New Cytronex Owner

[MarkG]

Hi,

After what seems like a year of research and waiting for the right bike to come up I've taken the plunge and bought a second hand Cytronex 7.3 FX. (Thanks Allan if you're reading)

I tore my patella tendon at football and have since found cycling difficult up hills or against the wind due to the extra pressure exerted on my knee, so needed a bike that would give me some assistance when needed but at all other times ride like a normal bike, to help me build up knee strength and also for leisure riding with the family.

First Impressions

Very light and well built machine, it's a shame the motor isn't black to make it more stealthy (can you spray paint these without causing damage ?). The motor is silent unless you engage it below recommended speed where it will screech in protest (whoops) The assistance is enough, however I will have to use it sparingly or I'll leave my wife trailing behind as it will keep assisting up to 15mph, shame there isn't cruise control instead of the high/low button ....
It's the older model with bar end buttons, can these be swapped for buttons near on the handlebar itself cheaply ?
I haven't been out to try the range yet as I only picket it up yesterday. Once the rain stops I'll take it out for a long run to get more of a feel for it and report on my experiences.

 

[flecc]

Congratulations on your bike Mark. It's Tongxin motor has orbital rollers running on a smooth track instead of gears to transmit the drive, so they can skid if overloaded with torque.

There have been a number of hub motors with a black finish so it's likely that yours will not suffer from a thin coat of cellulose spray paint, but it will increase it's running temperature of course. Barring a return of summers like the 1976 one, I doubt there will be a problem in the UK, judging by the trends of recent years.

 

[MarkG]

There have been a number of hub motors with a black finish so it's likely that yours will not suffer from a thin coat of cellulose spray paint, but it will increase it's running temperature of course. Barring a return of summers like the 1976 one, I doubt there will be a problem in the UK, judging by the trends of recent years.

Thanks Flecc, It's pretty stealthy as it is, especially on the move however with the lack of front disk brake the shiny silver hub is quite conspicuous. I was hoping to get out on it tonight but the heavens have just opened after a whole day of sun. Typical ! I may have to wait for the weekend and take it over the Purbecks, a ride I have not attempted since my injury.

 

[flecc]

We're lucky so far in the South London/Surrey border, no rain yet. Just noticed that you're in Bournemouth where I first started cycling at 10 years old and later started in the cycle trade there. I lived in Winton but never tackled the Purbecks in those early years, trips out to Throop, Hurn and to Christchurch where I had a canoe were as far as I went on a pushbike. Swapping mainly to motorbikes at 16 led to me me ranging far more widely of course!

 

[MarkG]

Throop, Hurn and to Christchurch where I had a canoe were as far as I went on a pushbike. Swapping mainly to motorbikes at 16 led to me me ranging far more widely of course!

Throop, Hurn and the New Forest from Burley are our regular rides for shorter distances. We're planning on riding to the Purbecks by crossing at Sandbanks in the summer with a stop at the beach.
There are some fantastic rides in Dorset.
I've lived in B'mth all my life so probably know where you worked. It's a beautiful part of the country and you only really appreciate it when you are walking or cycling.

 

[MarkG]

It’s been a while since I bought the Cytronex and finally managed to get out on it at the weekend after some minor adjustments so saddle height, grips etc. I did a short 10 mile cycle with mixed road and gravel tracks, along bridleways and some parts across farmers fields (where the river had flooded the lane, the farmer had kindly opened his field to allow bikes and walkers through)
I cannot tell any difference in weight compared to my Scott Speedster when pedaling unassisted. This is exactly what I was looking for in an ebike, being able to cycle unassisted as much as possible but with a magic button for when I feel too much knee pain. The fit and finish of the bike is superb, with smooth gearchanges and powerful, precise brakes. Slightly bumpy due to no suspension but not too bad for a more sporty bike. The tongxin motor in the front wheel does not make a noticeable difference when cycling unassisted. No drag was experienced and no noise, certainly no feeling of a heavy front end.
A couple of gripes, when I picked the bike up, I didn’t’ notice the rear brake lever motor cut off switch was not connected, this could have been done by the previous owner so that you can slow the bike without cutting power, however this leaves just one cut off switch – should that fail I’d have to try and disconnect the battery whilst moving or jump ship !
The sigma cycle computer has lost its buttons so cannot reset the trip meter. I’ve not looked at this in earnest yet so don’t’ know how easy it would be to change or renew.
The power - As has been mentioned in other reviews, there is no limit to the power on the Cytronex, once you press that magic button it will accelerate you to 15mph and keep you there. Not very social or good for leisure cycling. I found myself just using the power for short bursts then feathering the brake to cut the motor or I’d leave my wife well behind. I’m 12 stone and the motor easily pulled me up any hill I threw at it. At one point my wife held on for some assistance so the little thing was pulling both of us up the hill (with pedal assistance) The effect is that of turning a hill into flat ground, you still need to put in some effort, but it really does take the bad part of cycling away. The motor is as near silent as I’ve heard, and except for the shiny conspicuous look of the thing ( this may be swapped for a newer black version) you’d never know it was electric.
Range – I have no idea, this is another gripe which Cytronex should look into. With the type of battery used in the Cytronex you are advised to drain the battery to zero before recharging, after my 10 mile cycle I have no idea what’s left in the tank, so next time I’m out on it I could run out after 1 mile or 10 miles – who’s to know ?!
I tested the lights on the bike and they are superb. The little LED on a stick is a great idea to illuminate the cycle computer but looks a little odd, maybe an integrated light in the computer would be a less clumsy solution.

