silvaexplorer

I received my Swytch kit at the end of December however problems with the motor I decided to send it back for a refund but Swytch maintains that there was damage to the metal on the motor and have reduced the amount I will receive back by £150 I only rode my ebike conversion on 5 occasions and there was no damage when I sent it back I do not recommend this company.

2old

Nice to know. Since (I think) it's a UK-based company anyway, I'll eschew them since things could be worse for US customers. Too bad; I have a folding bike that would be fun to electrify.

veganbikes

Plenty of excellent reliable e-bikes out there don't give up because of a poor kit.

kayakindude

Sorry to hear you had issues with the motor. What went wrong with it in 5 rides? I've had mine on a tandem for over a year without issue but have only ridden in the pouring rain once. Was wondering if it was weather related or what conditions to avoid?

Bonzo Banana

I personally feel the Swytch kit is over-priced considering the low capacity of the battery but surely they would need to show you what they mean by metal damage? Was it incorrectly packed and damaged in transit or originally wrongly installed or are their claims completely false?

The Swytch kit seems to be based on a good quality geared hub and decent battery cells I'd see it as a slightly more premium product of ok value for money.

I don't think the £150 reduction would be unreasonable if the product was damaged in transit due to poor packing or had been damaged when originally fitted.

It's important to be fair in these situations. If you have been unfairly treated I would definitely push hard for a full refund.

I mean what are the motor problems is it actually faulty or just doesn't perform to your expectations if its just your expectations then surely they are being more than fair to accept it back after such time. There isn't a lot to geared hub motors and its hard to imagine the planetary gears failing after only 5 rides.

Dave Hughes

Hello, i recieved my new Swytch bike Kit a couple of days ago after 6 months of waiting, not happy with the courier as he left the box out in my front garden, luckily it didn't rain for a change and it wasn't stolen, i would have stayed in if they would have notified me they were comming. I thought it strange when placing my order they only wanted to know my wheel size and the gap between the wheel slots on the forks. As it was the wheel would not fit into the slots, had to take a few thou off the flat unthreaded parts of the axel, only took a few minutes, next i couldn't get the wheel slot between the nut and washers on the end of the axel were the power cable come out from the motor, you cant adjust the cones like on a normal bike wheel, part of the motor must be on it, i had to take off a few thou either side of the wheel slot with my angle grinder, the wheel fits ok now and is secure. Been that the down frame tube has a circumference of 18 cms there is no room for the disk with the magets on to pass the censor the way it was supposed to be mounted, needs to be a 3 mm gap, tried always. So, i had to cut off the mount on the back of the censor and glued it to frame tube instead, i will secure it with some good quality tape as well, some of the supplied cable ties that came with the kit were useless and a bit short for this frame. So as there was some charge in the power pack i switched on and turned the peddle, i was pleasantly surprised it worked ok, all that remains to do now it to tidy and secure the cables, i will post again after the trial run. My bike is a MTB/CROSS. VTT whatever that means from Serious Cycles Germany. I suppose some people could be lucky and have there bike set up and ready to go in 15 to 20 mins as on Youtube ???.

EBikeFanatic

I don’t like the idea of extra weight on the stem

kayakindude

I went through a similar experience with filing the motor mounts. I do wish they clearly defined the minimum 10mm fork gap that is required.

Same issue with the oversized aluminum frame, had to cut up the PAS disc to make it work. They sent a new universal magnetic disk that mounts directly to the crank arm, I've never used it. Did your new kit come with one? Mine is about 3 years old now. Performance has been great.

vascoboy

Helping a friend with a retrofit…front wheel will not fit in fork dropout slots as the axle diameter is too wide. The worst part is that all of the promotional and instructional material suggest that 10mm is the standard on road/hybrid bikes when everyone (who wrenches on bikes) knows 9 mm is the standard. This leaves the consumer w 3 choices: return, file dropouts (yikes!), file axle (!?!). I have to think the 2 latter compromises the safety of the bike, especially since all of the torque is being channeled to that part if the bicycle. Pretty shaddy stuff going on here…Buyer beware.

Hanxmom

After waiting 7 months, my Swytch kit arrived with the wrong charging cord, wrong mounting bracket, and a missing waterproof grommet. Hope it does not take 7 more months... There was also a lack of good communication when ordering and the longer cords I need did not get ordered.

linberl

FYI many retrofit kits require filing the dropouts; google it. A common thing.

