Have they gone mad at Santos Bikes?
An E-Bike as travel bike?
Well it's not that stupid...
Stay tuned!
The Dutch brand Santos Bikes...
...is best known for their custom made bikes.
The Travel Lite+ E-Bike is no exception.
Let's have a closer look...
The frame is made of aluminium alloy...
...just as the front fork.
The heart of the frame...
...is a aluminum reinforcement piece...
...for the Pinion gearbox.
Extraordinary with this bike is the + part...
...+ means the frame is suitable...
...for 27,5 and 28 inch wheels!
On a travel bike it is important...
...to ba able to carry a lot of water.
On the seat tube there is space for a large bottle cage.
Under the down tube there is space for a small one.
On the down tube the bottle cage space...
..is seized for the battery.
The battery mount is really well done.
The mounting points and the wall thickness...
...is extra sturdy.
With the battery position on the down tube...
...Santos goes against the trend...
...with batteries inside the down tube.
The Santos way has one big advantage...
...when batteries get more powerful and smaller...
...it's easy to adapt the battery.
The battery capacity is 558 Wh.
That is the energie you can use during your trip.
The energy is transmitted by a thick cable...
...to the rear wheel GoSwiss Drive electric motor.
The motor has 250 watts continuous power...
...and 500 watts peak power.
And is produces 45 Nm torque.
...Hmmm....
I am often asked...
... is a electric motor in the rear wheel clever?
Yes, it is!
The motor in the rear wheel might be heavy...
...and you feel it...
...but because the power is delivered where you need it...
...the power is very efficient.
For example with a mid motor...
...you loose energie in drive chain to the rear wheel.
So... a rear wheel motor is quite clever.
I spoke earlier about the Pinion-gearbox
It is a 12-speed.
You can compare it with a gearbox...
...of a car or motorbike...
...with a lot of sprockets around two axels...
..only miniturized.
The gearbox connects to the crank...
...and the Gates Center track Belt Drive.
The pro's of a belt drive:
...maintenance friendly and very, very quiet.
But a belt is endless in contrast to a chain.
So how do you fit it through the frame?
Simply by creating a split in the chain stay.
The gap in the stain stay is filled with a shim...
...that is bolted into place so the frame stays rigid.
To shift you turn the twistshitfer on the handlebar.
Very smooth....
To tension the belt most bikes have an eccentric bottom bracket or...
...sliding dropouts.
But Santos uses fixed dropouts and the Pinion so....
...they designed a belt tensioning wheel.
The Santos Travel Lite+ E-Bike is a real travel bike.
Lets take a closer look at the carriers.
In the front two Tubus Lowriders...
...with a 15 kg rating in total.
And at the rear the Santos Travelrack XL...
...that is developed together with Tubus.
And they are rated for 40 kg.
The brakes are Shimano Deore XT's.
They are hydraulic and have a single piston caliper.
The discs have a diameter of 180 mm.
The brake levers are very well adjustable...
...to smaller and bigger hands.
Santos key USP is tailor fit bikes...
...so I let them decide what options to fit.
They chose a Cane Creek Thudbuster suspension seatpost.
It works with a parallel-link and a elastomeer.
And it does the job.
The Brooks Cambium C17 saddle is a personal favorite!
The stem is made by Santos and easily adjustable...
...a bit higher to fit a more upright riding position...
...or lower for a more sporty one.
The quick releases on both wheels....
...are made by Santos.
They are practical if you need to repair a tire.
A bike with a battery but also a hub dynamo!
If the battery runs out of juice, you are still visible.
The SON SL dynamo is free of connecting wires.
The hub is connected through a contact plate in the drop-out.
The contact plate is connected to a wire inside the fork.
And that wire connects to de SON Edelux II headlight.
That headlight is very bright and has a good wide beam.
Another wire connects to the SON rear light.
I mentioned it before: the wheels.
This test bike has 27,5" wheels...
...and you might think that 27,5" is a lot bigger than 26".
Well, that is not the case.
They are slightly bigger...
...and the bike remains very agile.
The Santos is equipped with Santos XL Travel-rims.
They are extra robust and very offroad capable.
The big 62 mm balloon tires are from Schwalbe: Super Moto X.
I inflated them to max 2.5 Bar and...
...and on smooth tarmac they are very light running.
But on gravel roads or dirt tracks you just deflate...
...the tires and the big balloons absorb all the bumps.
The operation of the control-unit is positioned...
..directly next to the left handle.
And it works like a treat.
On the screen you find the information you need.
On the left the support modi the motor is giving.
Now 0 off course.
In the top: the speed.
In the two circles you find...
... the predicted battery range on the right and...
...the left one shows how much watts you are using.
The trick is to keep the left one as low as possible...
...by biking actively...
...to get a maximum out of the predicted battery range.
Santos claims a range between 10 and 200 km.
It tested the bike a couple a days...
...and tried to drain the battery as fast as possible.
I managed 120 km on a full charge.
And that is ok with my 33 kg test weight!
The Santos Travel Lite+ E-Bike is an amazing E-travelbike.
The weight of 28.5 kg sounds like a lot...
...but while biking you hardly notice it.
It only confirms that the Santos is robust and well build...
...and that it is capable of carrying heavy loads.
The price...€ 7599,-
And with the special parts like this one...
...even a bit more.
If you have ever been to a Swiss Bike shop like I recently did...
...you wouldn't be surprised with this kind a pricing.
The battery outside the frame...
...and the rear wheel motor...
I think it is a intelligent choice Santos made.
Who can predict the development of E-Bikes?
This is easy to replace.
When the E-part of this bike is worn-out...
...you can even decide to get rid of the E-part.
All that remains is a perfect travel bike...
...with a high market value.
And that is important too.
Have they gone mad at Santos Bikes?
I don't think so!
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