Overall I’m very pleased with my purchase and will be cycling a lot more as a result. I’m looking forward to the next ride now and instead of having a feeling of dread when hills loom, I can cycle up happily.

 

[flecc]

Sound as though you've been ideally suited Mark, not surprising since the Cytronex bikes are ideal for this type of need.

I wouldn't worry too much about emptying the battery before recharging. This notion of emptying before charging is a left over from the older NiCad cells which suffered from a memory effect. Although the NiMh cells in your battery were the technical successor to the old NiCads, they don't continuously suffer in the same way.

Expert advice with the NiMh cells in your battery is to empty once about every 30 or so charges, the number isn't at all critical. So if once in a while before charging you go for an extra local spin to empty out what's left from a usual run, that's all that's needed to preserve it.

 

[MarkG]

Sound as though you've been ideally suited Mark, not surprising since the Cytronex bikes are ideal for this type of need.

I wouldn't worry too much about emptying the battery before recharging. This notion of emptying before charging is a left over from the older NiCad cells which suffered from a memory effect. Although the NiMh cells in your battery were the technical successor to the old NiCads, they don't continuously suffer in the same way.

Expert advice with the NiMh cells in your battery is to empty once about every 30 or so charges, the number isn't at all critical. So if once in a while before charging you go for an extra local spin to empty out what's left from a usual run, that's all that's needed to preserve it.

That's a weight off my mind. The lack of battery meter is one of the major failings in my view. I spent months researching and searching for a bike that would suit me. I would advise anyone wishing to purchase an ebike to do the same due to the diverse amount of styles and assistance levels.
As part of the purchase, the previous owner threw in a battery which has lost much of it's usefullness, a receipt for the new battery was also included in the sale, this indicates to me that the bike has already covered around 300 cycles of 20 miles = 6000 miles. I do wander if I could replace the cells in the expired battery to rejuvinate it..... ?
I suspect new components will be needed before long. I see on the Cytronex site that they will service the bike for a small fee. This will be my next expenditure, just to confirm everything is fine.

 

[flecc]

Battery meters on e-bikes are far from accurate though and you'll soon get used to quite accurately judging the charge state on a mileage basis as you get used to the bike. It's what I always do.

Cytronex have always stressed the carefully selected quality cells for their battery, resulting from many trials of different makes and types. You could rebuild the battery with suitable NiMh cells, I think they may be sub-C size, but you may not get quite the same performance if the cells aren't the best.

 

[MarkG]

Battery meters on e-bikes are far from accurate though and you'll soon get used to quite accurately judging the charge state on a mileage basis as you get used to the bike. It's what I always do.

Cytronex have always stressed the carefully selected quality cells for their battery, resulting from many trials of different makes and types. You could rebuild the battery with suitable NiMh cells, I think they may be sub-C size, but you may not get quite the same performance if the cells aren't the best.

When a manufacturer goes to such lengths to assure you that something is very specific, in my experience it is the opposite ! Having a largely useless battery and no reduction in price for an exchange I may have a go at replacing the cells. Nothing to lose. I'll let you know what I find inside.....

 

[103Alex1]

On your battery meter issue, would a standalone Cycle Analyst work with this setup to give you a reasonable battery meter ? Since the remote shunt is simply connected between battery and controller presumably it's pretty versatile ? I guess you might not want the bulk of the display tho'.

 

[flecc]

When a manufacturer goes to such lengths to assure you that something is very specific, in my experience it is the opposite !

I agree that's generally the case, but in this instance Mark at Cytronex long ago went into a lot of detail about his trials of various cells and the reasons why he wouldn't adopt lithium chemistry at that time. His aim was a minimalist battery giving reliability with just enough capacity to satisfy most users, and in this instance I think his claims are genuine. That said, by all means recell, as you say, little to lose by doing it.

