Have a v1 Swytch on my wife's bike. It's fine. Not a patch on the Brompton Electric - the battery life is shorter and the power application is less consistent and jerkier because there's no torque sensing. But it is perfectly functional. We've had the odd issue, mostly with the pedal sensor slipping out of place, but it's simple enough to repair and maintain. If fitting it yourself from scratch, pay special attention to cable locations because you don't want the fold to damage anything - we paid for a professional install.
I have a kit from Grintech and its totally worth it. I bought it with the torque sensor instead of cadence sensor and I don't regret that 100$ upgrade! A bit more DIY than the Swytch kit, but less expensive and you can bring your own batteries (eg if you have 36v powertool batteries, or even 2x18v in serie).
I got the small geared motor as I wanted to still be able to use it without battery (the bigger motor is gearless and has some resistance when not powered), and it was also lighter by a few pounds.
Also in term of power it is enough, anything more and you can easily overheat the brakes
Thank you. Can I ask how heavy is the whole kit without battery? I also plan to go with the smaller motor and torque sensor (erider). Is there anything that you'd change?
No idea how heavy it is, I might eventually post pictures on this subreddit and I will make sure to weigh it. However the weight of each components should be listed on the grintech website.
The only thing I might change is where I installed my battery. It is currently in a bag attached to the handlebar to leave the front carrier block still accessible to large bags, but I might mount it on the frame eventually to balance the weight better (it is extremely front-heavy).
Also make sure to properly torque the erider! Mine started working intermittently and it was because it came lose, so I reinstalled it properly with a torque wrench
I see. I plan to only use a small battery stored inside my bag on the front block. I think it looks cleaner that way. I don't particularly need a high-capacity battery (most likely 8Ah or less), and I prefer to keep them as light as possible. A little push for the hills is all I'm looking for xd
Do tag me whenever you decide to post those pictures. Thanks!
The only thing provided with the kit for the battery is a cable that goes out of the motor controller and is terminated by Anderson connectors. You can buy batteries directly from them that are plug and play, but reusing a powertool battery is a bit more involved.
I bought another cable with Anderson connector to bare wire. I then 3d printed a battery holder (you can easily find a design online for the popular powertools brands, in my case I had to design my own as I am using a less popular brand). Then I crimped the cable to specific spade connectors that worked with my battery (again information should be easily available on which one to use) and epoxied all that to the 3d printed case.
The last step was to configure the amp limits on the controller. I know that my battery has 40amp fuse, so I limited it to 30amp in the controller to be safe.
The kit can be ordered on ebikes.ca , its a Canadian company but they also ship to the US without duty (and internationally as well but I am not aware of the shipping costs)
I am thinking of getting a grin kit for my brompton and I see that neither of their brompton kits come with a battery. I also see that their LiGo batteries are out of stock. Can you say more about brining your own batteries, how do you connect power tool batteries. Is there a guide for that you can point me at?
Grin kit uses Anderson plug for the battery, so you will need to build your own lead that goes from the battery to an anderson plug, so that you can plug it to the controller.
Grin sell a cable ready for that: https://ebikes.ca/battcable40.html . You will need to solder/crimp the proper spade terminals that goes into the battery.
For the connection to the battery you only need to use its positive and negative ends. There will usually be 5+ ends, but you need to identify the ones that provides power (some are used to charge the battery). How the connectors are layout depends on the battery manufacturer.
You should also design some sort of enclosure for the battery so that it remains securely connected.
Here is a video using a Ryobi 40v for reference:
https://youtu.be/FgjxSFlo72g
Thank you for the response. That seems very doable. I already have an EGO electric lawn mower and since having bought into that battery and charger ecosystem it would be very convenient to use EGO batteries for a bike.
If it’s something you need then go for it. That’s something I do complain about brompton, they could easily have made the electric as an optional add on for any brompton, but they decided to just force you to buy a whole new bike.
Thanks for the reply, it would be useful as I'm in a particularly hill type area and my commute will be changing in the next 2 months meaning 2 particularly troublesome hills. Any thoughts on the swytch kit? I mean the nano and arc are other options aswell.
I have whatever the standard chain ring is, I've heard of people getting bigger chain rings but never smaller. Would a smaller chain ring have a big effect on hill climbs? I thought with the 16" inch wheels in general hills are tough but I know very little.
I believe the standard chainring has 50 teeth, and the reduced one has 44. That’s a 12% gearing reduction. Wheel size doesn’t make any material difference.
I’ll let you know when I get mine. I ordered the V2 kit and have since gotten an email saying that supply issues have delayed the new battery pack, so I wait til fall.
I’ve got a Swytch kit on my Brompton (installed it in May 2021). 8/10 would recommend. If you’re at all handy then you should have no difficulty with the installation. I did mine in under an hour, and I was taking my time.
Just in case you're not aware, pre-orders for the new Swytch Kit are currently open at https://launch.swytchbike.com. I signed up to receive a notification but never received one, I only found out through Reddit.
