride the same model chains till present day even though I no longer use a mid drive. They're just so durable..

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh that's good to hear. Did you need to replace the gears with the chain? Or still same gears from the start?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

I think I used it for about two years for commuting around. The smallest gears - 12t, 11t got visibly worn. Especially the 11t. The rest were fine and got used until recently on another bike, after replacing the 11t cog. So the cassette did quite well. It was an Ultegra cassette, so probably not the strongest. These days LinkGlide cassettes (CUES) should be much stronger.

[–] thenextguy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Despite all my rage
I still ain’t got no bottle cage

Or maybe because of my rage I don’t need no bottle cage?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

😆

Fuck bottle cages. If you need a bottle cage, you aren't stopping on patios for beer often enough.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago

Wild, you should share it over at !micromobility@lemmy.world