Up next in 10
It's finally here! The all-new Shimano EP8 motor system takes over where the E8000 began, with a smaller, lighter and more powerful system plus some amazing software and application changes.
Shimano have done their best to keep the lid on the Shimano EP8 cookie jar, but now that it’s here and we have one to play with, we can reveal all of the updates, improvements and changes made to the new eBike drive unit.
While still an excellent motor, the E8000 is starting to show its age and an update is very welcome. Shimano being the perfectionists that they are though haven’t given it a shiny new body but have completely redesigned the system.
For starters, the EP8 boasts 15nm more torque for a total of 85nm, a significant increase and one that’s easily felt on the trail, but Shimano has also made all that power much easier to control. Not only does the EP8 offer smoother pedalling and has a claimed 36% less drag than the E8000, but the motor also manages power more naturally. Instead of sudden bursts of power, the 85nm unit delivers power in a more controlled manner. Once you do get up to speed and hit the speed limiter, the EP8 shutdown of power is less noticeable and no longer feels like you’re suddenly riding through a bog. The new power management is far better on the trail and makes the EP8 a much nicer unit to ride on fast flowing trails.
While increasing the torque, Shimano has decreased the size, the weight and the sound. Compared to the E8000, the EP8 is 10% smaller, with much of the size saving being on the non-drive side of the unit. Being smaller and more compact will allow manufactures to integrate the EP8 into bikes much better than ever before, and Shimano feels that we could see the new motor on more varied bikes including gravel and commuter bikes in the future thanks to the improved size.
Read the full story here...
https://singletrackworld.com/charged/2020/08/31/shimano-ep8-launched-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/
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0:00
everyone andy from singletrap magazine
0:01
here and today we're going to talk about
0:02
the brand new
0:03
shimano ep8 a new motor system for 2021
0:07
which launches today so if you want to
0:09
know
0:09
everything about the new ep8 stay
0:12
tuned and keep watching
0:16
all right hey everyone so we're here
0:18
with the new shimano epa the successor
0:20
to the e8000
0:22
and today we're going to go through all
0:24
those new updates those changes and
0:26
those big numbers associated
0:28
with the ep8 before we get into it let's
0:31
talk about what shimano wanted from this
0:33
motor system when they started
0:34
developing it
0:35
shimano decided they wanted something
0:37
more powerful and smoother to ride
0:39
something quieter something more
0:41
efficient
0:42
something with a cleaner integration
0:44
something that
0:45
offered better heat management than the
0:47
outgoing model but while
0:49
all doing that they also wanted a motor
0:51
that fits the same mounting points
0:53
as the outgoing e8000 and that's what
0:56
shimano has done here
0:57
with the ep8 now talking about power
1:01
the ep8 has 85 newton meters of torque
1:04
and that's 15 newton meters more than
1:06
the outgoing e8000
1:08
that is a massive upgrade now
1:12
what that means on the trail is you're
1:14
gonna get up climbs much much quicker
1:16
you can use less effort if you're that
1:18
way inclined
1:19
but if you put in more effort you're
1:22
going to
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absolutely fly on the trail
1:26
it's an incredible motor and it's
1:28
extremely smooth
1:30
very very smooth not only in how it
1:32
feels but also that power
1:34
curve the power on and power off it's a
1:37
much smoother progression now
1:39
there's no sudden surge of power and
1:41
sudden stop of power
1:42
it's a much much smoother and also
1:44
quieter system
1:46
talking about smoothness shimano say
1:49
that this offers
1:50
36 percent less drag than the e8000
1:54
and i've tried it with it off of course
1:57
it's still an emtb
1:58
it's a heavier bike it's not as light as
2:00
an analog bike
2:02
but it is surprisingly smooth and you
2:04
can get to places
2:06
with this turn off if you were so
2:08
inclined
2:09
it's also lighter weight shimano has
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made this
2:13
out of magnesium now the magnesium helps
2:16
dissipate heat better in warmer climates
2:18
but it also decreases weight by 300
2:22
