My LBS has a Merida eOne-Sixty in the window (this one. Walking past it every day the thing that really stands out is the huge cassette, next to the e-motor bulgy bit; and the cassette really does look ridiculous. It’s *huge*.

I understand that ebikes have generally inserted the e-motor in a way that keeps the rest of the bike design as unchanged as possible; but the beauty of having a motor is that gears can be based around that instead, you’d think.

What’d be another way of having the gears set up around the motor? Would some sort of gearbox with e-motor attachment be feasible, or just too expensive?

If you’ve ridden the (admittedly old model now the new one has leaked) Bosch CX and endured the draggy hell it creates then any type of gearbox is not ideal which is probably why they have ditched it…

I’d agree that the last thing you want or need on an EMTB is a 10t at the high end with zero chain wrap and a 50t at the low end.

11-36 SLX cassette and Zee is what they should have IMHO – awesome low profile tough cheap little mech, all the gears you need on an EMTB and cheap/strong/light/compact.

But fashion dictates…

I just changed mine from 36 front, 11-34 back, to 36 front, 11-46 on the back.

the 46 is arguably a little too big, could maybe get away with a 40/42, but for really steep stuff it is handy, also means I can climb slower with less power assist if I choose to conserve power a bit more. The 34 at the back, means you kinda need to maintain a certain speed before the motor starts to struggle on steep stuff.

I’m talking bafang stuff here btw, just what I’ve found.

You’re not supposed to let the motor struggle, i.e if you came to a step and ground to a halt like you would on a normal bike pushing as hard as you could on the pedals but not actually turning them. What you really want is gearing that tops out at 15.5mph and lots of options below that.

Why would you want gearing that tops out at 15?

“What you really want is gearing that tops out at 15.5mph and lots of options below that.“

I ride mine at more than 15.5mph loads of the time!

Because above that you’re trying to pedal a 50lb bike with a draggy transmission.

Have you never heard of pedalling above the limit or gradients? (or delimiting 😆 )

And tbh the tyres are the most draggy part of my bike, can cycle it no bother with the battery off. It becomes a 37lb bike then…

Bafang and bosch behave very differently when going above the assistance limit. The bosch cx for whatever reason feels like it loses 20-30% of your human input power somewhere between the pedals and the front sprocket. There’s some gearing in there to make the sprocket turn 2.5x faster than the pedals so that might be to blame, especially as lower end boschs, Shimanos and bafangs don’t have a small front sprocket and feel fine above the limit.

That’s why pushing beyond the limit is such a big deal, it runs into a flaw in the bosch cx. It’s also why there are so many speed mods for the cx, raising the speed limiter by 5mph should make the bike feel so much better. Personally I’ve bought a bosch speed (28mph) bike to avoid the limiter. Gearing on that bike is justifiably wide ranging since it needs to be comfortable to pedal at 30mph and easy to winch up hills. A rohloff hub gear should do the trick as well as a 10-52 cassette.

“Because above that you’re trying to pedal a 50lb bike with a draggy transmission.”

Some might be draggy but my Levo isn’t – on the flat it rolls quicker than any of my other MTBs. And the weight only matters when the gradient gets steeper and you’re going uphill – it’s only 10% heavier (total of bike plus rider) than my old full-sus.