Darryl & Sina
In Fort Collins, Colorado
August 15th, 2004
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I bought a Golden Eagle engine for my wife's
new recumbent, after spending weeks researching
various engine and electric motor systems
for bikes. My research kept leading me back
to the Golden Eagle because its drive system
and engine just made the most sense to me.
We live at 6,000 feet in the Colorado foothills,
so high altitude engine performance was a
big concern of mine. I was assured that the
engine would not suffer at this altitude.
It came down to this; there may be grades
too long and steep for the Eagle alone, but
with the optional mountain gear, the Eagle
would be able to assist my wife over any
hill that stood in her way. Around here there
are plenty of hills and some of them don't
just stand, they tower. |
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I liked what I saw in the design of the Golden
Eagle drive system, so I took a leap of faith
and ordered one. It was a leap of faith because
there weren't any Golden Eagle's in my area
to look at and because ya just never know
these days. I'm glad I still have faith in
people, because Dennis and Julia at Golden
Eagle made buying from them a pleasure. Not
having done any bicycle mechanical work before
made the new axle part of the job a challenge,
but the mounting of the engine and everything
else was a breeze. The entire system is well
thought out and went together well.
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I wanted a trike, so I elected to go with
a recumbent trike that has an engine built
into it. Although my engine is a 31cc 4 stroke
engine, Sina's 25.4 cc two stroke has better
performance and is just as quite. The Golden
Eagle drive system also delivers more power
to the wheel then my system, so she can develop
more torque and top speed then I can. In
fact we have used Sina's bike to pull family
members, riding conventional bicycles, up
to the top of some of the hills around here.
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We got the engines to "flatten out the
hills" where we live. Sina wanted to
ride bikes again but didn't want to "grunt"
the hills everyday. This is our typical ride.
We turn on the engines in the driveway and
coast down our road at 30mph. Once we get
to the bottom of the 1/4 mile road we engine/peddle
the 1/4 mile over to the bottom of the next
hill; a 1/2 mile upgrade, which we then engine/peddle
up. At the top Sina takes off her belt while
she waits for me to catch up. Now we can
coast the 1/2 mile down grade. Keeping the
belt on would not be a good thing to do.
It would surly come off unless she rode the
brakes and kept the speed down. Now why would
she want to do that?? At the bottom of that
hill we pedal around the lake and over to
the top of the next hill. This hill is also
a 1/2 mile down grade with speeds around
30 - 40 mph, depending on your comfort level.
Now we pedal on into town for what ever reason
took us there in the first place. This pedal
is a down hill grade all the way. Once we
are ready to go home we pedal back up towards
home for as long as we feel like it then
we fire up the engines (put the belt back
on) and engine/pedal the rest of the way
back home. We got the bikes to pedal them
for the exercise. We got the engines so that
we would want to ride the bikes for the exercise.
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Some of the pictures show the road near our
house. As you can see on the sign behind
Sina, parts of the road are a class 5 county
road. The hills to right of the lake in that
picture is where we live. We are two very
happy engine bikers. The other pictures show
Sina's bike in the driveway. The gold water
bottle on the engine mounting frame is extra
fuel. The water bottle frame is what she
ties the belt to when she wants to free ride.
I have since replaced the standard water
bottle with a spun aluminum fuel bottle.
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Sina is in good shape, but your system is
the little engine that can. Although the
standard placement over the rear wheel is
fine, it makes this particular bike light
in the front. Mostly because the front wheel
is so far away from the back. I looked over
your reviews again and noticed that one of
the recumbent guys put the engine under the
seat rather then over the rear wheel. I could
see that idea as being helpful to the center
of gravity situation. It's not been a problem
with the engine in the back; it's just not
balanced well that way.
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Now my wife races UP and down the hills around
our home. She doesn't call them mountains
anymore, now she calls them Colorado Speed
Bumps. This little engine that can even ran
well on a recent trip we took to the top
of Rocky Mountain National Park, at 12,000
feet.
My hats off to Golden Eagle, they made it
possible for a couple of middle-agers to
enjoy riding bicycles in Colorado again.
Darryl & Sina
Fort Collins, Colorado |
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