The 3 E-bike Drivetrain Types:
The type of drivetrain you choose for your electric bike will significantly influence how you ride your bike and how much you enjoy it.
There’s not a ton of drivetrain variations to choose from — really only three, which I’ll get into below — but the make and model of your drivetrain is an important choice, especially when buying an e-bike.
- “Traditional” sprocket, chain and cassette drivetrains: A chain-driven system that transfers power from a front sprocket attached at the cranks to a cassette of different sized cogs mounted on the rear wheel. The chain wraps through a derailleur (or two) which mechanically pulls the chain onto the different sized cogs or sprockets when you change gears, altering the gear ratio. This is likely what comes to mind when you think of a bicycle drivetrain.
- Single speeds: A chain or belt-driven system extremely similar to a “traditional” bike drivetrain that lacks the capability to shift gears. You get one sprocket in the front attached to one cog in the rear, making for a super simple system that’s strong and easy to maintain. The downside is you’ve only got one gear option.
- Internally-geared hubs: Power is transferred to the rear wheel by a system that looks extremely similar to a standard single-speed drivetrain, but once it arrives at the rear wheel the power is transferred to a complex gear or drive system housed inside the rear hub that allows a rider to change the gear ratio. This type of system is becoming more and more popular on e-bikes, though the technology has been around for a while.
The first two categories I’ve listed above are probably familiar to most people reading this, so I won’t waste a bunch of page space explaining them. Instead, I’m going to jump right into internally geared hubs.
