there are two main ebike Motors The Hub drive and the mid Drive motor both have unique mechanisms but they serve one purpose powering your ebikes mid drive versus Hub drives a question I get asked a lot of times and this video will break down the differences and help you decide which one best works for you what's going on guys we are in New Jersey and I'm here with my friend Hana and we have have two super cool bikes for you guys to show uh the reason of this video is not to review these bikes I already post a review of this is mostly to compare mid drives versus Hub drives there's bunch of older comments and older videos people asking which one you prefer more what the benefits of either technologist So today we're going to discuss that these are the vowers urban Glide series and I chose to compare these two models because they're now on sale quality features performance making this models the best ebike deals to order right now so first is the positioning and the Aesthetics the mid Drive is positioned on the bottom of the bike so low center of gravity which implies more control more bike feel you have more nimbl let's say if you go over a bad terrain you kind of like control and stabilize the bike easier here you have most of the weight in the back so if you go over potholes cracks you know like those metal grills in the city you feel like you know the extra weight in the back so if you go fast it's just different feel and um the bikes actually have higher performance and higher efficiency when you have even electric cars when all extra weight is on the bottom you have better control better handling better efficiency just a lot of benefits having everything here in the middle just more balanced we're going to go over the pros and cons of the mid drive and after we'll continue with the Hub drives here uh the biggest uh thing uh that's most important for me it's the right feel it feels like a non ebike feel and it has more efficiency it is more smooth more consistency it has a better power distribution so the mid drive has longer range higher efficiency if you compare the Hub Drive is the same 500 WTS as this mid drive and this is beang m600 it's going to give you more power uh with the same uh energy consumption and longer range so it's more consistent more efficient and it's a longer lasting uh drivetrain you have a lot of gears and more moving Parts but at the end it's just lighter it's much much smoother and has more C bike feel it's going to be more reliable lasts longer and another thing which I like this bike this is a pro for me can be a con for somebody who's watching this video and let's show here we have five levels of assist but no throtle so if I ride this bike I have to pedal and in the fifth level you get so much assistance so it's almost 10 times stronger and more powerful than a regular bike but I cannot cheat so if I have to go from home to the office or back or have to run errands I have to Pedal so I have to work out and it's good for my help and I like that if I have uh let's say if I ride this bike if I'm lazy one day or I'm tired and I'm not feeling I want to Pedal you have a throttle here so you can cheat so I like that but I rather not have it that's why I prefer more mid drive so I can kick those legs and uh stay healthy and stay in shape now when it comes about cons uh these are the two main things it's higher price so more expensive and maintenance entry level r there's people who don't know much about uh ebikes who just getting this field when you start you have to make sure you have first second level assist and you have to make sure the chain it's somewhere in the middle so when you start because mid drives like high RPMs so you don't put too much strength on the gears on the Chain so the biggest maintenance for the mid drives is and that's a con right um is that the chain stretches and the gears over couple of years depending how much you ride every year on your style of riding a lot of aggressive Riders they actually chew the the sprockets mostly the lower speeds and the chain gets stretched so this is the biggest problem uh the mid drives that I uh R last five six years I didn't have to maintenance to service them because uh the motors are high quality nothing breaks inside but sometimes you have gear maintenance you have to re oil it some brand you have to make sure there's no we and tear so that require higher cost now the biggest issue that I don't like um about mid drives is if you let's say snap a chain you have to like you know walk home you can't pedal on the Hub drives and that's a pro on that model if you chain snaps you can still get home you still can have the Hub that will power the the bike and you can uh you know get to your destination this bike used to be 27 2800 when it came out they dropped to 25 I think was a special sale at the beginning of the summer and now for the Black Friday sale it's $2,100 if you look at the build quality components quality of the screen the paint job the mid drive all the parts everywhere the shifter the cassette the hubs the quick release in the front the fenders if you put this next to a a track or next to specialize or next to canondale those bikes are twice more expensive and they're not even ebikes they're regular bikes here quality wise it's so much better and it's not a Famous Brand like specializ or track or any other like giant like big uh manufacturers of e bikes have been on the market for 20 30 50 40 years it's a new brand but if you look at the Quality what you get performance the feel overall the bike it's twice better and twice cheaper than specialized I love specialized but I would not spend $ $5,000 for the electric version which is pretty much overall similar in design there maybe different you know shapes of the frame or color or extra functions uh I rather pay 2K and get this bike versus 56 $7,000 for uh the new models are coming from um uh this big manufacturers and look at this look at the paint job look at the even the sprocket the cranks the pedals everything just scrims quality good shifter hydraulic brakes look at the quality of the tire the fenders the Plastics you know um just overall polish feel look price is just amazing and these are my favorite bikes for City commuting it's just you get an amazing package an amazing deal now let's go over the H Drive the