In order for an e-bike motor to know when to turn on or off, it must receive a
signal from the controller, and in order for the controller to know when to turn the motor on or off, it needs to know when the rider is pedaling. To do that, all e-bikes are equipped with one of two kinds of sensors, either a cadence sensor or a torque sensor.
Until fairly recently, there wasn’t much need to discuss how the two types of sensors might
influence a buyer’s choice. That’s because cadence sensors were found almost exclusively on e-bikes at the more affordable end of the market and torque sensors were only found on higher-end e-bikes. That’s no longer the case; thanks to a drop in the cost of torque sensors, we now see them on some e-bikes that cost less than $2000, which makes the spec of sensor another factor to consider when choosing an e-bike.
