Continuing my trend of ebike related blogging (I’m hoping for a future world with more transportation infrastructure enabling bike-based travel), I came across some Youtube videos featuring bikes with Pinion’s Motor.Gearbox.Unit (MGU). Simply put, it combines the ebike motor and gearing into one unit, which could greatly simplify the rest of the bike build and reduce service intervals for the bike overall. You can use a belt or chain to attach the MGU to the back wheel.
From the marketing on their website:
- 12 gears with 600% ratio
- 10km maitenance-free
- 160 NM torque
- shifting under load and at stop
Basically everything you could ask for other than a low price. The inside of the unit sort of looks like car technology. Speaking of cars, ZF, the company that also does gearboxes for cars, recently announced a cylindrical ebike motor. It seems logical that ZF would be capable of creating a combined unit like Pinion. Hopefully some increased competition in this area can bring prices down, because cutting-edge ebikes like this come in around $10k USD these days. With the motor and gearing combined, it may be possible to create a system that is more resistant to theft as well.