Fitting the GSM kit

[EmSeeDee]

So my GMS kit arrived from Woosh yesterday, and this morning I took it out for its first test ride. So how did it go?

First impressions are that the kit is pretty well specified for its price point, and that everything you need is present. I bought the kit with the HL battery, and I've fitted it to my Raleigh Pioneer Elite, which is a city bike with a 7 speed Shimano nexus hub gear. (There's a picture of the bike on my post in the "Introduce yourself" thread for anyone who's interested)

First thing was to fit the battery mounting plate to the down tube. Woosh suggest that you use the bottle cage mounts for this, but mine were too low so I added an extra rivnut. It's an aluminium alloy frame, so this was pretty straightforward.

Next job was to remove the bottom bracket. Cranks came off fine with the usual puller, but the BB itself was an absolute pig.

Fitted the motor, and was a little surprised to find an additional mounting plate in the kit. The BB01 kit that's on the Youtube videos has a plate that goes between the left hand BB spindle and the motor housing; the GSM one has an extra plate that's like the first one but also extends backwards and is bent into a U shape so that it wraps around the front of the left chainstay. I suppose it provides extra rigidity and acts as a torque link. On my bike it fouls the propstand mounting plate so I've not fitted it until I here back from Woosh.

Next to fit all the other bits - all straightforward here except that the twistgrip for the throttle had to go on the left side as the gear change twistgrip is on the right.

Other observations:

1. The supplied power cable is very long. There is about 25cm of red and black cable coming out of the battery case, a 20 cm adapter cable, and 10cm coming out of the motor. Overall I probably only need about 25 cm. In the short term I've "lost" some of the excess in the space in the bottom of the battery plate.
2. The speed sensor needs to be no more than 8 - 10 mm from the magnet. On my bike its more like 25 mm so I had to make a spacer. It would have been nice if spacers were included.
3. The throttle twistgrip has an on-off button. When it's off, the LCD displays an error condition (06E: Turn error - probably chinglish for twist grip error). I'm waiting for a call back from Woosh & I'll see what they say.
4. There was a gap of about 1.5mm between the mounting plate and the motor casing. It seems wrong to just tighten everything up so that something gets bent. I'm waiting to hear back from Woosh about this, but in the meantime I've used a couple of washers as spacers.
5. The instructions are basic but adequate if you're familiar with bike maintenance. Wouldn't recommend that a novice bike repairer tried to do this on their own.

First impressions riding it - It seems a bit more powerful than my old Lafree Twist, and I'm sure it's going to be great!

Mike

 

[trex]

I am sure Andy will appreciate your feedback.
The long read and black power wires: I am sure they can be lost by solddering directly the power tail extension to the removeable battery's terminal block. If you want a shorter cable, email Woosh, they'll get it sorted for you.

 

[EmSeeDee]

Yes - once I'm happy everything is working OK I plan to solder the adapter cable directly to the connector block.
Mike

 

[trex]

Mike, I would email woosh to get a thumb throttle, much easier to fit than those twist grips.

 

[KirstinS]

So my GMS kit arrived from Woosh yesterday, and this morning I took it out for its first test ride. So how did it go?

First impressions are that the kit is pretty well specified for its price point, and that everything you need is present. I bought the kit with the HL battery, and I've fitted it to my Raleigh Pioneer Elite, which is a city bike with a 7 speed Shimano nexus hub gear. (There's a picture of the bike on my post in the "Introduce yourself" thread for anyone who's interested)

First thing was to fit the battery mounting plate to the down tube. Woosh suggest that you use the bottle cage mounts for this, but mine were too low so I added an extra rivnut. It's an aluminium alloy frame, so this was pretty straightforward.

Next job was to remove the bottom bracket. Cranks came off fine with the usual puller, but the BB itself was an absolute pig.

Fitted the motor, and was a little surprised to find an additional mounting plate in the kit. The BB01 kit that's on the Youtube videos has a plate that goes between the left hand BB spindle and the motor housing; the GSM one has an extra plate that's like the first one but also extends backwards and is bent into a U shape so that it wraps around the front of the left chainstay. I suppose it provides extra rigidity and acts as a torque link. On my bike it fouls the propstand mounting plate so I've not fitted it until I here back from Woosh.

