Swytch Kits

[vfr400]

Things have been a bit quiet recently. By now some of you guys that ordered them must have them installed and been going for a while. Can anyone that has one make some comments?

I see the price is now up to £749, which is a long way above the £225 kickstarter price. Did you get your money's worth whatever price you paid?

 

[333337lee]

I received mine 1st February this year. It’s great, I have a playlist with all of my builds on YouTube (Leepspvideo)

So far I have fitted it to three different bikes. The motor is very Quiet. Build quality is very good, The design of the bag and mount makes it very flexible.

There are often deals on Swytch’s Facebook page.

I paid £315 last August.

 

[cheenz]

Bad experience, stay away of these guys. I was an early backer (December 2017) for a complete ebike, eager to support a young start up and convinced that the product would have been great. Waited for a year of continuous delay and a lot of lies - never offered any explanation, communication was very bad. I was offered a replacement of a bike in July 2018 when they realised that shipments from China was messy and delayed again, then the offer disappeared, then it reappeared for unknown reason. I got the bike in December 2018; it came without the pneumatic tyre (although mine was a complete ebike and not just the kit) plus various stuff missing for which I had to provide at my expenses. I had to pay somebody for assembling it, which of course concur to the final price. First three weeks were ok, then the battery started to switch off suddenly. I did all the reset as suggested, added the Hall sensor as suggested, I thought I was too ignorant to understand how it works so again I paid somebody for checking the product and I was finally told the product was faulty. Avoid using it in winter, as suggested by oine of the support people because temperatures can affect performance to discover it was not true. Then in March I started having troubles going uphill, basically the motorhub drags me back and not only i have no support in pedaling, I am taken back and risked injuries three times. I contacted the support, received it in the form of a skype call in which we fully reset the battery (the guys helping were very kind) but as supposed the issue is somewhere else. I wrote back telling them that the problem is still there and asking to have a replacement, and since then no reply. I offered to pay for the courier because at this point of almost 800 euros of investement (ebike+upgrade+missing bits+bikeshop fitting) I cannot just give up, as for me it is a lot of money. Again they ignored me. So, they do not want to change the product, although they are liable, probably they try to let the warranty elapse for avoiding the cost of substitution. As I see on the forum that a lot of people is ignored, I am collecting info for moving into legal measures (btw, if someone has any suggestion, please share it). Stay away, apparently even the previous company (panda) had many troubles about money and refund. Definitely not a serious company, you just waste time and money.

 

[Swytch Bike]

Hi Cheenz - really sorry to hear about your experience with our crowd-funding campaign.

Almost all of our original 3,000 customers have now received delivery - although in some harder to reach corners of the world we are still working on getting kits delivered. Feel free to drop us a DM if you're still waiting for support

Regards

 

[Jonah]

I fitted my kit a couple of months ago. The PAS magnet disc would not fit my 2012 Brompton and suggestions on website and via email did not seem as though they would work either. Newer Bromptons have a different bottom bracket and cranks with a larger gap so they should be alright. I gave up and use mine with just the throttle. Works fine. Fairly quiet and gives around 400w peak output. Nicely made kit in my opinion, a little disappointed over the PAS issue but otherwise satisfied. I’ve got others bikes so only used half a dozen times, maybe 150 miles, so can’t comment on robustness.

 

[vfr400]

How do you find the steering? I tried one at the Bike Show, and I really noticed the pendelum effect with all that weight on the steering.

 

[Frank D]

How do you find the steering? I tried one at the Bike Show, and I really noticed the pendelum effect with all that weight on the steering.

 

[Frank D]

Is it possible to position the battery to a better more balanced location? I found the old panda ebike company fine to deal with.

 

[Jonah]

How do you find the steering? I tried one at the Bike Show, and I really noticed the pendelum effect with all that weight on the steering.

I find the steering fine. I am used to a Sparticle conversion with a much heavier bag up front so in comparison this feels super light. The weight is a bit higher up though which isn’t ideal. I would prefer it if it fitted on to the Brompton luggage block but I guess it would then require a separate display / control unit mounted on the handlebars with more wires etc. It works ok for me.

