>>1670995Not him, but
>Torque-sensing Yamaha mid-drive vs. a cheap Chinese hub drive with a cadence sensorVastly different user experience between the two, regarding pedal-assist. A quality mid-drive unit is far more natural, responding directly to the amount of force you're putting into the crank and augmenting your input with the built-in motor. "Pedal assist" via a cadence sensor as found on most hub-drives including the Rad lineup is vastly inferior, with even the best-engineered control setups only vaguely correlating motor assist to the amount of effort you put into the pedals (since they only sense speed and not force/torque on the crank). Personally, if the system doesn't include some form of torque-sensing, I'd just as soon do away with the pretense of "pedal assist" altogether and use a thumb throttle.
If you don't really care about the riding experience and just want to be able to zip around town on an electric moped, a hub motor will suit your needs just fine. But if you want to feel connected to the road, and experience (nearly) the same level of finesse that one does on a bicycle without a motor in the loop, then a torque-sensing mid-drive is worth investing in.
