New Version of my San Eagle

[saneagle]

After I sold my Marin with BPM motor. I'm now back on my 2 year old San Eagle. To remind you, it started like this at about 25kg

and then I fitted a BPPM motor and after breaking the forks and replacing them with downhill type, I added another battery and various other bits and the weight was upto 29kg but it went pretty well.

Then I swapped the motor, controller and batteries onto the Marin and they went with it so i was left with the old motor and frame and the now rather oversize forks for the small motor. I found some old Marzocchi bombers in the shed and managed to fit them and after filing the 9mm drop-outs I got the motor in and added a torque arm from Cyclezee via my friend Dave. I then mounted 4 packs of 22v lipos on the cross-bar which makes 44v and 10aHand soldered the shunt to get 20 amps out of the controller. That gives just about 1000watts of power. It now only weighs 20kg or 18.5kg with half the battery for 5aH and it's very fast and gets me up the steepest hills with minimal effort. I haven't got a speedo, but I'm sure that the top speed is about 23 mph. This is now the third version of my bike and I'm really pleased with it because it's fast, powerful and light, and much easier to handle than my Marin because it's closer to the ground and not so far when I fall off, and it didn't cost much. The only thing I need to change is the gearing because I can't pedal fast enough, so I'm looking on Ebay at the moment.

While I'm here, I just want to mention the Bristol show. I tried a Bosch drive, the new 36v Panasonic and the E-motion Neo Cross. The Panasonic was the least powerful and had a strange klunk when you touched the pedal, the Bosch was OK, but the E-Motion was easily the best for effortless hill-climbing up that hill and it was very smooth and predictable. Everybody should try one before getting too excited about the new crank drive bikes. And if Funkylyn reads this, Dave says tell her that his motor is OK. One of the connectors to the motor had come a bit loose and now it's fixed.

 

[alfazzr]

Steve, nice development. Have you used the small RC type LiPo packs for the battery ?

Alfazzr

 

[saneagle]

Yes, I got them from Ebay a while ago for about £35 each. I got an imax charger off ebay for about £15 and a Playstation 12v power supply from a boot sale for a couple of quid.

 

[GaRRy]

I then mounted 4 packs of 22v lipos on the cross-bar which makes 44v and 10aHand soldered the shunt to get 20 amps out of the controller. That gives just about 1000watts of power. It now only weighs 20kg or 18.5kg with half the battery for 5aH and it's very fast and gets me up the steepest hills with minimal effort. I haven't got a speedo, but I'm sure that the top speed is about 23 mph.

While I'm here, I just want to mention the Bristol show. I tried a Bosch drive, the new 36v Panasonic and the E-motion Neo Cross. The Panasonic was the least powerful and had a strange klunk when you touched the pedal, the Bosch was OK, but the E-Motion was easily the best for effortless hill-climbing up that hill and it was very smooth and predictable. Everybody should try one before getting too excited about the new crank drive bikes

Boy a illegal bike and saying the NEO is better than a crank drive Bosch all in one post.

You do know how to live dangerously

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Boy a illegal bike and saying the NEO is better than a crank drive Bosch all in one post.

You do know how to live dangerously

I must admit I helped Steve with this one, soplease don't blame him.

 

[hech]

well done, nice bike and set up. A short wheelbase bike is aesthetically more pleasing and keeping the batteries in the centre must help the ride. Lipo is great for high current applications as well.

D8veh, great to see you back. Missed your input and sage advice too much!

 

[bazwaldo]

I second that! Nice to see you back on the forum d8veh
Also very nice to meet you and saneagle at Bristol and also Funkylyn.

Barry.

 

[GaRRy]

I must admit I helped Steve with this one, soplease don't blame him.

Don't worry I'm not blaming anyone. Just meant as a light hearted joke based on other threads.

 

[shemozzle999]

Hi,
Just a quick off topic question.
Did any of you that attended the Bristol show see or speak to the person who brought along the Brompton that was withdrawn from the competition and do you know if they are a member of the forum?
I would very much like to know more details and history about the bike.

 

[Caph]

Boy a illegal bike

Unless I'm mistaken, the motor is just a standard 250W rated motor isn't it? I thought the more powerful ones had a bigger radius. I could be mistaken though.

That would make it legal though wouldn't it, because the law only states a limit on the rated wattage of the motor itself, not what you actually put through it.

 

[funkylyn]

And if Funkylyn reads this, Dave says tell her that his motor is OK. One of the connectors to the motor had come a bit loose and now it's fixed.

Tell Dave I never doubted for a second that it was just something small and after all if he couldnt fix it NOBODY could !

Like your new improved bike Steve, and impressed how you got the weight down so much...dont go having any more bad falls !!
Your comments on the bikes you tried at Bristol certainly makes interesting reading.....indeed, food for thought

Lynda

 

[GaRRy]

Unless I'm mistaken, the motor is just a standard 250W rated motor isn't it? I thought the more powerful ones had a bigger radius. I could be mistaken though.

That would make it legal though wouldn't it, because the law only states a limit on the rated wattage of the motor itself, not what you actually put through it.

Apart from fact he states it will do 23 mph under power. Which makes it not road legal.

PS not trying to get into a argument about legal bikes. As already stated my original post was meant as a light hearted comment based on content of other threads not as any form of attack on OP

 

[saneagle]

My bike has been through a few more transformations since I started this thread. I painted the forks black to match the frame and added some stickers just for a laugh. I also got a 12aH Headway battery from BMSBattery and put it in a rack bag using our favourite method. It has the original motor, but now with the shunt soldered for 22 amps


D8veh had a spare Q128 motor, so we fitted that in the back for a bit more power. I used a separate controller and a thumb throttle on the left side. Like that it went really well. Unfortunately I don't have photos of it like that. Unfortunately the spokes kept breaking and I ran out of spares, so I had to put the original wheel back for a bit. My wife uses the bike for shopping sometimes, but there's a very nasty hill on the way back. Since going back to one motor she says its not powerful enough to get her up the hill, so she stopped using it.

Dave experimented with high speed Q100 motors in his bike, but they wouldn't run properly. We spent a whole night trying different controllers, but neither motor would run. He left one of them in my garage, so when I was bored one night I thought I'd try it in my bike. Guess what. It worked perfectly. Now I have two wheel drive again with a normal speed Bafang in the front and the high speed Q100 in the back. The high speed motor isn't very powerful on its own, but with the Bafang to help get the bike going, it really flies now and will pull to about 30mph downhill and still give good hill climbing power. This is how it looks now although the camera seems to have made it look out of proportion.

 

[Dave Williams]

Nice to see another San eagle, only just purchased mine, i wonder what it will look like in 12 months or so...
do you have any background info on them? where would of it been purchased from etc?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

This one was purchased from Microgoods or something like that in Wolverhampton. They're a Chinese importer that was selling them on E bay. When new it had the thick optical pedal sensor and cheapo bottom bracket. The BB had to be replaced, but it's difficult to find the long off-set spindle, so the whole lot was chucked and upgraded to a cartridge one and a new controller with conventional magnetic pedal sensor.