STEPS EP8/e*Thirteen Lockring Tool

[Bigtuna00]

I'm giving up trying to run a new dropper housing without dropping the motor, and I figure I will need this tool from time to time anyway. Sharing my research in hopes of saving others the search

• The Shimano tool is TL-FC39
• The Park Tool version is LRT-2

But both of these are lame as you can't easily attach a wrench for torqueing. Check out Birzman part BM19-ABB-SMN54 if you need one of these. <- This is the wrong tool I think it's the right size for the ring, but it won't fit inside the e*thirteen chainring so it doesn't reach the lockring. In fact I'm not even sure the Park tool will fit either at this point. I ordered the TL-FC39 as I already have a compatible tool to attach to it (Park BBT-69.2).

 

[b33k34]

I'm planning on changing the brakes on our Rises - do you need this tool to drop the motor out? Why can't you just leave the cranks and chainring on it?
And is there anywhere in the UK (or even Europe that ships to the UK) that has this in stock?

 

[Bigtuna00]

I'm planning on changing the brakes on our Rises - do you need this tool to drop the motor out? Why can't you just leave the cranks and chainring on it?

The chainring blocks access to two of the bolts that need to be removed in order to drop the motor. Since the spider and chainring are all one piece, there's no way to remove the ring without removing the lock ring as well.

Your mileage may vary on the cable install. I have an internal cable routing kit, but the housing is getting hung up on something even with the cable to guide it. I don't want to risk damaging anything so I'm just going to drop the motor/battery. Also it's just much easier to run a dropper cable from the bottom of the bike. I tried to do my Levo in a similar fashion and ended up removing the motor as well.

 

[b33k34]

I’ve found a park tool one that will ship to UK at Tradeinn.
Depending on hose terminations may be able to connect new brake to the one il. Removing and feed. Through using a reverb red thingamy. But will probably catch on something!

 

[Bigtuna00]

I’ve found a park tool one that will ship to UK at Tradeinn.

Let us know if it works. The Birzman tool does not

 

[R120]

I have the park tool one and have used it on various bikes, my two Vitus’s and some friends bikes. I use it with a big ass torque wrench and a 36mm bit which fits onto the LRT-2. IIRC the correct torque for it is pretty high.

I got mine from The Cycle Clinic.

 

[WGW]

What motor do you have? I was able to access the bolts and drop my Shimano e8000 which was running a 34T chainring. It was tight but there is enough room to remove the bolts and access the downtube.

 

[b33k34]

Let us know if it works. The Birzman tool does not

How does it not work?

 

[Bigtuna00]

How does it not work?

I updated the first post to explain. The socket won't fit inside the chain ring.

 

[Bigtuna00]

What motor do you have? I was able to access the bolts and drop my Shimano e8000 which was running a 34T chainring. It was tight but there is enough room to remove the bolts and access the downtube.

EP8. It's not even close with a 32.

 

[Bigtuna00]

I contacted Orbea directly to ask what the correct tool is and they pointed me to E*Thirteen ?‍ This tool doesn't even have the same number of engagement points (12 on the tool, 16 on the lockring) so I don't think it's the right one.

My TL-FC39 won't arrive until next week, apparently it takes 5 days to ship something from LA to the bay area...

 

[Bigtuna00]

My TL-FC39 arrived early, yay! I can confirm it works fine, motor is out, dropper cable housing is in. Just to clarify I use a Park Tool BBT-69.2 to turn the TL-FC39. That is to say the TL-FC39 interface requires a BB tool to use it. This allows me to use a torque wrench.

 

[soundwave]

Any chance you could take some pictures of the frame insides when the motor is out?

 

[Bigtuna00]

Sure thing...

 

[b33k34]

My Park LRT-2 arrived today and it has 16 notches so sounds like it should work on the EP8 (if the bike ever arrives)

I'm going to be swapping out the brakes on our two bikes so any tips or gotchas on removing motor and routing cables would be welcomed.

 

[Bigtuna00]

My Park LRT-2 arrived today and it has 16 notches so sounds like it should work on the EP8 (if the bike ever arrives)

I'm going to be swapping out the brakes on our two bikes so any tips or gotchas on removing motor and routing cables would be welcomed.

The thickness of the tool is they key issue. It has to fit *inside* the e*thirteen chainring/spider. The Park LRT-2 is definitely thicker than the Shimano one. Hopefully it fits!

Preface: I have all the "right" tools for doing this. I have the lockring tool obviously. I also have an internal cable routing set, which I used to run the housing from the motor up through the head tube. I have the SD50 and SD300 tools from Shimano for unplugging and plugging the cables. With that being said there were no real "gotchas". Removal and Install were pretty straight forward. Maybe a warning, the motor bolts are very soft (most likely aluminum) so make sure you have your wrenches fully engaged. And remember that the connections at the motor are SD300, not SD50. But my Rise came with the SD300 tool anyway, I had to buy the SD50 tool (for managing the connectors at the cockpit) separately. The cranks to have an orientation, though I'm not sure it matters. Pay attention to how they come off. there's a hole in the spindle that lines up with the gap in the clamping area.