grams this unit now weighs 2.6 kilograms
2:26
and that helps to shave weight off emtbs
2:29
so
2:30
that's a really really good feature on
2:32
top of that while increasing
2:34
power while making it quiet and while
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making it lighter and better
2:38
with heat management they've also made
2:40
the unit 10
2:42
smaller now you can see on this side it
2:44
looks pretty small but once you look on
2:46
the non-drive side
2:47
it looks positively tiny now shimano
2:51
says the ep8 now
2:53
sits in its range from touring bikes all
2:56
the way up to enduro emtbs
2:58
shimano i think that because of the size
3:00
of this because it's so compact small
3:02
and lightweight
3:03
we're going to see it on a lot more
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different bikes not just mountain bikes
3:07
perhaps commuter bikes perhaps even
3:09
gravel bikes i'm not sure
3:10
so that is a great feature as well as
3:13
being 10
3:14
smaller shimano have managed to keep
3:16
this 177 millimeter q-factor
3:19
so you feel like you're just riding a
3:20
normal bike you're not haven't got your
3:22
feet
3:22
so far apart on it and on top of that
3:25
they've also updated the crank
3:27
arms the new crank arms look better for
3:29
a start they've got this really lovely
3:31
shiny black finish
3:33
they've also put like a plastic cover on
3:35
here to protect them from scratching
3:37
so they'll stay looking better for
3:38
longer and now they're also available in
3:41
a shorter
3:42
160 millimeters which is a great update
3:46
all right so before we move on to other
3:48
parts i want to talk about the power
3:50
and i want to talk about something that
3:52
shimano calls its profiles
3:54
so the power output of this is 85
3:58
newton meters that's its most power
4:00
that's what the power you get in
4:02
trail and boost in eco mode
4:05
this will go to up to 30 newton meters
4:08
and we're saying that
4:09
in default settings because now you have
4:12
a lot more choice over customization
4:14
now we've not been able to try the new
4:16
application that shimano has released
4:17
for this because
4:18
that app comes out today so i've not
4:21
actually used it
4:22
but looking at what shimano are planning
4:24
to do with it
4:25
you can change the talk on the epa
4:28
in different settings to suit where
4:30
you're riding how you're riding and who
4:32
you're riding with
4:33
but not only that you can create
4:35
different profiles based on
4:37
what you're doing and you can store two
4:39
profiles on your bike
4:41
so for example let's say you want
4:44
maximum range
4:45
so what you could do is you could set
4:47
your trail at 50 40 newton meters
4:49
because it's 20 newton meter increments
4:51
you could fit set trail at 40 and you
4:54
could set
4:54
boost at 60 newton meters and you could
4:57
see how far you could go
4:59
but what happens if halfway you through
5:01
your ride you think hang on i need to
5:03
get home quickly i need more power
5:05
well you could also have a power profile
5:08
in your bike too
5:09
which has the full 85 newton meters and
5:12
you can
5:12
access that profile through the display
5:15
and you can change from profile 1
5:17
profile 2. on top of that you can create
5:20
even more profiles within the
5:22
application
5:23
and you can bluetooth those from the app
5:25
to the bike
5:26
on the trail so you could even set
5:29
profiles
5:30
for where you're riding if you're right
5:31
like me and you live in the peak
5:32
district
5:33
you've got lots of long rocky uphills
5:35
you might want more power so you'll have
5:37
a
5:37
peak district profile but perhaps maybe
5:39
one day you head to lan deglo or the
5:41
surrey hills
5:42
now you might not need that full power
5:44
you want more range for example
5:46
so you can have a surrey hills profile
5:48
it's a very versatile and very clever
5:50
idea
5:51
and i cannot wait to use it so yeah very
5:54
very interesting and exciting update
5:56
another cool update on this is the
5:59
walk feature now the e8000 had walk mode
6:03
but not like this the problem with the
6:05
e8000 was
6:07
if you tackled a very steep trail with
6:09
the biggest cog
6:11
and you might had to get off you would
6:13
also then have to
6:14
knock your gears down into the smaller
6:16
cog so that the walk mode could actually
6:18
push you up the hill
6:20
not anymore the shimano epa is a smarter
6:23
walk system it doesn't matter what gear
6:26
you're in
6:26