7up

Swytch equals great marketing which translates to a premium price IMHO.

davidjpowers

Like others, I waited 6 months to receive part of my kit. What was supposed to be delivered in November of last year didn't arrive until January of this year and was missing the battery and charger. Those came in around late February, and when I attempted to follow the instructions, I discovered that I was missing a dongle to connect the charger to the battery. After being instructed to search my shipping boxes thoroughly because the dongle was a small part that I may have missed, I finally convinced them that my kit shipped without the dongle. A new one was supposed to be shipped to me, but it didn't arrive until yesterday, nearly a month after identifying it as missing. The excuse this time was the same availability issue. After charging the battery as prescribed, I attempted to fit the wheel to the fork and discovered the axle was too large to fit the fork. To verify that it was indeed the axle, I tried another bike and experienced the same problem. I ordered this kit almost a year ago and I am done giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'll update everyone later on my return experience.

kayakindude

Hi David,

You have to file down the motor mount if you have less than 10mm forks. I went through the same thing. Older road bike with a 9mm fork. Not sure if other kits have 10mm axles. Sorry to hear about missing parts, i didn't have issues there and found mounting the PAS the big challenge because every bike is different.

It was a great intro to electric assist but if you look for great deals you can get a good purpose built bike for around $1000. I've heard the kits are close to $800 now. Mine was $500. As the kits get more expensive a purpose built bike makes more sense.

BarryBlizzard

Is the best option to take half a mil off either side of the the hub bolt ? Not sure what to do with my Swytchbike ornament and my 10mm dropout.

kayakindude

Yes, use a file and it doesn't take long. It's actually in the manual but of course they don't tell you that part

BarryBlizzard

Many thanks for the advice.

2old

I had to do that mod with a front system once and it was easy and didn't seem to compromise the installation. I'm still using the fork and frame with another system.

BarryBlizzard

The consensus seems to be that it is the only way forward without support from Swytchbike.
Thanks

BarryBlizzard

The consensus seems to be that it is the only way forward without support from Swytchbike.
Thanks

kayakindude

To be fair that might not be a swytch thing, I'm thinking any front hub motor is 10mm minimum. Others may be more familiar

2old

The curious aspect (to me) is that my daughter wanted an ebike, so I built one using the same front motor and a chrome steel rigid fork and didn't need to file the dropouts on it (AIR).

Leisesturm

What I don't understand is how Swytch is able to get as many U.S. customers to part with cash for their unsuitable (for our market) product as they do. Please share. Any momentary embarrassment will be more than offset by the valuable service you will be doing to keep more cyclists away from these systems. I can't help because I don't get it myself. The one satisfied customer that posts regularly here about their positive experience is an outlier. I suspect they don't actually need an e-assist for their riding.

Torque arms! I doubt they are included in a Swytch system, but any fork mounted system should have them, especially if you widen 9mm dropouts to 10mm so the motor axle can fit. TL;DR: Swytch isn't actually British. If that's the thing that is swinging the deal be advised: ALL motors in existence are going to be, in part or in whole, of Chinese origin. That is simply the way it is. That said, there are tiers of quality and/or performance. If you want to spend a lot of money for a quality e-assist then go see the GRIN people out of Canada. Their motors come from China too but they QA them and you can be assured that your money will do what you expect it to. And if they can't get it to you they aren't going to offer it for sale.

Luna Cycles (U.S. based) is partial to Bafang motors and mainly mid-drives, but they are well regarded as a company. Then there are any number of online motor kits in the usual places (Amazon, Ebay, AliExpress) and I don't even want to list names because I haven't kept up. Some may be long gone by now. Some may not be the best around but at least you will find that out quickly. Avoid Swytch! Even if it was the best motor on the market the need to put your order in a full riding season ahead of when you want it would be a huge #fail. Don't be that cyclist. Make any other choice. PSA over.

linberl

I suspect many go to Swytch because they have lightweight airline approved battery options. Grin Tech does as well but they are really pricey. Nearly all the other kits I've seen come with the dolphin/shark type battery which is great for range but absolutely useless if you travel and tour internationally, and also adds a lot of weight to a bike some people have to carry up stairs. I went with a friction drive system for these very reasons - total weight was under 6 lbs with battery, and I just bought extra batteries for range to swap. Plenty of folks don't need or want lots of power or range and prefer light weight. Different strokes. As to satisfied customers, disgruntled folks post way more often, we all know that. The Facebook group for Swuytch has a lot of happy users.

roadcrankr

Like Linberl here, I am another satisfied Swytch user. Max battery (3rd generation) and throttle only (no PAS).
The six-month wait did not bother me; waiting another few months did, though.
I installed on an existing 18lb road bike, bringing it up to about 27lbs when carrying a spare battery. for long rides.
This equates to about the same weight as a new mid-drive Specialized costing around $5,000 or so.
Mine, with spare battery, probably costs under $1,000, even after Calif sales tax. (VAT not applicable to USA purchases)
Once Swytch provides the parts to move my controller & battery rearward, I plan to do that. Either seatpost or a rack.
People do not seem to appreciate that their system allows one to mount two water bottles, without going the tri-athlete route!
My mileage recently reached eight hundred miles in less than two months. Very happy with my purchase and glad I waited.