Thought I'd start an owners thread for this model as is typical in many forums. Over time, I will add to it with all info relevant to the stealth. I am planning several upgrades to the bike over the coming weeks and will detail all work here.
Perhaps as a starter here's what I think are the 3 best and worst things about the bike (1000W):
Best
- POWER! Yes, that 1000W motor really rocks. Great for even the steepest inclines.
- Configurability. Having the 250w and top speed limit programming options gives superb flexibility.
- Comfort & looks - for an MTB the saddle is actually fairly comfy and riding position quite relaxed. Everybody thinks it looks great in the black/white colour scheme.
Worst
- Brakes! For a 1000W bike getting on for 30Kg when fully loaded up, the Chinese mechanical items are woefully inadequate. I'm surprised the manufacturer gets away with it really. You won't realise how much better they could be until you get some decent hydraulics on there. This is my upgrade priority - just researching a way to maintain the motor cutoff switches at the moment.
- Pedals - cheapest in the world with wooden bearings and loads of resistance. Change them asap!
- Alright, perhaps not the worst but find general things like the battery level indicator (on the batt itself) to be a complete waste of time (always shows full). The one on the LCD dash never shows a full 4 bars even when charged overnight, and when down at 1 bar if frequently cuts off the power if you hit a moderate incline on full assistance. This indicates a fairly high cell impedance as you can often get another 5 miles or so after that if you keep the power down.
After the revelation that the vast majority of '250w compliant' ebikes typically output an average of 400-600W (and peaks of even more) I've started to run the Stealth at 1000W on the road limited to 25km/h. I keep the assistance lvl at 2 and find this by far the best setting for general day to day riding.
The problem if you don't have the 25km/h restriction is that the assistance level is so high even at 1 you end up cruising at 35-40km/h with even very light pedal rotation. This just eats the battery and isn't that pleasant due to wind etc.It's like the assistance level is calibrated for 250w.
Having the 25km/h restriction just makes it a more enjoyable bike as the motor comes in strong below that (i.e. hills) and then on the flat and downhill you tend to pedal over that speed anyway so saves lots of battery power. At first I thought the motor would be very on & off around the 25km/h point but its very gradual and well measured.
The other slightly annoying thing is the battery is not mounted straight on the frame (the bottle fixings that it sits on are not perfectly centered on the frame). Just poor tolerance on the frame manufacture I guess.
Finally, if you follow the owners manual (which doesn't come with the bike incidentally and has to be downloaded), it recommends having the batt turned on and the charger off before plugging in the charging jack. This inevitably results in a disconcerting 'crack' as the output capacitors in the charger are suddenly charged by the bike battery. Far better to have the charger turned on before plugging in the jack.I have a feeling that Cyclotricity intended the battery switch to disconnect the circuit to the charger - it doesn't. It makes no difference to charging whether the battery switch is on or off (despite what the manual says).
Overall I do think it was superb value for money at the 2015 price of a smidge over £1,000. This year that has been hiked by over 20% to nearer £1,300. I would have loved them to have spent some of that on hydraulic brakes (maybe would have cost them another £30- £40). At £1,250 it starts to hit some pretty serious competition and if it wasn't for the 500 / 1000W options I think they would be running seriously low on USP's considering the level of kit specified.
The bike does handle well though despite the weight, with only the excruciating 'clank' of the basic Suntour XCT forks when pulling up over curbs etc causing a minor annoyance.
UPGRADES SO FAR...
- MEETLOCKS® Bike Pedal, Injection Aluminum Body, Cr-mo CNC Machined 9/16" Screw Thread Spindle, 3 Ultral Du/sealed Bearings.£18.99 from Amazon. (Superb bearings and match the Stealth colour scheme perfectly)
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- Slime puncture resistant innertubes (as a stopgap before upgrading to Scwalbe Marathon plus MTB tyres)
- Lezyne microdrive 400XL front light. (£25-£30 from Ebay) I wanted something usb rechargeable that I could plug into the usb port on the Stealth battery. This fits the bill perfectly and has a great range of light modes.
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- Moon Pulsar COB LED Rear Bike Light - LAA570. (£10-£15 from Ebay). Looked at rechargebale rears but you don't really need the lumen level on the back so you actually get much better performance from AA / AAA cells. Love the Moon Pulsar, has great viewing angle, is incredibly bright with hundreds of hours runtime from a single set of batts. Also like it remembers which mode it was turned off in so no fiddling around going through modes every time you turn it on.
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NEXT UPGRADE
- Shimano hydraulic brake set BR-Mxxx (£50 - £80). xxx can be 505, 555, 615 etc, I don't think there was a massive difference. The front rotor really 'ought to be 180 or 203mm. You have to be very careful with the Stealth that the caliper width is not too high otherwise it will foul on the motor hub. I will post my findings on here and also how I implemented the brake switch.
