Help me give my 160E the Martin Maes/Orbea treatment

[birdman2447]

To start this off I am a big fan of E Bikes. My Yeti 160E is one the best bikes I have owned E bike or not. I am keen to ride the Yeti 6 Bar without a motor such as what Orbea did with the DH bike for Martin Maes.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/martin-maes-is-racing-a-modified-e-bike-in-the-fort-william-world-cup-downhill.htm

The Yeti Sixfinity is amazing in e bike form and I have pulled my battery and tapped off the frame to keep it clean and dry and it rides great without the battery. However its heavy and the motor still has the inherent drag of riding the Shimano motor with a dead battery or turned off.

Now my question is, how could I run an EP8 without any internals? The drive unit would just be acting as something to hold a set of Shimano cranks or I would use the EP8 spindle. Who knows whats under the cover in the pictures of the Orbea DH bike I shared a link to, but whatever they did they used a set of standard Shimano hollowtech cranks.

Anyone who has torn apart these motors have tips? My first thought is to buy a non working EP8 and tear it down for measurements.

Thanks!

 

[TurdFarmer]

I would just get an SB160.

Yeti wanted to use switch infinity but couldn't.

 

[mattomoto]

I would just get an SB160.

Yeti wanted to use switch infinity but couldn't.

He is right, the Sixfinity is pretty amazing. I have both a SB150 and a 160e and the suspension on the 160e feels much better and way less maintenance than the Switch.

 

[Doomanic]

If you're not a machinist I think it would be an expensive exercise in futility.

I seem to recall that there was a BB conversion for the original Shimano motor a few years ago and with access to machine tools wouldn't be too hard to do.