 

[b33k34]

. I have the SD50 and SD300 tools from Shimano for unplugging and plugging the cables.

thanks for all that. Do you have the part numbers for the tools?
Google is showing me a straight one and one with a curve at the end -

Shimano TL-EW300 E-tube Di2 plug Tool 3.45mm | Tredz Bikes

Shimano TL-EW300 E-tube Di2 plug Tool 3.45mm £3.99 or available with 0% APR finance on baskets over £99. All Spares are delivered free to the UK mainland*, 365 day returns & Price Match. Buy Now.

www.tredz.co.uk

and

Shimano TL-EW02 Outlet Tools for E-Tube / Di2 cable plug | Bikester.co.uk

The Shimano TL-EW02 Outlet Tools for E-Tube / Di2 cable plug at Bikester.co.uk ✓ Biking specialists in the UK ✓ Buy online with free returns ✓ Easy shipping ✓ Great prices with the best service ✓ Find what you need with Bikester.co.uk ✓

www.bikester.co.uk

 

[mark.ai]

I've never used or needed the Shimano tool for disconnecting the Di2 cables, and I disconnect and reconnect them a lot!

They just pull out with your fingers and click back in again.

 

[cguy]

Just wanted to find a relevant place ot chime in with my EP8/Motor bolt experience, and thus my LRT-2 experience. I've had my driveside motor mount bolts come loose on my ep8 equipped bike twice now in around 600km. It's noisy, annoying, probably not good for the bike. They're back together with red loctite instead of blue now. But having no real method of field service on these bolts doesn't make me too happy. The way the chain ring totally obscures the bolts with a 32/34t chainring is awful. Terrible job on this part shimano.
*Note my bike isn't an Orbea, I'm not throwing any shade at Orbea here. I just posted here as I didn't see any discussion about the LRT2/lockring terribleness or shimano motor bolt access anywhere else.

I got an LRT-2 tool the other day to and pulled everything apart. I needed a breaker bar to move the lock ring it was on there really well, and ofcourse reverse thread just to make you question your sanity. So clearly carrying something like an LRT2 in my pack or even in the car won't be too helpful with future bolt issues given how hard getting the lockring off might be.

So I whipped up a few narrow access 6mm allen wrenches. A few to give out to friends and some spares to the internet. If anyone wants one drop me a PM. Pics attached. You'll be asked for shipping cost and a few bucks for material but nothing major. I'm not getting rich off this. I would like to see a company that can stamp these out of stainless steel, or do some sort of mixed material solution take a shot at a tool for this purpose. I tried a Wiha 1/4 thru bit style ratchet, which is pretty narrow, but it still didn't give me access to the bolts behind the chainring.

They're made out of 7050 aluminum plate (similar to 7075) and I figure they should be good for about 12-15nm of torque but they are a rescue tool, not meant for regular shop usage, so if you use it once in the middle of the woods and it saves you from walking home that's job done, if you use it 5 times and it breaks, well that meets my expectations, it's not a steel tool. Use a proper 6mm allen instead of this tool unless it's the only thing that fits and not doing it is going to ruin a ride.

I've made them the appropriate length to fit into the slots of a Project 76 Little Piggy holder lengthwise. That's what I use to carry a spare tool/spare parts and it seems to work quite well.

 

[b33k34]

Shimano tool definitely made both removal and insert easier. Worth a few £. In fact if you’re in UK you can buy one of mine.

 

[Bigtuna00]

The way the chain ring totally obscures the bolts with a 32/34t chainring is awful. Terrible job on this part shimano.

Shimano doesn't make the 1 piece chainring, that's E*Thirteen. Shimano uses a standard spider with a bolt-on chainring so you can unbolt the ring to access the motor bolts.

I needed a breaker bar to move the lock ring it was on there really well

That's not normal, hopefully you torqued it properly for reassembly (it's only 35-45Nm)

ofcourse reverse thread just to make you question your sanity

Or RTFM?

 

[soundwave]

My two cents after dropping the motor successfully yesterday. First of all a big thanks for all who have contributed in this thread!

- I used the Shimano TL-FC39 tool with a Pro Hollowtech wrench. No issues here.
- The small cables did not move at all with fingers. I was already about to buy the Shimano cable tool linked here when I read the comment that a tool was shipped with the bike. I checked the box and there it was. Yeay! With the tool the cables came out easily. Deffinetly get / use the tool.
- I have seen an EP8 video from another bike where there was soft padding on top of the motor to probably reduce the cable clatter sounds. Something to think about adding to our Rises as well?
- Watch the blue paper motor picture carefully since all the bolts are different and there is one extra thicker ring that comes off when removing the motor which can easily drop inside the frame if your bike is upside down.

 

[Bigtuna00]

- The small cables did not move at all with fingers. I was already about to buy the Shimano cable tool linked here when I read the comment that a tool was shipped with the bike. I checked the box and there it was. Yeay! With the tool the cables came out easily. Deffinetly get / use the tool.