 

[spinellino]

I have 2 of them and I'm fairly happy with them.
I had a connection issue with one of the bags and they sent me a new one that works fine. Fitting the PAS sensor on one of the bikes was not easy but I managed to do it with some Suguru.

The motor is a little loud but surprisingly powerful for its size. It has a little bit of drag, but I often use the bike without the battery pack without problems.

The connection of the battery pack is clever, but I think it needs improvement: the battery pack is heavy and the connecting pins are a bit too fragile. I think that some sort of a clicking harness would be a better solution, even if it would require a step more when attaching the battery.

Overall for a 1.0 product I think it's fine. If they managed to solve their quality control issues and improve it a little bit it could become a really great product.

 

[Bob Bending]

September 2020. Put one on my wife's Roberts. She has health issues that prevent her riding uphill or going far. For what it is, it's 'ok'. Considering it's quite minimal – the pack I received had no throttle or brake sensors – I think it worked out pretty expensive in the end. I paid over £500 for the kit "half price" and another £120 in tax when it arrived in the UK...didn't see that in the small print. So over £600 for a wheel motor and battery, though I would say the quality good and it's well designed.

Fitting was easy though I had to take a file to the drop-outs on the bike just to remove a fraction of a mil to get the kit axle to fit. The 700x28mm tire off the old wheel popped off the rim on the motor wheel so I had to find an alternative which stayed on the bead. Everything else was straightforward and tidy.

In operation, even the lowest power setting will try to achieve the maximum 25kmh/15.5mph, unlike the Bafang motors I have fitted to other bikes, which have different speed cut-offs for the different power level setting. EG. 1=5mph, 2=8mph etc. so you can govern your cruising speed and choose a speed where the motor kicks in if you drop below. I would prefer that, but it is what it is. I think though, the range would improve if it were setup like this as the motor would not be continually trying to keep you at maximum.

My final observation is that the website is pretty useless if you want to buy additional items (like the brake sensors and throttle). They list them there, but there is no option to buy.

 

[Nealh]

Tbh one would have been best to use Woosh for a kit.

 

[vfr400]

September 2020. Put one on my wife's Roberts. She has health issues that prevent her riding uphill or going far. For what it is, it's 'ok'. Considering it's quite minimal – the pack I received had no throttle or brake sensors – I think it worked out pretty expensive in the end. I paid over £500 for the kit "half price" and another £120 in tax when it arrived in the UK...didn't see that in the small print. So over £600 for a wheel motor and battery, though I would say the quality good and it's well designed.

Fitting was easy though I had to take a file to the drop-outs on the bike just to remove a fraction of a mil to get the kit axle to fit. The 700x28mm tire off the old wheel popped off the rim on the motor wheel so I had to find an alternative which stayed on the bead. Everything else was straightforward and tidy.

In operation, even the lowest power setting will try to achieve the maximum 25kmh/15.5mph, unlike the Bafang motors I have fitted to other bikes, which have different speed cut-offs for the different power level setting. EG. 1=5mph, 2=8mph etc. so you can govern your cruising speed and choose a speed where the motor kicks in if you drop below. I would prefer that, but it is what it is. I think though, the range would improve if it were setup like this as the motor would not be continually trying to keep you at maximum.

My final observation is that the website is pretty useless if you want to buy additional items (like the brake sensors and throttle). They list them there, but there is no option to buy.

Thanks for all that. Doesn’t it have something where you can select power levels?

If you can fit brake switches, it must have connectors on the controller. If you want to have a switch to cut the motor at will, all you need to do is put a switch on one of them. If they're 3-wire, the switch goes beyween the two wires that aren't red or brown. If they're 2-wire, just connect the switch to them.

 

[Bob Bending]

You can alter the power level with the controls on top of the battery, so you can select one to five, but even in level one, the motor will keep accelerating (on the flat) until maximum speed of 25kmh is reached (in the UK). Turning the power up/down/off isn't the issue. On all other motors/e-bikes I've tried, the increasing power levels equate to increasing speeds, with the highest level cutting out at max speed and lower levels cutting out at lower speeds.

