The marketplace for electrical bikes has been abuzz up to now few years, with many new producers cropping up, legacy bike makers introducing electrified fashions, and even auto trade manufacturers making an attempt their hand at bicycles. But, for many who already personal a completely serviceable bike, there’s the choice to show it into an ebike. It could seem to be a sophisticated course of, however that’s the place the Swytch Kit is available in, aiming to show your bike into a “top quality eBike” with a simple wheel swap, a particular battery pack, and a little set up course of that much more novice bikers can deal with.
Pricing is the place issues rapidly get difficult for the Swytch Kit. The base Eco mannequin prices a whopping £999/$1,199 (roughly AU$1800) to offer you about 21 miles of vary whereas the Pro mannequin bumps as much as £1249/$1499 (AU$2050) for 31 miles of vary.
Swytch usually affords a big 50% low cost for folk who join the waitlist, although (because the product is usually offered out). But keep in mind, all of this doesn’t embody an precise bike. That’s only for a motorized wheel, a battery pack, mounting gear, and a cadence sensor.
It helps a little that Swytch does the work of constructing the wheel to suit your bike. Of course, this leaves you with the duty of supplying your personal bike (or shopping for a new one), which presumably would even have wheels that have been constructed to suit it. So, let’s take a deeper dive to see if we will make sense of the Swytch Kit’s proposition to clients.
The battery mounts securely to the handlebars
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
Swytch Kit – Key Specs
Motor: 250W brushless entrance hub, geared
Top pace (motorized): 20mph
Power: 36V 7.0Ah (250Wh) Pro Power Pack; (36V 5.0Ah Eco Power Pack)
Control: Cadence-sensor pedal help (throttle optionally available)
E-bike classification: Class 1
Brake assist: rim or disc
Wheel dimension: 700Cx28 (as examined), all sizes out there
Weight: 7.72 kilos (wheel + battery), 9.2 kilos (totally assembled on bike; will range)
Range: 31 miles (31.3 examined); (21.7 miles with Eco Power Pack)
SWYTCH KIT PRO REVIEW: DESIGN AND FEATURES
The Swytch Kit is a bit exhausting to outline design-wise. At its coronary heart are two issues: a 250W hub motor and a distinctive battery pack that homes the battery cells and motor controller. The hub motor will get constructed to the specs of consumers’ wheels, a 700x28C wheel with rim brakes in my case, and may subsequently are available in a few completely different shapes. By default, it’s an all-silver affair for the hub, spokes, and rim, however it could actually are available in matte black for an extra charge. Note that this doesn’t embody a tire or tube.
The wheel finally ends up being a lot like these on different hub-motor-powered e-bikes I’ve examined besides that it goes onto the entrance of the bike. It slots into the entrance dropouts and is held on with nuts whereas the facility connector cable comes out from the axle on the left-hand facet. I discovered the threaded axle gave me bother becoming solely about midway into the dropouts on two bikes — they’re a little thicker than quick-release skewers — however finally they slotted in with a little bit of pressure down on the handlebars. The wheel is nothing too fancy, however that helps it stay fairly refined on the bike, hardly freely giving the e-bike nature of the mod.
A discreet motor apart from the thick cabling
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
The battery pack is a tiny factor within the grand scheme of e-bike batteries. If it have been a lunchbox, it will match little greater than a hearty sandwich and a small bag of chips. That’s a blessing and a curse because it makes the battery simple to handle but additionally means it’s acquired a restricted 250Wh capability for the premium Pro mannequin and simply 180Wh for the Eco mannequin.
The Swytch Kit’s battery pack is constructed into a cloth sleeve that’s extra waterproof than it appears (it held up completely in about an hour of wet biking) and additional obscures the very fact it’s constructing into an e-bike. The cloth construct does depart the buttons for controlling pace and energy a little mushy, and the primary energy swap (which is barely flipped as soon as) proves fussy to achieve due to an extremely agency zipper across the prime of the battery pack. The pack has a little carrying deal with for comfort in addition to entrance reflectors, and the Pro model contains a built-in 200-lumen headlight.
Visible, however not blinding
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
The package contains a mounting bracket that attaches to the handlebars on each side of the stem. It’s a bit large and will get in the way in which of different handlebar attachments. The bracket simply accepts the battery with helpful alignment guides, and it locks the battery in place. The battery is definitely unlocked with a simple button press, although, that means it’s simply as simple for you to take away this costly element as it’s for a thief. So that battery carrying deal with goes to come in useful, as a result of you’ll be taking the battery off all over the place you go if you wish to maintain it.
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
With the bracket hooked up and wheel on, there’s a contact of wiring up and cable administration to do. The cable from the wheel wants to attach with a wire coming from the battery bracket, after which it must be zip-tied alongside the fork to maintain it from stepping into the spokes.