Next to fit all the other bits - all straightforward here except that the twistgrip for the throttle had to go on the left side as the gear change twistgrip is on the right.

Other observations:

1. The supplied power cable is very long. There is about 25cm of red and black cable coming out of the battery case, a 20 cm adapter cable, and 10cm coming out of the motor. Overall I probably only need about 25 cm. In the short term I've "lost" some of the excess in the space in the bottom of the battery plate.
2. The speed sensor needs to be no more than 8 - 10 mm from the magnet. On my bike its more like 25 mm so I had to make a spacer. It would have been nice if spacers were included.
3. The throttle twistgrip has an on-off button. When it's off, the LCD displays an error condition (06E: Turn error - probably chinglish for twist grip error). I'm waiting for a call back from Woosh & I'll see what they say.
4. There was a gap of about 1.5mm between the mounting plate and the motor casing. It seems wrong to just tighten everything up so that something gets bent. I'm waiting to hear back from Woosh about this, but in the meantime I've used a couple of washers as spacers.
5. The instructions are basic but adequate if you're familiar with bike maintenance. Wouldn't recommend that a novice bike repairer tried to do this on their own.

First impressions riding it - It seems a bit more powerful than my old Lafree Twist, and I'm sure it's going to be great!

Mike

That extra plate is not on the instructions. I suspect the idea is to use the one with the U grip if possible . The other if not. The U grip one fits my frame perfectly (acts like a torque arm as you say). I used the non U plate as a washer on the crank side to get spacing right

 

[EmSeeDee]

That extra plate is not on the instructions. I suspect the idea is to use the one with the U grip if possible . The other if not. The U grip one fits my frame perfectly (acts like a torque arm as you say). I used the non U plate as a washer on the crank side to get spacing right

 

[EmSeeDee]

Well, that's interesting. I've had another look at the pictures in the instructions and it's hard to tell whether they are fitting just the plate with the U-grip or both of them.

I'd have to remove about half of the lower plate of the U, and spread the U out a bit to fit my bike.

I've just been out and ridden 5 miles on the bike with only the old-style plate fitted, and everything seems totally secure.

Mike

 

[cycling weakly]

I have a problem with the back of the gearbox hitting the drive side chainstay. I need to either make a 1.5 mm spacer or smite the chainstay a mighty blow. If I do the latter I will need to put a wheel in the dropouts to stop them spreading, but I don't know if they would spring apart when I take the wheel out? If any of you have done this before, I would like to hear about it. The frame is an alloy Kona by the way. Also the axle is rather a loose fit inside the BB shell. Any ideas on making it a snugger fit? Like the OP I feel that the battery needs more support than two bottle cage screws. I have never fitted rivnuts & was told by the LBS that it was a job for a frame builder, but the OP said it was a simple job. Any advice on this would be welcome.

 

[KirstinS]

I have a problem with the back of the gearbox hitting the drive side chainstay. I need to either make a 1.5 mm spacer or smite the chainstay a mighty blow. If I do the latter I will need to put a wheel in the dropouts to stop them spreading, but I don't know if they would spring apart when I take the wheel out? If any of you have done this before, I would like to hear about it. The frame is an alloy Kona by the way. Also the axle is rather a loose fit inside the BB shell. Any ideas on making it a snugger fit? Like the OP I feel that the battery needs more support than two bottle cage screws. I have never fitted rivnuts & was told by the LBS that it was a job for a frame builder, but the OP said it was a simple job. Any advice on this would be welcome.