 

[Bob Bending]

Tbh one would have been best to use Woosh for a kit.

Yeah, I bought a Bafang from Woosh. I specifically wanted a Swytch system for this particular bike.

 

[vfr400]

You can alter the power level with the controls on top of the battery, so you can select one to five, but even in level one, the motor will keep accelerating (on the flat) until maximum speed of 25kmh is reached (in the UK). Turning the power up/down/off isn't the issue. On all other motors/e-bikes I've tried, the increasing power levels equate to increasing speeds, with the highest level cutting out at max speed and lower levels cutting out at lower speeds.

You're describing the difference between speed control and current control. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Most people I've spoken with prefer current control, and so do I. It allows you to pedal as hard or easy as you like, whilst having control over the amount of assistance you get.

It's true that you get constant power up to maximum speed on level 1, but that's typically around 50W to 60W, which is pretty insignificant. If you have the bigger 252Wh battery, that would last at least 4 1/2 hours of constant pedalling or around 6 hours of real world cycling.

 

[Bob Bending]

You're describing the difference between speed control and current control. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Most people I've spoken with prefer current control, and so do I. It allows you to pedal as hard or easy as you like, whilst having control over the amount of assistance you get.

It's true that you get constant power up to maximum speed on level 1, but that's typically around 50W to 60W, which is pretty insignificant. If you have the bigger 252Wh battery, that would last at least 4 1/2 hours of constant pedalling or around 6 hours of real world cycling.

We have the 'Pro' battery and my wife did about 11 miles in just over an hour with it on level 1 and off for some of the time. It lost two bars of the five on the battery level indicator, so I don't think it would last four hours overall. I might take it out for a ride and leave it on the lowest setting to see how long/far I get. They say 50km/30 mile range. Judging by the few rides we've done so far, I think thats about right for level 1. Higher levels would be less presumably.

I'm going to try and add a throttle (I know about the legality). Hill starts and pulling away from a junction are so much easier with one. We have a Hase Pino tandem with a Bafang 250W mid-drive that I fitted and I kept the throttle. Very handy.

 

[vfr400]

We have the 'Pro' battery and my wife did about 11 miles in just over an hour with it on level 1 and off for some of the time. It lost two bars of the five on the battery level indicator, so I don't think it would last four hours overall. I might take it out for a ride and leave it on the lowest setting to see how long/far I get. They say 50km/30 mile range. Judging by the few rides we've done so far, I think thats about right for level 1. Higher levels would be less presumably.

I'm going to try and add a throttle (I know about the legality). Hill starts and pulling away from a junction are so much easier with one. We have a Hase Pino tandem with a Bafang 250W mid-drive that I fitted and I kept the throttle. Very handy.

Can you feel the difference in power between level 1 and level 5 at say 8 mph?

 

[Bob Bending]

Can you feel the difference in power between level 1 and level 5 at say 8 mph?

I've not ridden it, so can't answer that. The wife says on level 1 on a gradient, it started to struggle (or she did) she then put it to 2 and felt the difference, then 5 and at that, she accelerated to 15mph. Like I said, I'll take it out and I'll have a much better idea of how it feels and what it does.

 

[infopete]

I have 4 Swytch kits: two bromptons and two on 700c's. I was one of the early adopters so I got mine for a very good price and zero import duty.

Both of the Bromptons work great and my only complaint would be the battery pack interferes with the Brompton bag. Other than that they work fine.

For both of the 700c bikes we had to file the forks down too much (next time I'll file the axle). We had to send the original wheels back as they were faulty. Swytch replaced them and they have been great. My wife and I have done nearly 4000 miles mainly on our proper bikes and we are happy with the kit.

We have the full size so called 50 mile battery packs and we can do about 30 miles with them living where we do.

If I was buying again I would probably look at Vekkit as the kit looks nearly the same and has a bluetooth pedal sensor (though they are expensive too)