pros and the cons so the biggest thing is price they're less expensive so they're not making as much noise as mid drives you get less performance but the biggest Advantage here is that you can install this on any regular bike if you get a mid drive you can't really install because you need special frame can't really do that unless you get the cyc kit which is you know fixing that problem but that's more expensive more performance here this rear hub we can pretty much install on any triack bike b quad wherever you you need or you want it's so much easier to to apply and use when it comes to HUB drives there's less stress on the drivetrain less stress on the Chain you have less wear on the gears because entire thing it just spins the wheel there's some stress on the spokes so requires more maintenance on the spokes but the biggest advantage and this is pretty much a marketing scheme but still if you live in a hilly area you get the regen you cannot get regen with mid drives that's the biggest Advantage for Hub drives and I live in Manhattan so mostly Flats I'm not going to get any regen or if I get 0.01 which is uh not important usually Jen works for electric cars when you have a lot of mass a lot of weight that's when it's more efficient here only if you live uh in a very Healy area and even then you get maybe 1% 2% it depends how you ride and how long of downhill you're getting right so that's another another thing but still it's a it's a it's a pro for this type of Technology another thing which is very important about uh H drives versus mid drives they're more user friendly for entry level for beginners so depending also on the settings and depending on the power ratings but here we have a 500 wat rear hub motor we have a torque sensor on this model which you don't see pretty often on the H Drive bikes very smooth start even if you go higher power it's going to gradually Propel you forward on the mid drive it's also smooth but there if you go four five levels is going to be much more powerful much more torquier so here will be a much gradual a much you know easier to get used to it and it's not going to jolt you and scare you if you're just uh getting your first ebike for and you ride for the first time when it comes to cons um we have 500 wats Hub and 500 WS mid Drive the same rating power delivery the same battery the same voltage but this Hub is going to deliver less range especially second con when you go uphill this is going to have less performance will'll be slower we drain more energy and eventually it's gonna you know give you less performance I mentioned earlier the positioning uh the balance uh of the bike overall the frame so here having it in the back is going to you know affect your spokes and the long run let's say couple years of riding this will come loose you have to tighten them maybe sometimes they might break depending on the Hub uh ratings and power so that's a thing to uh consider and um take a look and check besides that the weight distribution having all this uh Mass all this weight in the back affects your uh ride quality if you're just starting with the rear hubs and you don't have a mid Drive you're not going to notice that it's pretty much you know after a couple miles you get used to it and you just go the flow but that's uh a thing that you notice You observe if you have both bikes and you ride uh pretty often it's the way distribution and how it affects you know the Dynamics the kinetics of the bike in the back another thing which I forgot to mention is the a even power delivery so it feels like you get like you know the inertia the power coming from the back over there a mid drive it's underneath you so it feels more Balan and another thing which really sucks when you have to to do it when you get flat uh mid drive it's like a regular bike you remove the quick release axles or the two knots from both sides you push the tire for the chain you push the shifter the side and wheels out you can replace the tire here you have to make sure the cables you can see here you have special safety security washers you have to disconnect right here and it's more work and it's much more weight here in the back so you have to be careful not to jam your fingers and like pry it out slowly so it's a little more difficult and require more time um to perform this operation The Hub setup will work independently from the entire drivetrain when you ride the Hub motor set up it does not matter what speed you're in flat or heal the motor will perform the same no shifting required resulting in an easy operation great for entry level r especially for those that don't have experience similar to an automatic car transmission one single speed ratio no need for shifting but performance will be limited the mid Drive will power your E Bike for the drive chain but will allow the mid Drive motor to take full advantage of the rear wheel gears increasing or decreasing torque power and speed here you can see shifting gears on the mid Drive will increase speed and torque on the Hub Drive shifting gears will not make a difference and maintain the same speed level and torque when it comes to Performance me Drive is Superior in any way when the mid Drive is used properly with its gears the motor will run at ideal RPM this means the motor will last longer and will have lower risk of breaking up if you're not starting in a low gear and putting too much stress on a drivetrain and not allowing it to start the higher rotation and shift the lows properly it will end up wearing out the drivetrain component sooner than expected in mid Drive case if you increase or lower the speed you'll need to shift the gears up and down in order to adjust for the riding speed spe or elevation to make sure the motor is assisting properly similar to manual car transmission on the Hub drive this is not needed besides the rear wheel gears you can also increase or decrease the level assist on the motor both type models making your riding experience tailer to your preferences if you're looking for fun chill rides and easy operation The Hub Drive is perfect for this task on the other hand if you're looking to get highest speed possible if you're regularly taking on the big heels then the mid Drive is the best option A available and worth spending extra cash okay so I've been riding this bike for a