I think you describe same issue as me. Can you use the mountingb plate without a U bend as a washer ? I did and used the mounting plate with a U bend on the non drive side. I did need to use two nuts As washers on the non drive side. See my post for a picture

Cheers

 

[KirstinS]

I have a problem with the back of the gearbox hitting the drive side chainstay. I need to either make a 1.5 mm spacer or smite the chainstay a mighty blow. If I do the latter I will need to put a wheel in the dropouts to stop them spreading, but I don't know if they would spring apart when I take the wheel out? If any of you have done this before, I would like to hear about it. The frame is an alloy Kona by the way. Also the axle is rather a loose fit inside the BB shell. Any ideas on making it a snugger fit? Like the OP I feel that the battery needs more support than two bottle cage screws. I have never fitted rivnuts & was told by the LBS that it was a job for a frame builder, but the OP said it was a simple job. Any advice on this would be welcome.

Never fitted rivnuts but there are lbs and lbs. My favourite was amazing until it came to wheels and spokes on something non standard. They had no idea what to do. Turns out they are not wheelbuilders. Tried another and they fixed a problem in ten minutes for peanuts that had eluded the other guys for ages. And cost me a lot ofmoney and time to boot.. Just saying I learnt my lesson. Always get a second or indeed third opinion ! Lbs have varied skill sets when it comes to niche requirements of ebikers !

 

[EmSeeDee]

<snip> Like the OP I feel that the battery needs more support than two bottle cage screws. I have never fitted rivnuts & was told by the LBS that it was a job for a frame builder, but the OP said it was a simple job. Any advice on this would be welcome.

I wouldn't recommend fitting a rivnut (or otherwise modifying a frame) unless you have a reasonable level of light metalworking ability. That said, this is what I did - and it worked for me - YMMV

I decided to use the upper of the existing two bottle cage rivnuts for the lower screw on the battery plate, and to add a new rivnut for the uppermost hole in the mount. I loosely fixed the mount to the bike, and put a bit of masking tape on the bike frame under the hole so that I could mark (with a pencil) where I wanted to drill. I then removed the plate, checked that the mark was central and centre-punched the mark for drilling (this is where an alum alloy frame made it easier, as it's much softer than steel). I drilled a 3 mm pilot hole using a hand-held electric drill (drilling a small hole first makes it less likely to skid, especially when drilling a tube - leaving the masking tape on also helps).

I had already bought some M5 aluminium rivnuts (they're easier to fit than steel ones), I measured the outside diameter, found a drill of the right size, and opened up the pilot hole. If you haven't got the right size drill you could drill to the next size smaller and then carefully open it up with a file.

The next bit is where the fun starts. Rivnuts are usually set with a special gun - a bit like a pop rivet plier but with a threaded mandrel sticking out of the end (google for rivnut tool to see one). I don't have one, so I used a 25mm long M5 stainless steel screw (with a hex socket head), and then in order, threaded onto it a 5mm washer, an M6 nut and a 6mm shakeproof (star) washer. I put some grease onto the thread, and screwed it into the rivnut until it was tight. I then held the nut still with a spanner and tightened the screw with an allen key. The idea is that the 5 mm washer allows the screw to turn freely through the nut, and the star washer makes the nut bind to the surface of the rivnut. As you tighten the screw, the walls of the rivnut will deform outwards, nipping the frame tube against the outer flange of the rivnut.

If you're not sure about this, practice on a bit of scrap aluminium first - rivnuts are only 20p; a lot cheaper than scrapping a bike frame.

Have fun!

Mike

 

[trex]

I have a problem with the back of the gearbox hitting the drive side chainstay. I need to either make a 1.5 mm spacer or smite the chainstay a mighty blow. If I do the latter I will need to put a wheel in the dropouts to stop them spreading, but I don't know if they would spring apart when I take the wheel out? If any of you have done this before, I would like to hear about it. The frame is an alloy Kona by the way. Also the axle is rather a loose fit inside the BB shell. Any ideas on making it a snugger fit? Like the OP I feel that the battery needs more support than two bottle cage screws. I have never fitted rivnuts & was told by the LBS that it was a job for a frame builder, but the OP said it was a simple job. Any advice on this would be welcome.

Have you email woosh support? they'll send you an M33 washer.