A cadence has to go onto the underside bracket, with a disc of magnets attaching to at least one crank arm and spindle and a sensor mounting onto the body subsequent to it. This little bit of the meeting is a bit trickier and the plastic piece that connects to the crank arm is a little much less elegant than the remainder of the system. Having all the things tied down with zip ties additionally leaves the completed construct feeling a little extra cobbled collectively than I’d anticipate from one thing priced this excessive.
The system helps different choices, resembling throttles and brake sensors, issues which are commonplace on loads of e-bikes, however these price additional. Unfortunately, assist for these extras means built-in cabling for them whether or not you need them or not, in order that’s much more cables on your bike to tuck away.
Just how a lot weight the system provides to your bike will rely. The motor and battery weight aren’t variable, however you could also be changing a light-weight rim with a heavier one. The bracket and cabling additionally add some weight. I swapped out a low cost wheel for the Swytch Kit, and all instructed the change noticed my bike acquire 4.2kg (9.2 kilos). This additionally shifts weight towards the entrance, which makes the bike a little extra finicky about standing upright in my case.
SWYTCH KIT PRO REVIEW: PERFORMANCE
The Swytch Kit isn’t any beast. Its 250W motor isn’t meant to fly at 28mph, and its battery isn’t meant for cross-country excursions. What the package is there to do is supply a little bit of help to a rider, taking a little bit of the sting off of a journey.
Sure sufficient, I really feel the Swytch Kit kicking in as I journey, serving to out a bit as I speed up in the direction of my quicker cruising speeds. The finest state of affairs for it has been after I hit a slight hill or some headwind. Here it provides me a little additional energy to battle via the added resistance. As a lot as I welcome it in these moments, I discover it lagging leagues behind the opposite bikes I’ve examined.
Perhaps the least elegant piece of the package — the cadence sensor is strapped and caught on to the underside bracket.
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
The first fault is within the cadence sensor. I by no means really feel the motor kick in till I’ve made about a rotation and a half with my cranks. When I get shifting from a standstill, I’ve already finished the exhausting half earlier than I really feel the help. Once it’s going, the motor does clean out my acceleration however solely as much as about 12-14mph. Swytch suggests an higher restrict of 20mph for the motor, and I’m a heavier rider at over 220 kilos, so it stands to purpose that I’ll get much less from the motor, however different 250W techniques I’ve examined haven’t fallen thus far in need of the producer’s listed speeds.
Above 14mph, I can hardly really feel the help coming from the motor. This leaves a small window of speeds that it truly feels just like the Swytch Kit is supporting my driving. The bike I examined it on is a issue. It’s admittedly a bit downtrodden, nevertheless it’s gentle and agile sufficient by itself to comfortably permit some high-teens driving. So the bike the Swytch Kit will get paired with is a big consider its final worth.
Your previous bike with a Swytch Kit remains to be your previous bike in most regards.
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
Where Swytch succeeds is in its promised vary. Perhaps it is a results of the conservative energy supply I skilled, however I rode the Swytch Kit Pro for a full 31 miles earlier than the battery petered out, nonetheless displaying one bar remaining however providing a negligible help. And that driving was with the pack set to its most help degree.
Now, the Swytch Kit isn’t aiming to be essentially the most monstrous, highly effective ebike on the block. But Swytch says it goals to show a commonplace bike into a “top quality eBike,” and the long-story-short is that it could actually’t. E-bikes have merely come too far.
There are refined ebikes just like the Pure Flux One, Ampler Curt, and Ride1Up Roadster V2 that may cruise alongside on their motors (even as much as 24mph with ease on the Roadster) whereas costing nearly as a lot because the Swytch Kit’s most elementary bundle earlier than any reductions, and these ebikes truly embody a bike. Meanwhile, higher-end e-bikes just like the Specialized Turbo Vado SL 4.0 depart little room to think about pairing the Swytch Kit with a premium bike because it’ll by no means match the match and end nor the efficiency.
This leaves nearly one smart avenue for the Swytch Kit to slot in. It can take a bike with sentimental worth and make it simpler to journey, decreasing the challenges of hills, wind, and bike weight on the rider, and avoiding the litter of proudly owning a number of bikes. For most individuals, whether or not coming from a low cost bike or no bike in any respect, it makes masses extra sense to only go straight to one thing designed from the bottom as much as be an ebike.
The entire package is actually these two objects.
(Image credit score: Mark Knapp)
SWYTCH KIT PRO REVIEW: VERDICT
The Swytch Kit is an fascinating bike accent that takes a lot of the guesswork out of constructing an e-bike for many who really wish to improve a bike they already personal. It received’t add sufficient energy to excite or largely profit seasoned riders, and it’s not terribly smart for anybody who could make room for a totally packaged e-bike as a substitute. Even at its discounted value, there are different kits, eBikeling’s for instance, that provide extra energy for many who don’t thoughts doing a little extra fiddling and analysis, however generally you pay for simplicity.