you can have another biggest cog the
6:28
middle or the smallest in your sprocket
6:30
and the walk mode will work and it will
6:33
power up to
6:34
four miles per hour and it's very
6:36
impressive if you're off the bike it
6:37
will scamper up the hill
6:38
and if you want to be really lazy you
6:40
can sit on it and it will still get up
6:42
the hill
6:42
but it burns through battery if you do
6:45
it's a great update
6:46
another nice update especially for
6:48
people new to emtbs
6:50
um one of the most searched problems i
6:53
think
6:54
with the old e8000 system from new
6:56
riders was the fact that they would turn
6:58
their bike on and they would get a w013
7:00
error message
7:01
and that's because simply they had their
7:02
foot on the pedal when they turned it on
7:05
and it caused confusion especially when
7:07
you're new to e-bikes
7:08
obviously the the weight around that was
7:10
to turn it on without your foot on the
7:12
pedal
7:13
but now the epa actually handles that
7:15
error even better too
7:17
you can put your foot on the pedal and
7:19
turn it on and no error message will
7:21
show up
7:21
you can even pedal it lightly and ride
7:24
it and turn it on
7:25
and no error message will show up
7:27
however power won't
7:29
be start going through the motor until
7:30
you ease off you can still get the error
7:33
message if you
7:33
really push it um but yeah i mean
7:37
don't do that but at least now you can
7:39
have your foot on the pedal
7:40
and turn it on so those are some of the
7:42
upgrades to the motors some of the
7:44
upgrades to the software and the app
7:46
but there's more to the ep8 than that
7:49
shimano have even updated the display
7:52
now the new display
7:54
on the ep8 is called the e sc
7:57
800 it's still a color display and it
8:00
still offers
8:01
all those same uh useful information
8:03
such as range
8:05
distance and current speed but on top of
8:08
that it also gives you access to those
8:10
profiles which i've also already
8:12
mentioned
8:12
and it has a new wireless feature to
8:15
allow you to connect to garmin
8:17
products too now one of the benefits of
8:19
connecting to a garmin i've been told
8:21
i've not tried this is the fact that
8:23
on a garmin you can actually see your
8:26
battery percentage
8:27
rather than a battery bar so if you guys
8:31
like me have been riding a shimano motor
8:34
and you're sometimes a bit frustrated
8:36
because it says you have two bars or one
8:38
red bar left
8:39
it's like well what is that is that 10
8:41
power is that 20 percent power
8:43
well if you connect your new sc em 802 a
8:47
garment you can actually see
8:49
how much percentage you've got left it's
8:51
a really neat
8:52
uh displaced a slightly smaller and
8:55
looks great
8:56
another perhaps even more important
8:59
upgrade is to the
9:01
shifter on the ep8 system
9:04
now with the e8000 shimano had an
9:06
underbar clicky shifter which
9:08
most people changed to the e8 e7000
9:11
over bar button system so they can use a
9:14
dropper post remote
9:15
shimano got wires of that and now the
9:18
new sw
9:19
em800 looks a lot like that e7000 switch
9:22
system
9:22
except it has new button shape so it's
9:25
much much more comfortable
9:26
to use even the wires on this system
9:31
have been updated they measure just 2.4
9:34
millimeters
9:35
rather than 2.8 and they've done that
9:38
not to save weight although it does save
9:40
a little bit of weight but because
9:42
shimano believed that in the future
9:44
e-bikes will need to have a lot more
9:47
data and information
9:48
going through them i don't know what
9:50
they mean by that perhaps they mean that
9:52
derailers will need to speak to the
9:53
motor unit or perhaps even suspension
9:55
and dropper post will have to speak to
9:56
the drive unit
9:57
and to get around that and to
9:59
future-proof the system shimano have
10:00
updated the wires
10:02
to have a better data transfer rate
10:04
which is a really neat feature
10:06
those wires are backwards compatible if
10:09
you use
10:09
a universal adapter which is available
10:12
from shimano too
10:14
okay so let's answer some questions i'm
10:16
sure you guys are going
10:18
to ask and the first question is this if
10:20
i've got a shimano e-bike
10:21
can i buy an epa at the market and pop
10:24
it on
10:25
and the answer unfortunately is probably
10:27
no you can't
10:28
although you will be able to hunt around
10:30
the internet and probably find an epa
10:32
shimano won't officially be offering
10:34
