Nicolai Saturn Pinion Motor.Gearbox.Unit Tested! Pt2 

Yep curious too - couple of times I’d not charged my shimano derailleur and stuck on a long ride in single speed

Everything comes from the main battery. I’m told that even if you run the battery flat, there’s still over 1,000 gear changes available to get you home under your own power.

thinking the boots are BLUNDSTONES from Tassie

Yep 180 in the back would be perfect

160mm at standard configuration of 62,5mm stroke. You can go up to 65mm which means around 166mm travel

@@MrPomax Still about 15-20mm short of what lots of people would like to have.

The pedaling resistance is comparable to other systems. Pinion says power is reserved exclusively for 1000 switching operations when the battery is empty.

@@holger_ger3391 But not compared to the best. ;) I don’t understand why it was ever acceptable that an e-bike can’t be used as a regular bicycle with zero resistance from the motor. Assist is supposed to be helping the rider, not act like a power parasite. Let’s say this was you only bicycle and you needed to bicycle to Germany, for whatever reason, and there was no power outlet on the way. Then I prefer a regular bike if the e-bike will brake me most of the way to my destination.

The motor's likely to be no more and no less reliable than the current competition so, following your observations, you'd be best sticking to riding analogue for the time being.

Good luck with that! I can’t escape XD (and the costs) without significant expense (proportionate that is).

@@madmountainman5197 I think being on par with Shimano etc on motor reliability isn't great. There seem to be a lot of dead Shimano motors and you can't get them unless you are an OEM. The only upside is that with Shimano they have the sales volume that you might be able to get a refurbished or new old stock motor.

@@donpalmera Yup, I understand that. Looking at it from a different point of view, the MGU is currently on a smaller, niche, scale of production, unlike most of the volume producers like Shimano. At present there will be far less demand on Pinion's rate of production, so we may find their supply of spares, for both warranty and servicing, will be readily available. There is an equal risk that, due to being a smaller volume seller, that spares and replacement motors are not available, but based on the already regarded reliability of Pinion's gearbox, i'd rather risk going with the new tech motor over a Shimano unit. The current motors available all use a motor that basically drives a traditional crank axle. This is a simple, yet flawed, design that should be easily serviceable by the home user in the same way as a bottom bracket. The flaw is the amount of torque and flex this design is exposed to, which results in the high wear rates of both the seals and the bearings. However, it would not appear that we, as home users, are able to replace the bearings and seals of this weak spot in the system. Water gets in and there's nothing else to prevent it getting to the rest of the motor, resulting in all the dead motors we've seen reported. On the MGU, the cranks are connected directly to a series of gears that are permanently bathed in oil. Being a solid gear box, the transmitted loads should be spread more evenly, reducing flex in the system, making for a stiffer transmission of power and therefore reducing wear and tear to the outer bearings and seals. Water is kept out and, if you have a damaged bearing and/or seal, you'll see oil leaking out which will give you a clear indication there's a problem and a chance to avoid major damage and effect a timely repair. I've only heard that the Pinion Gearbox has proven reliable, but i'm not aware if that system suffers similar wear rates at the bearing interface between the crank arms and the motor. The risk here is in how long it will take your bike manufacturer - in this case Nicolai - to sort and fix a motor should it break down, as this is an uproven motor with no track record on its reliability. With the right tools, we know that Bosch motors can be serviced, but Shimano don't support servicing of their motor and it's not been very well designed to be user serviceable. The MGU is new to market, so we currently don't know what the reliability will be, but having a gearbox in an oil bath between the cranks and the electric motor should put it a step higher than the competition and we can only hope that it will prove to be more reliable than the competition in the long run and that, if/when it does go wromg, that we as end users, find we are able to get it serviced and repaired.

Well luckily it's designed for someone like me not you then

@bongobob7079 sure it definitely has it's audiences but I was mainly here for the gearbox. I own a 24kg bike myself and it's ok, but the lighter ones are more fun to me.

Tbh I would rather know about the specs and characteristics than some person just riding it. If I am looking at buying one seeing it be ridden has no use to me at all.

@@bongobob7079 really? I could sell you snake oil then.

​@@bongobob7079 really? Thats lame, I want to see how the bike actually performs before dumping big money, How the rider looks on the bike etc Curious if you buy a car without any kind of test drive??? I reckon somebody could sell you some magic oil.