 

[MarkG]

Second ride.

This time a 17 mile hilly ride, all on tarmac. I have to say my impressions of the Cytronex have changed somewhat. In my eagerness to get out on the bike again I decided to force ‘her indoors’ to ride to her netball game, then whilst she was playing, I could go for an hours ride and give the Trek a workout. So, battery charged, tyres pumped, off we set. It was a mild evening but thankfully no rain. As we rode to her netball game the streetlights started coming on so I pressed the light button which instantly illuminated the road (and my wifes behind – much to my amusement) – however the rear light wasn’t working. Once we’d stopped at her game I fiddled with the wires that led into the rear light and it magically sprung into life. I’ll have to look at this at the weekend as the rest of my ride I was paranoid of it failing and cars mowing me down. Although very bright and well constructed I’m not convinced by the wiring method.
I set off in search of hills on the route to the beach, my entire journey had been flat or slight downhill so far so I hadn’t engaged the motor and wanted to see what it could do. The first hill I encountered was a very, very steep, long, slow bend. I pressed the button and the power came in as a helping hand, and here’s the rub -when cycling alone you tend to go a lot faster than social riding, my previous test with wife in tow was at around 6-7mph hill climbing and the bike worked as expected, this hill I was attempting at 10-12mph, where the low power eases off and the high power starts. High power gave some assistance but not enough and low power was out of breath. I was forced to slow to 7 mph where the little motor seemed to peak in low setting. Slightly sweaty and a little out of breath at the top I left the power on to recover and was soon back to happy, easy riding. I very soon came to the opinion that I need more speed for lone riding. I started along from Hengisbury Head along the coast to Sandbanks, around the peninsula and back. The way I was using the assist was to keep me up to speed when there was a strong headwind or on a gradient when my pace fell. 15-16 mph felt a little slow for the assistance to cut out, 19-20 would have been perfect as I could turn the power off before reaching the peak or use as a quick boost. Maybe a 190 rpm wheel is the way to go, but how much climbing ability do I lose ? If it’s only 8.5 % loss in climbing efficiency but gain more MPH I think I could live with it. It’s a £200 gamble that I’m not sure I want to make yet …
There was an amusing part on the way home where I had forgotten to turn off the full power and coasted past a lycra clad cyclist on a hill, I bid him a good evening and carried on up the hill whistling to myself as he looked like he was fighting a bear of a hill. The look on his face was priceless.
I would say that after getting to know the bike better I would not recommend it to unfit cyclists. If you can cycle up a normal sized hill but find it a chore and are a sweaty mess at the top but still want to exercise on a bike – it’s the one for you. If you want your whole journey to feel like a Sunday Afternoon cruise then you’ll be disappointed. E-assist is a very apt term. I’d say I ride with the power off 80% of the time using the power when hills or headwinds become too much. It does however give you the thirst for speed. Not sure my wife would approve next time we are social riding though ….

 

[MarkG]

Second ride.

This time a 17 mile hilly ride, all on tarmac. I have to say my impressions of the Cytronex have changed somewhat. In my eagerness to get out on the bike again I decided to force ‘her indoors’ to ride to her netball game, then whilst she was playing, I could go for an hours ride and give the Trek a workout. So, battery charged, tyres pumped, off we set. It was a mild evening but thankfully no rain. As we rode to her netball game the streetlights started coming on so I pressed the light button which instantly illuminated the road (and my wifes behind – much to my amusement) – however the rear light wasn’t working. Once we’d stopped at her game I fiddled with the wires that led into the rear light and it magically sprung into life. I’ll have to look at this at the weekend as the rest of my ride I was paranoid of it failing and cars mowing me down. Although very bright and well constructed I’m not convinced by the wiring method.
I set off in search of hills on the route to the beach, my entire journey had been flat or slight downhill so far so I hadn’t engaged the motor and wanted to see what it could do. The first hill I encountered was a very, very steep, long, slow bend. I pressed the button and the power came in as a helping hand, and here’s the rub -when cycling alone you tend to go a lot faster than social riding, my previous test with wife in tow was at around 6-7mph hill climbing and the bike worked as expected, this hill I was attempting at 10-12mph, where the low power eases off and the high power starts. High power gave some assistance but not enough and low power was out of breath. I was forced to slow to 7 mph where the little motor seemed to peak in low setting. Slightly sweaty and a little out of breath at the top I left the power on to recover and was soon back to happy, easy riding. I very soon came to the opinion that I need more speed for lone riding. I started along from Hengisbury Head along the coast to Sandbanks, around the peninsula and back. The way I was using the assist was to keep me up to speed when there was a strong headwind or on a gradient when my pace fell. 15-16 mph felt a little slow for the assistance to cut out, 19-20 would have been perfect as I could turn the power off before reaching the peak or use as a quick boost. Maybe a 190 rpm wheel is the way to go, but how much climbing ability do I lose ? If it’s only 8.5 % loss in climbing efficiency but gain more MPH I think I could live with it. It’s a £200 gamble that I’m not sure I want to make yet …
There was an amusing part on the way home where I had forgotten to turn off the full power and coasted past a lycra clad cyclist on a hill, I bid him a good evening and carried on up the hill whistling to myself as he looked like he was fighting a bear of a hill. The look on his face was priceless.
I would say that after getting to know the bike better I would not recommend it to unfit cyclists. If you can cycle up a normal sized hill but find it a chore and are a sweaty mess at the top but still want to exercise on a bike – it’s the one for you. If you want your whole journey to feel like a Sunday Afternoon cruise then you’ll be disappointed. E-assist is a very apt term. I’d say I ride with the power off 80% of the time using the power when hills or headwinds become too much. It does however give you the thirst for speed. Not sure my wife would approve next time we are social riding though ….

