Fazua vs Mahle X35 vs new Mahle X20

[DrShifty]

I'm starting to look around e-bikes - being in my 70s means I'm slowing up on the hills and a bit of assistance would be welcome.

The group I ride with has a few riders on the Focus Paralane2 with the Fazua motor, one has the Orbea Gain e-bike with the Mahle X35 hub motor and several have the clunky looking bikes with the boxed battery on the down tube that don't interest me.

I borrowed a Paralane2 for a test and am impressed with the bike. I'm yet to borrow the Orbea to test out the hub motor as that guy is away, but am told that he's disappointed with the bike and the way the motor performs.

The Fazua Evation motor is said to provide 55 Nm of torque and the Mahle X35 is 40 Nm. The Fazua has a crank torque sensor for the software and the Mahle is cadence sensor from the hub.

Now we add in the news of the newly released Mahle X20 motor. This is said to provide 55 Nm and also has a torque sensor in the bottom bracket for better power delivery. I figured I might wait for the new season bikes to arrive to check out the new Mahle system.

However, I have just read that the X20 motor is really only 23 Nm and their advertised 55 Nm is merely a calculated equivalent bottom bracket motor value. This means that they are saying a 55 Nm bottom bracket motor will have power losses of about 60% through the drive train and end up with 23Nm at the hub.

Is there anybody with experience with both Fazua and Mahle motors who can give some advice on this?

[AUbicycles]

Not sure how helpful, generally I found fazua were providing less power than other BB or hub motors, the advantage is the conpact form and they are lighter so serves a purpose of boosting for uphills, but without the same 250 watts of the bulkier, heavier counterparts.

You bring torque into the equation and you probably need to bring in battery capacity / life to compare the options along with weight.

I was surprise how compact the latest Mahle motors are. Didn’t test, though with an integrated battery they are fairly invisible.

The other thing worth testing is how smoothly the motors engage / disengage.