them aftermarket
10:36
now shimano says the reason for that is
10:38
because different manufacturers
10:40
fit the motor in different ways and what
10:42
i mean by that is
10:43
some manufacturers will tilt the motor
10:46
so it integrates into the frame nicer
10:48
or some manufacturers might have it flat
10:51
and that tilt
10:52
actually affects where the torque sensor
10:54
needs to be set
10:55
so if you buy an ep8 that is destined
10:58
for one bike and fit it to another
11:00
you might find that the torque sensor
11:01
doesn't actually work correctly
11:04
another question that i'm sure all of
11:06
you have got is the question of range
11:08
and i'm going to grab my
11:10
phone here because i want to have a look
11:11
at my strava to let you
11:14
know some different information such as
11:16
climb
11:17
mileage and other bits and bobs now
11:21
on my first ride on the ep-8 i rode with
11:24
a rider who was on an e8000 powered bike
11:27
and they only had 500
11:29
a 504 watt hour battery this has got a
11:32
630 watt hour battery in the epa
11:34
other than that both bikes were merida's
11:37
on that ride we did 38.94
11:41
kilometers and uh we did climbing of 1
11:45
340 meters in that time
11:48
i only used three bars of battery
11:52
let's so let me go through that number
11:53
again 38.94 kilometers
11:57
1340 meters of climbing
11:59
three factory bars okay let's just back
12:02
up a little bit
12:03
first of all i don't know how close i
12:05
was to using the fourth battery bar
12:07
because there's no percentage option on
12:10
that display i don't know
12:11
maybe it was just about to hit the
12:13
fourth but anyway it's still impressive
12:15
nonetheless
12:16
but it was the reason why i got so much
12:18
range is because
12:19
i was with a rider who had a less
12:22
powerful motor
12:23
and that meant that i could use lower
12:27
speed options lower mode options i
12:29
didn't need to be in boost i could be in
12:31
trail i didn't need to be in trail i
12:32
could be an eco
12:33
and that saved a lot of power then again
12:36
the guy on the ep on the e8000
12:39
had to use two batteries so
12:42
that's impressive so if you're riding
12:44
with a bunch of people
12:45
with varying abilities different types
12:47
of bikes and if they're on e8000 bikes
12:50
i reckon you could probably hit 50
12:52
kilometers maybe
12:54
easily with a 630 watt hour battery
12:57
but on another ride i did
13:00
13 kilometers 466
13:04
meters of climbing entirely in
13:08
boost and i used one bar of battery
13:11
that was really impressive that i was
13:14
amazed by that then again
13:15
still i don't know how close i was using
13:17
to using the second
13:18
but according to the display one bar of
13:21
battery for 13 kilometers
13:23
and 466 meters of climbing and that
13:26
ride only took 39 minutes
13:29
that i think is at a good example of why
13:33
e-bikes are so good
13:34
if you don't have much time if you've
13:36
got a family if you have to commute it's
13:38
very far for working
13:39
and you've only got an hour to spend for
13:41
riding this is great i got out
13:43
had a great spin really fast got the
13:46
heart racing
13:47
and uh that was really really impressive
13:50
okay and oh yeah and then yesterday i
13:52
did another ride on the
13:54
ep8 by myself this time bit of a mix
13:58
i started out with the intention of
14:01
seeing how far
14:02
i could go but then i fell for the
14:04
temptation of boost
14:05
so i did 30.65 kilometers 1237
14:10
meters of climbing and i used
14:14
everything i got to red but that's
14:16
because
14:17
i did around six downhills i think
14:21
but that was really really cool um but
14:23
yeah so
14:24
range is a tricky one if you're
14:25
wondering how far can you get on this
14:28
how fast how long is piece of string it
14:30
all depends on who you're riding with
14:32
what mode you're in where you're riding
14:35
and how fit you are and also weather
14:37
conditions
14:38
even your own weight can uh factor in as
14:40
well
14:41
so i hope that kind of helps as well
14:44
all right if there are any questions
14:46
that i have not answered
14:47
please let me know in the comments
14:48
section below and i'll do my best to
14:50
answer them
14:50
if you want to see the epa on the trail
14:52
watch my other video
14:54
and you'll see me riding on the epa and
14:56
talking about it
14:57
and if you want to see this merida check
14:59
out my merida e160 9000 2021
15:04
bike check coming soon see you all later
15:07
bye
#Sports