#swytch

[paniniville]

some older character design sketches for a superhero series i’m working on; most of them only have working names, or their superhero codenames. In order: Knives/Knives, Maizy/Maizy, Heartbreaker/Thunderhead, Horseplay/Gaia, Swytch

[swytchcraft]

Finally finished my troll rogue! 

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[pavel-nosok]

How Swytch used ‘crowdshopping’ to scale without VC money

The pandemic era taught many of us that bikes are a great way to get around cities. Doubly so if they are e-bikes, replete with batteries to help reduce the amount of sweat required to get somewhere. Swytch Technology, a startup that builds e-bike conversion kits, isn’t targeting your average cyclist in the United States or Europe, however. Instead, the U.K.-based startup offers regular bike…

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[dailystraitsdotcom]

London, April 19: British startup Swytch Technology is in its final stages of launching the world-first, pocket-sized eBike battery that turns any bike into an electric one. The new Swytch eBike conversion kit that launches in May would feature a pocket-sized battery which is similar in size to a large smart-phone. The battery provides 250W of power and enough range for your daily commute, whilst weighing only 700g (1.5lb) and can be recharged in around an hour. Swytch believes that eBikes should be lightweight, affordable and work like a regular bike whilst having electric functionality. Read the full story at DailyStraits.com, through the link in the bio or by downloading the app on the Google Play store or the Apple store. #london #londoncalling #swytchbike #swytch #ebike (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc1SvPkBhkY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sbiroschik]

I woke up last night at 2:00 a.m. and couldn't sleep, so I connected a motor to this bicycle. Today at sundown, I'm about to take it on an inaugural test drive. Now you know the reason why if you never see me again. #ebike #bikelife #bikeride #cooper #swytch #swytchbike #brilliant (at Marietta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CY7b8w4pTFH/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jeffzie]

Month 8: cadence sensor failure. Power delivery feels random, and I suspect its cause is the sensor not being 100% watertight.

I love Swytch’s design, but their QC in China is poxy. It feels like a pre-production bit of kit… maybe it’s because I use my bike quite a bit, but 30-40km/day, is not outrageous. The only component that hasn’t been replaced in 8 months is the motor-hub. Fingers crossed that it won’t fail.

The good thing is that Swytch’s support team is always responsive and friendly. Got the offer of a replacement component within 10 minutes.

This all reminds me of ordering my KTM motorcycle as a new model that was buggy…

[jeffzie]

6 months in. This is why crowdfunded projects are risky; you’re buying a prototype. In this case, Swytch’s concept and design is really clever. Where they fail is materials, build and QC.

The battery and controller cables are the wrong type – too stiff, and the bag for the setup too loose, resulting in a lot of movement when riding on anything but the smoothest of blacktops. All the resulting movement and pinch-points in the bag wear out the cables and in my case, the power-cable.

I’ve already bought a new mounting bracket because the original one had a weak catch. Do I regret investing in a crowdfunded project? No. Is it frustrating? Yes.

But I did it with my eyes open, and hope that Swytch can use feedback like this to improve their product. Because if they can build it right, I think they’ll help to get a lot of cars off the road.

[jeffzie]

Swytched Mongrel v2

After the last few months of riding The Mongrel with the Swytch kit, I decided to do something about the crappy handling on rough B-roads and bridleways caused by Swytch’s terrible mounting-position of the battery-pack. A pal of mine who also has a Swytch and the same complaint found a compatible extension-cable on Amazon that gave me the confidence to begin a fix without voiding the warranty. (He side-mounted the kit to his seat-post, but I don’t have enough seatpost height to do that.)

The Mongrel as it stood looked like this:

I wanted to move the battery-pack and mount below the saddle to improve the bike’s handling, and found an old adjustable handlebar stem that I added shims to and fitted on the seat-post, facing rearwards. Onto this, I fitted a sawn-down old aluminium handlebar:

The adjustable stem’s important. This allows me to ensure that the bottom of the power-pack rests on by rear-rack to minimise rattling and movement:

Once re-wired with the extension-cable, and everything was tweaked, I ended up being able to rear-mount the battery and fit my under-saddle tool-pack, whilst having space to fit and remove the battery pack and lock it into place:

The fit is perfect. No rattling (it rattled when it was front-mounted and I was riding on anything but fresh tarmac). Fortunately, I don’t need to see or play with the power settings, as I’m permanently on the lowest power setting, as I just need a little help on the big, grinding hills. But it would be nice to see if I could find a bluetooth adapter at some point, so I could control it with my phone.

Most importantly, my bike now handles again. And riding and recording the same 25.5km daily exercise route shows that moving the battery behind/under me has given me a 7% gain in average speed and cadence, whilst my heart-rate is 7% lower. More speed/efficiency, just by removing the effort/distraction of trying to control the bike on crappy surfaces. Am sure a great deal of the gain is psychological; a planted bike gives greater confidence that results in higher speed.

ADDENDUM: I noticed a bit of lateral steering movement when cycling yesterday, so dismantled the head-tube fittings to find that the upper cup and cone were worn. Am certain that the handlebar-mounted Swytch battery bouncing/vibrating was the cause of the irregular wear, given that I only rebuilt the bike 6 months ago.

So. There you go. I’ve improved the Swytch conversion kit. Just need to think about ways to hide the cables better now.