Its been a while since ive posted on here but have been quietly reading Unfortunately my cytronex has died. It was working fine before I stowed it away in my dry garage before Xmas, but for its first outing this year (babies and work have kept me off the road for a while ) it will not start. The battery is fine but the motor just spins noisily without turning the wheel. Very disappointing as I haven't mistreated the bike, it's been kept dry and clean and oiled.
Looks like an expensive bill for a new motor or maybe a switch to another brand that is more reliable. If the motors were cheaper then it would be an easy choice but at now £235 for a replacement wheel I'm a little hesitant to stick with cytronex. Are tongxin motors renowned for this type of failure and is there a place that will fix motors cheaply ?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I wouldn't waste my time repairing that motor. There's loads of better ones now at half the price. They're all very quiet when you use a sinewave controller.

Is your present motor sensored (8 wires) or sensorless (3 wires)? Are your forks 100mm or something else?

 

[HarryB]

It is most likely that the ring that holds in the rollers had cracked. The motor should be fine and it just needs a repair. It is not uncommon and one of Marks team could fix it. Not sure what motors Cytronex are using but if there was a better one for the money then they would have started using them by now. They're great motors but not robust enough for rough use.

Ps it is three wire

 

[trex]

...
The battery is fine but the motor just spins noisily without turning the wheel. Very disappointing as I haven't mistreated the bike, it's been kept dry and clean and oiled.
Looks like an expensive bill for a new motor or maybe a switch to another brand that is more reliable. If the motors were cheaper then it would be an easy choice but at now £235 for a replacement wheel I'm a little hesitant to stick with cytronex. Are tongxin motors renowned for this type of failure and is there a place that will fix motors cheaply ?

It seems to me that the fault is in the friction clutch.
you can take the motor to woosh inSouthend. They'll fix anything e-bike.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It seems to me that the fault is in the friction clutch.
you can take the motor to woosh inSouthend. They'll fix anything e-bike.

It's a Tongxin. I doubt that they would fix one of them.

 

[oldtom]

Are tongxin motors renowned for this type of failure and is there a place that will fix motors cheaply ?

Those delightful little Tongxin motors used by Cytronex don't normally cause many problems on smooth roads or light trail use but given that the motor was fine and the bike was running normally when you stored it, I'm inclined to think your problem is not a serious breakage of the motor internals.

The sensor position on the front fork is critical and if that has been given a knock, possibly crushed inwards or pulled outwards in the course of storing the bike or during storage, that's easily remedied by yourself. Moisture ingress to the PCB in the controller can cause some really unusual things to happen and I jumped to the wrong conclusion once with my Cytronex bike, imagining that the ropey-sounding motor with inconsistent power was most likely a damaged motor. It turned out to be a waterlogged controller which was considerably cheaper than a replacement motor, fortunately.

That said, as HarryB has mentioned, any repairs to Cytronex kit are easily dealt with by the chaps at Winchester and motor internals can be repaired/replaced speedily in their workshop, should that be required.

I don't know whether Winchester is close enough for you to visit Cytronex with your bike but your first port of call has to be a phone call and take it from there. Lovely, lightweight bikes, easily ridden with power off and transformed when one presses the power button on hitting the hilly bits or going into a strong headwind!

Tom

 

[HarryB]

The usual drive breakage happens on rough terrain - never ride with power over cobbles for example. If you can hear the motor spinning fast but no drive that is the drive broken. If it sounds noisy more likely to be controller or wiring (wiring and connectors are absolutely the best in the business IMHO).