There's two tools and two different kinds of cables on the Rise, FYI. The box includes the tool for SD300 cables, which are connected at the motor. The bike also has SD50 cables, for the control switch and the EW-EN100 controller; there's a converter in the headtube area. Orbea really should have included both tools but I suppose the EP8 "kit" they get from Shimano probably only contains the SD300 tool and they'd have to pay extra/do extra work to add the other tool. What do you want from a $10K bike amiright?!

 

[GTBusso]

Hello folks,
I bought my first ebike, an M10 on Boxing Day, so will hopefully have it in the next few days. I like to take new bikes apart and make sure all the axles are greased/thread locked and torqued correctly, so this thread is superb info for me. I also want to put my Hope brakes and One-up dropper on, so it’s motor off anyway.

Looks like I need yet another BB/chainring tool, shortly I’ll have every standard going. Shimano tool seems super pricey here in the Uk, so I’ll likely take the Park one unless anyone has one for sale.

When the E13 ring is worn, I’ll use Shimano so I can leave the spider in place, take the ring off and keep an eye on the motor bolts. I had a quick look for EP8 chainrings, but there only seems to be E8000 rings, anyone know if they’re the same fitment?
I also only see 32 tooth as being the lowest size, is 30 a big pointless no no on an ebike? I use 30 Ovals on my other bikes with 10-51 cassettes.

Thanks for the pics Bigtuna, looking at the car alloy in your photo, looks like you have an Alfa Guilia QF, lovely!

CGuy, if you happen to read this and still have any of those hex keys you made, I’d love to fire you some cash for a couple of them. I have a friend collecting his M10 tomorrow too, so I’m sure he’d appreciate that tool. We’re in the Uk, so it may be too much hassle for you. I’m a new member so can’t PM yet.

 

[Funks]

The Park-Tool LRT-2 works just fine with removing the locking on my eThirteen crank (which came with the Rise H30). The H30 also comes with a one piece chainring (no bolts) so one definitely needs one of these to drop the motor.

My bike also didn't come with the Shimano tool to remove and reinstall the EW-SD300. Bought the bike online but dealer may have have kept it. So I had to buy Shimano TL-EW300 (for EW-SD300), and I snagged a Park Tool EWS-1 for the EW-SD50 cables in the cockpit.


Coupled with the TWB-36 Crowfoot (36mm), was able to remove and torque it just fine (torquing using the 90 degree torque wrench method)

Video shows the torquing method (90 degree)

 

[Bigtuna00]

When the E13 ring is worn, I’ll use Shimano so I can leave the spider in place, take the ring off and keep an eye on the motor bolts. I had a quick look for EP8 chainrings, but there only seems to be E8000 rings, anyone know if they’re the same fitment?

I tried to put an E13 Bosch chainring on my Mondraker Crafty. It moved the chainline ~1.5mm closer to the frame and caused the chain to rub on the chainguard. I switched back to the standard spider with an Absoluteblack round ring, which is actually lighter than the E13 setup anyway. Of course this is a different motor. My point is just to say that there's no guarantee the fitment will be the same even for parts that are supposed to be for the same system

I also only see 32 tooth as being the lowest size, is 30 a big pointless no no on an ebike? I use 30 Ovals on my other bikes with 10-51 cassettes.

Just in case you were thinking of using oval again, you can't on an ebike. The spider spins freely/independently of the crank so it would never be aligned correctly.

Chainring size will depend on how you ride. If you're always in Eco mode you may still want a 30. I ride in Boost/Turbo whenever I can, so 32-34 is more ideal. 30t is the smallest you can fit on 104 BCD.

Thanks for the pics Bigtuna, looking at the car alloy in your photo, looks like you have an Alfa Guilia QF, lovely!

Those are Signature SV104's on a Tesla Model 3 Performance

 

[GTBusso]

Thanks Fellas,
I have a 36mm socket, must be for my car’s wheel hubs, so Park tool it is.

I‘d assumed oval rings would be a no go, but good to know. Looks like the bike is coming tomorrow, so I can get familiar with it’s looks, but no riding or tinkering possible.

Nice wheels Bigtuna, so similar to the Alfa QF option wheels, great design.

 

[GTBusso]

Having not being able to find either the park or Shimano tools in stock in the Uk, I got one from Amazon via America.

After 2 or 3 weeks, the package showed up yesterday and they’d sent me a toothbrush holder instead of the tool. Niiice.

I found one on eBay that you would have to ask Dave the seller to skim down the walls to 58mm OD so it’ll fit within the E13 chainring.
Lockring tool

 

[Bigtuna00]

I found one on eBay that will hopefully be good, here’s the link if anyone needs one.
Lockring tool

Good luck. The flange on that one looks too thick to fit inside the e13 ring. But I hope it works!

 

[GTBusso]

Good luck. The flange on that one looks too thick to fit inside the e13 ring. But I hope it works!

Me too or I might be taking an angle grinder to the chainring.