You are absolutely right about it being small, but free. Do keep in mind, a direct drive is always "engaged" to some extent by the cogging force. An advanced c

You are absolutely right about it being small, but free. Do keep in mind, a direct drive is always "engaged" to some extent by the cogging force. An advanced controller can make a direct drives "freewheel", but it actually takes power to do that. Totally worth budgeting for a slightly larger battery to allow a simpler overall design. Now if you say, had a mid-drive bike, or an internally geared hub, there are some complicated mechanical systems you can put in place to lock the freewheeling mechanisms in the gearing when you want to apply the brakes, but I haven't seen anyone design that yet.