Help! Building up from Swytch kit

[cheesemonkey]

A quick update; I decided to buy a whole new kit from Woosh (front hub FX07, 36V 13Ah battery, Lishui rated 8A max 17A) for just over £520.

Tested the kit with Swytch's AKM 100SX hub and no juddering from the hub. By process of elimination, I assume the Swytch controller is at fault. Very helpful that I could test the hub; I could have just asked Woosh for new battery and controller/display but there's a sense of relief that I now have a whole new, reputable conversion kit; time will tell how I get on with it. Good bye Sywtch, it's been fun and educational; time for me to move on.

Took the opportunity to strip the bike completely and overhaul all the components (family inherited bike, history of any servicing is unknown!) before putting on the new conversion kit. It'll feel like a brand new ebike.

Just out of curiosity, I checked how much I paid for Swytch kit. Well, embarrassingly I paid total of £692... (£137.25 just for customs!) And 6months of waiting! Oh have I learned some life lessons here.

Many thanks everyone for your advice and in particular @Woosh for your business. Will update once everything is all put together.

 

[cheesemonkey]

Another quick update: bike overhauled and kit neatly installed.

The new XF07 just about fitted with some fettling with extra washer on the right side to clear the significant bulge of the fork. The wheel sits about 2mm to the left from the centre but I wouldn't think it warrants re-dishing. V brakes sits square and the wheel is true (after some adjustment out of the box, glad I'm skilled with general bike maintenance).





Looks like a new shiny bike (from a distance). Luckily the cables weren't excessively long after routing over the top tube.

Test ride trouble-free ok but yet to go for a commute. I don't think I didn't need it, but it was quite nice to see live speed and power in watts on the display (Sywtch kit had only LED indicators for battery and power levels).

 

[cheesemonkey]

80miles one with the new set up.

A quick update - overall, great and I'm glad to have said goodbye to Swytch and moved on to this conversion kit.

I like the display which shows the live speed, assisted power in watts, trip distance and time, etc. I also like that the buttons are just within reach of my left thumb to quickly adjust the power (assisted speed) level.

Assistance feels all or nothing to each level's limit. I tend to keep it at 4 out of 5 level (14.4mph) which is more than enough to just kick in to assist me on an incline. I go much faster in my own steam on flats and decline so no need for power assist. My wife on the other hand, tends to pootle around 10mph so she can set to 2 or 3 out of 5 level, which is easily set even whilst riding. Swytch power pack could also change assist level but the buttons were awkward and couldn't really tell the difference between the levels. I feel there's no need to go 5 out of 5 levels (also from the fear of overheating the controller / battery by maxing its capacity continuously).

Simply, just quite nice to hop on and enjoy the assist without constantly worrying about things going wrong. Swytch kit was a constant fettling pit with something always not quite right, needing my time and effort to troubleshoot and fix. So far (thought 80miles is too soon to judge), none of that system failure anxiety.

With the major overhaul to the bike, it gave us a sense of having a new ebike, perfect for spring /summer season.

One afterthought is, could I have got away with keeping the Swytch motor hub and upgrade with a KT set and a battery online rather than a whole conversion kit. Probably yes, but I didn't feel confident with Swytch kit so I am happy with Swytch kit completely off the bike and start afresh. I will definitely consider customising with KT kit / maybe 48V set up for the next upgrade. For now, happy to keep it as it is for few years and forget about it.

Many thanks everyone for all your help and advice. Here's to a happy, trouble-free miles.

 

[Nixtoo]

A quick update; I decided to buy a whole new kit from Woosh (front hub FX07, 36V 13Ah battery, Lishui rated 8A max 17A) for just over £520.

Tested the kit with Swytch's AKM 100SX hub and no juddering from the hub. By process of elimination, I assume the Swytch controller is at fault. Very helpful that I could test the hub; I could have just asked Woosh for new battery and controller/display but there's a sense of relief that I now have a whole new, reputable conversion kit; time will tell how I get on with it. Good bye Sywtch, it's been fun and educational; time for me to move on.