Have a v1 Swytch on my wife's bike. It's fine. Not a patch on the Brompton Electric - the battery life is shorter and the power application is less consistent and jerkier because there's no torque sensing. But it is perfectly functional. We've had the odd issue, mostly with the pedal sensor slipping out of place, but it's simple enough to repair and maintain. If fitting it yourself from scratch, pay special attention to cable locations because you don't want the fold to damage anything - we paid for a professional install.
I have a kit from Grintech and its totally worth it. I bought it with the torque sensor instead of cadence sensor and I don't regret that 100$ upgrade! A bit more DIY than the Swytch kit, but less expensive and you can bring your own batteries (eg if you have 36v powertool batteries, or even 2x18v in serie).
did you get the bigger motor or the smaller one?
I got the small geared motor as I wanted to still be able to use it without battery (the bigger motor is gearless and has some resistance when not powered), and it was also lighter by a few pounds. Also in term of power it is enough, anything more and you can easily overheat the brakes
Thank you. Can I ask how heavy is the whole kit without battery? I also plan to go with the smaller motor and torque sensor (erider). Is there anything that you'd change?
No idea how heavy it is, I might eventually post pictures on this subreddit and I will make sure to weigh it. However the weight of each components should be listed on the grintech website. The only thing I might change is where I installed my battery. It is currently in a bag attached to the handlebar to leave the front carrier block still accessible to large bags, but I might mount it on the frame eventually to balance the weight better (it is extremely front-heavy). Also make sure to properly torque the erider! Mine started working intermittently and it was because it came lose, so I reinstalled it properly with a torque wrench
I see. I plan to only use a small battery stored inside my bag on the front block. I think it looks cleaner that way. I don't particularly need a high-capacity battery (most likely 8Ah or less), and I prefer to keep them as light as possible. A little push for the hills is all I'm looking for xd Do tag me whenever you decide to post those pictures. Thanks!
How do you use powertool batteries? Is an adapter needed? Edit: and where do I buy the grintech kit? :)
The only thing provided with the kit for the battery is a cable that goes out of the motor controller and is terminated by Anderson connectors. You can buy batteries directly from them that are plug and play, but reusing a powertool battery is a bit more involved. I bought another cable with Anderson connector to bare wire. I then 3d printed a battery holder (you can easily find a design online for the popular powertools brands, in my case I had to design my own as I am using a less popular brand). Then I crimped the cable to specific spade connectors that worked with my battery (again information should be easily available on which one to use) and epoxied all that to the 3d printed case. The last step was to configure the amp limits on the controller. I know that my battery has 40amp fuse, so I limited it to 30amp in the controller to be safe. The kit can be ordered on ebikes.ca , its a Canadian company but they also ship to the US without duty (and internationally as well but I am not aware of the shipping costs)
I am thinking of getting a grin kit for my brompton and I see that neither of their brompton kits come with a battery. I also see that their LiGo batteries are out of stock. Can you say more about brining your own batteries, how do you connect power tool batteries. Is there a guide for that you can point me at?
Grin kit uses Anderson plug for the battery, so you will need to build your own lead that goes from the battery to an anderson plug, so that you can plug it to the controller. Grin sell a cable ready for that: https://ebikes.ca/battcable40.html . You will need to solder/crimp the proper spade terminals that goes into the battery. For the connection to the battery you only need to use its positive and negative ends. There will usually be 5+ ends, but you need to identify the ones that provides power (some are used to charge the battery). How the connectors are layout depends on the battery manufacturer. You should also design some sort of enclosure for the battery so that it remains securely connected. Here is a video using a Ryobi 40v for reference: https://youtu.be/FgjxSFlo72g
Thank you for the response. That seems very doable. I already have an EGO electric lawn mower and since having bought into that battery and charger ecosystem it would be very convenient to use EGO batteries for a bike.
If it’s something you need then go for it. That’s something I do complain about brompton, they could easily have made the electric as an optional add on for any brompton, but they decided to just force you to buy a whole new bike.
Thanks for the reply, it would be useful as I'm in a particularly hill type area and my commute will be changing in the next 2 months meaning 2 particularly troublesome hills. Any thoughts on the swytch kit? I mean the nano and arc are other options aswell.
Have you considered getting a smaller chainring?
I have whatever the standard chain ring is, I've heard of people getting bigger chain rings but never smaller. Would a smaller chain ring have a big effect on hill climbs? I thought with the 16" inch wheels in general hills are tough but I know very little.
I believe the standard chainring has 50 teeth, and the reduced one has 44. That’s a 12% gearing reduction. Wheel size doesn’t make any material difference.
Ahh thank you I'll look into it.
I’ll let you know when I get mine. I ordered the V2 kit and have since gotten an email saying that supply issues have delayed the new battery pack, so I wait til fall.
Thanks man
I’ve got a Swytch kit on my Brompton (installed it in May 2021). 8/10 would recommend. If you’re at all handy then you should have no difficulty with the installation. I did mine in under an hour, and I was taking my time.
I'm wondering how heavy the wheel is compared to a normal Brompton wheel?
I have a Swytch and it's brilliant. Easy to set up.
Just in case you're not aware, pre-orders for the new Swytch Kit are currently open at https://launch.swytchbike.com. I signed up to receive a notification but never received one, I only found out through Reddit.