few months right now I bought this bike for my wife and my wife hasn't ridden a bicycle for over 20 years so for me um getting a bike that is good for beginners was a very important thing and and this was really easy for her I mean start with just the ergonomics in the sense it's a step through bike it's much easier for a beginner someone who hasn't been riding for a long time to start on a bike that's like that so and frankly my wife was very very comfortable with it my wife is actually taller than I am so the large was a perfect fit for her and as far as the assist level after after we set up on on one we started with one she felt very comfortable with just one I remember you told me when you got the bike he was so excited that uh she didn't want to Peddle yes she didn't like to to use bikes and then when she jump on this one the cyst tell me what what happened yes yes so so that I mean I think that's a very good point I think think you know this bike made my wife want to ride bicycles and I think that's a very important Point she I remember you tell me yeah she want to go for she didn't want to she didn't want to ride first but then hold on one second I'm interrupt you you got the gensley and you wanted to ride every day I remember used when I did the review wanted to go right then she want to join us and that's when remember yeah yes that's exactly right that's exactly right and I think that's the the you know the evolution of the bike the ebikes have become right now so easy for beginner riders that someone with absolutely no experience in riding can get on the bike set set the power assist to one and just like start riding and they'll start enjoying biking more than you know starting without an ebike that's why I highly recommend it especially for someone who's not necessarily athletic who hasn't been riding for a long time and who's just trying to keep up with someone else then this is really a great choice for them yeah so we have we have like seven-year-old Twins and they're starting to get really fast uh I have like a specialized the road road racing bike and I'm like trying to keep up with them so it'll be it's it's great to have the option of actually you know being able to set the power to where you want it to be and and then get the speed that you want to get where you need to be at the time that that you need to be there I tried both bikes and and I was holding the camera while while Vitali was talking about each one of them and I can understand the the subtle differences between the two as far as you know the The Hub drive versus the mid Drive I get it um but frankly if you were to ask me having ridden both and and being being a relatively experienced biker you really have to be paying attention to notice the difference between the two the first knowledable you have to be knowledgeable you have to be knowledgeable you have to be paying attention you have to kind of like you know know what to look for for you to to realize the difference between the two um and I and I agree with everything Vitali said but with respect to you know my experience I didn't really feel as much except the first thing that i s that I that I heard the first thing that I felt was the sound there is a slight humming sound that's coming from The Hub drive and that's very typical of Hub drives there's a slight humming sound that you hear it while the The Hub Drive dead silent you cannot hear anything but for the mid drive you can hear a humming sound and maybe maybe when we start we can try to capture that sound it's actually hard to capture on a microphone but you can hear it while you're riding yeah it's it's very very loud but the thing is you're riding on Flats you have to try heels on the heels that's where the oh it starts whining yes not just whining but you have more assist more power that's the difference between mid drive and the hard drives but uh we can go for ride and try overall both of them were very comfortable I would say the suspension is perfect for street riding even for this kind of riding here in the park it felt comfortable enough even with with few bumps so perfect for street riding very comfortable uh uh the trails also I think light Trails definitely light trails and I think you know paths right here like do this path right here absolutely look you can definitely this bike will handle perfectly absolutely yeah I completely agree and another selling point for my wife was basically you know this the rack the rack was was very important for her because uh she was thinking that maybe she could you know set up maybe pedals down here and take one of the kids with her that's one thing you have a baby seat I saw you can put a baby seat on exactly you can put a baby seat on the top you can put a basket on on the back and and go shopping um you can use it for putting your backpack on it Range Rover just exactly exactly um and also here the ergonomics are very very intuitive really everything is placed where it needs to be the throttle where it needs to be you know the ringer uh The Bell the shifter here the shifter actually very high quality shifter one thing we we we didn't talk about also the disc brakes disc very high quality disc brakes I felt that they're very smooth the the braking the braking delivery is very smooth the Hydraulics very welld designed overall I would say this is you know the the the best bang for the book these are the most important factors to take in consideration when choosing between Hub versus mid drives and which type of drivetrain suits best your needs when it comes to savings and choosing the best option ebike to start with or if you're looking to upgrade to a nicer more performant ride this season van Powers has these two amazing options all parts are highest quality you have UL certified batteries exceptional front suspension you'll not find ebike with integrated seat pole suspension high level performance fast 4 amps Chargers included this two e biks from Van Powers at this Black Friday price levels The Hub version sells now at $999 and the highest level mid drive at only $2,100 both Hub and mid Drive coming with torque sand answer at this price level this is unheard of guys don't lose the chance to grab these amazing deals the link will be down below in description box thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time