Took the opportunity to strip the bike completely and overhaul all the components (family inherited bike, history of any servicing is unknown!) before putting on the new conversion kit. It'll feel like a brand new ebike.

Just out of curiosity, I checked how much I paid for Swytch kit. Well, embarrassingly I paid total of £692... (£137.25 just for customs!) And 6months of waiting! Oh have I learned some life lessons here.

Many thanks everyone for your advice and in particular @Woosh for your business. Will update once everything is all put together.

So the controller from woosh worked with the switch hub motor? I’m looking for options as we’re on our 3rd handle bar bracket in 3 yrs.

 

[Az.]

One afterthought is, could I have got away with keeping the Swytch motor hub and upgrade with a KT set and a battery online rather than a whole conversion kit.

Some leftover parts? Perhaps a nice step through bike conversion for your wife is in order? You could enjoy rides together.

 

[cheesemonkey]

So the controller from woosh worked with the switch hub motor? I’m looking for options as we’re on our 3rd handle bar bracket in 3 yrs.

Hi @Nixtoo, yes in my case the Swytch hub motor worked. I wanted to test the Swytch hub motor (essentially Aiekma / AKM 100SX hub) with Woosh's Lishui controller / battery / display set up to eliminate any fault on the Swytch hub motor (the three phase wires on PRO power pack controller failed but wanted to see if there has been any damage to the motor due to this failure). I did the walk test and manually spinning the crank going through the different power assist levels whilst the bike was on the repair stand. I didn't take it out for a real ride but I'm assuming from the walk test and PAS test it would have worked perfectly fine.

If I had more experience, skill, confidence and knowledge around the ebike components, I would have just kept Swytch hub motor and replaced everything else (battery, controller and display; I can live without in-line brake sensor, lights, or throttle). But I didn't want to take the risk (especially from experience of multiple failures of Swytch components) this time around.

 

[cheesemonkey]

Some leftover parts? Perhaps a nice step through bike conversion for your wife is in order? You could enjoy rides together.

Well, this bike is hers! If we ever go on a MIRACLE ride together (which also means one toddler on child seat attached on this ebike and another kid on her own Isla bike), then I've got my commuter road bike. I did wonder if I can build my commuter into another conversion using Swytch's hub, but it's got carbon fork... plus I do like to commute on my own steam.

Swytch kit components will be on eBay to recoup some pocket money and hopefully be use to some fellow Swytch victims to salvage whatever they can with their kits.

 

[Az.]

Well, this bike is hers! If we ever go on a MIRACLE ride together (which also means one toddler on child seat attached on this ebike and another kid on her own Isla bike), then I've got my commuter road bike. I did wonder if I can build my commuter into another conversion using Swytch's hub, but it's got carbon fork... plus I do like to commute on my own steam.

Swytch kit components will be on eBay to recoup some pocket money and hopefully be use to some fellow Swytch victims to salvage whatever they can with their kits.

Rides with family is the main reason why I have bikes.

You sound more like a torque sensor guy. Maybe it is a subject worth exploring. TSDZ2B is only around £200

 

[qwertyman900]

The display is what Swytch call the Base Display. It has a M6 5-pin Julet plug that won’t directly fit any other situation (other than Swytch) - as everyone else uses M8 5-pin Julets, if Julets are used. It might work with another Lishui controller but there’s no way of easily telling. They sell for around £20 on ebay so might be better to just sell it on.

I just received a throttle today I bought to connect to my swytch , think is gen3 , the swytch has since died, pretty sure it's the controller, the bike was used but not much and I only used 3 days , anyway just wanted to say I read what you wrote and thought ahh the controller I bought isn't going to fit the plug as will prob be the larger size, but it fit , unfortunately with the swytch not working now so I can't test if it would have worked but was surprised it connected and just thought would share the info , it's the "Bafang BBS01 BBS02 BBSHD" in title, EBike Thumb Throttle Speed Control one ebay