 

[SpezElec]

I have just emailed Hatti,as I am planning to fit my GSM this weekend requesting a thumb throttle,I have been busy looking for a donor bike,but now reading through this made me really concerned about fitting my kit,I had hope before purchasing that it will as easy fitting my BBS01 and pleasant experience,it turning out to be the opposite.Hope I am wrong when I fit mine.

Also is there any video instructions yet of fitting the GSM kit,if there is one
can someone link it to me,if there is none this might be a good project for Woosh to do soon,to better guide fitters like me

 

[EmSeeDee]

Although I encountered a few issues, I wouldn't describe fitting the GSM kit as an unpleasant exercise. There are lots of subtly different bike geometries out there and it's probably not reasonable to expect any kit to be a perfect fit in all of them. I had to make one minor tweak (fabricate a simple spacer for the hall sensor), shorten a cable (I believe that this change has been adopted by Whoosh), and apply a bit of common sense. My bike now rides extremely well, and after the first 30 miles I'm very happy with my choice.

Hope your fitting goes well. There's an increasing number of people on here who have passed this way before and will be happy to offer advice.

Mike

 

[trex]

@ SpezElec
There is a video, I could not find the link at the moment, but you probably won't need it.
The only difference with the BBS01 is that the GSM has an extra U shape metal bracket that adds support for the motor's weight. You don't even have to put in in. The rest is 95% like the BBS01 that you did a few months back. If you have any problem, just post it here.

 

[KirstinS]

I have just emailed Hatti,as I am planning to fit my GSM this weekend requesting a thumb throttle,I have been busy looking for a donor bike,but now reading through this made me really concerned about fitting my kit,I had hope before purchasing that it will as easy fitting my BBS01 and pleasant experience,it turning out to be the opposite.Hope I am wrong when I fit mine.

Also is there any video instructions yet of fitting the GSM kit,if there is one
can someone link it to me,if there is none this might be a good project for Woosh to do soon,to better guide fitters like me

The manual isn't at all bad and with what's on here you'll be fine, I'm sure.

The tweaks required across the board only amount to a few washers and odd bolt really

There is no soldering actually required. This is only for aesthetics. There is nothing wrong, from a fuctional perspective, with the wrapping a bit of spare cable around the frame tubes. A kit cannot be inch perfect for all bikes imho. And manufacturers err on side of caution so bit too long is the norm.

Don't Panic !

(As a brilliant book says on the cover

 

[SpezElec]

sorry if I panic too much there,hopefully Woosh will send a thumb throttle before the weekend.

 

[Nealh]

A box has just arrived much to big just for thumb throttle. Also inside was a used 09 cradle Andy had rewired for me with the female w/p 2 pin connector , hadn't asked for it but shows what a great service they provide and second to none again .

 

[SpezElec]

My thumb throttle was Wosshed to me and arrived last night in good time.
My fitting was done is two stages and after two 13 hrs shifts and found it very
therapeutic.I finished it last night and will go for test ride this morning.

Fitting went as smoothly.I did find some slight niggles.
I could not fit the extra bracket provided as I did not fit my road bike frame.
One of the bracket M6 bolts is not well flushed and could not tighten fully,the bottom M6 bolt is well fitting,so I made sure the two M33 nuts provided is tightened securely,the Bafang made second M33 nuts is preferable as it is well designed.
The thumb throttle is only suitable for thinner MTB style handle bars and does not fit road bike bars,also due to that I was not keen on fitting them but error code appears if the throttle is disconnected,so have adapt the throttle to mount onto my handlebars.
The intelligent controller is not so clever as I cannot find the PAS to set at 5 levels of assist only.Again the switch would not fit my drop handlebars since its made of plastic I was able to flex it and zip tie it on my bike.
No issues yet encountered on the chainline,the chain ring is mated to my 105 rear cassette and Ultegra rear deraileur,hope no issues will arise on my test ride,Andrew for forgot to include the washer I requested,so I am hoping I dont need it.
Now I have to test ride it,clipped in.

 

[SpezElec]

very good ride,cant stay legal,initially at 25 kph speed limit for half the ride but misses the oomph so geared it to the max 45kph at half of the ride 250w is enough for the road bike purposes,was doing 41 mph on descents