Swift Xootr E-Conversion

[jerrysimon]

The Swift Xootr is not that well known here in the UK and originates from America.

Details here

Xootr Swift Folding Bicycle : Xootr Urban Transport

I have had this bike a few months now and have only just got round to "E" converting it. One of the reasons is that this is the "swiftest" small wheeled (20") bike I have ever ridden. It simply flies along and to be honest I was reluctant to mess with it in its stock form. Before the dark nights/bad weather set in I was taking it out for some fun evening rides unassisted. As I said it is so quick and just so much fun to ride.

Here are some pics in it original form.

Folded

Ok in its folded form it is not going to win any awards

But for placing in the car or in my office its fine. At around 11.5kg stock its fairly light weight. In addition to being fairly light part of the reason it rides so well and is so fast is because the main tube is unbroken giving it a lot of stiffness and no flex. Gear wise its basic, but adequate SRAM SX 5 grip shifter; SRAM SX 4 derailleur; SRAM PG-850 11-28T cassette, 52T single-chainwheel aluminum alloy crankset (170mm) with chainguard, give a nice gear range of 36" - 92". This means you are not spinning out until well over 20mph. Although I am a big fan of hub gears, this bike is best left as it is with its derailleur gears. I prefer trigger changers but am actually now quite liking the single twist grip changer. Also on smaller wheeled bikes I usually prefer suspension, but this frame set will take 2" Big Apples which smooths out all but the bumpiest of rides. I also wanted a bike that was not worth a fortune and could be safely (well reasonably) locked up and left.

Regards

Jerry

 

[jerrysimon]

Ok onto the conversion. Initially I was going to set it up with the new lightweight Tongxin Goldant motor but using a ecrazyman/lyen controller with thumb throttle, three speed, cruise etc. However as this bike rides so well unassisted, I decided to try it with a very minimalist approach to assistance so have used the the small Goldant pedelec only controller. Again I decided to move away from my normal umbilical and controller in a bag affair and mount this on the bike seeing as it is so small and light. There is also an ideal spot just behind the base of the frame seat tube to put it on.

This was the original Tonxin Goldant motor I purchased which has a 36h drilled flange and was swapped out from my lightweight Brompton when I ordered a 28h one. Catsnapper (Alan) has converted me to radial spoking for smaller wheel builds. Annoyingly this motor had quite deep countersinking for alternating in/out spoke heads. All spoke heads out always look better on radial builds, so I got round this but using some small brass washers to pad out the deeper counter sinks

Alan provided the cut spokes and guidance for the wheel build (actually quite a while ago now), a real credit to the forum. I am getting much more confident building wheels now. Its so rewarding and such great fun.

So here it is built.

Mud guards added, really wide ones for the BAs. I have had them for a while now having purchased them a year ago or so as old Raleigh new stock. There silver aluminum construction fit the bike style and color perfectly. Also added was a Klickfix seat post fitment to take one of their clip on rucksacks for my battery and bits and bobs.

Here is the cockpit with a simple on off switch to bring in/out pedelec assistance and a single cut out brake to kill the motor when braking. Both served from a single cutout brake wire with a Y split. The idea of this conversion is to pedal this bike as much as possible unassisted. With the controller behind the seat post frame tube, just two wires (motor and brake cutout) needed to be run up to the front.

 

[jerrysimon]

Controller.

As can be seen mounted on a sweet spot behind the frame seat post frame. These controllers are small light and have a concave rounded profile on one side so they can be mounted flush against frame tubes with a couple of cable ties.

Pedelec Sensor.

This went on so easily after all the hassle I had fitting it to the Brompton. There was plenty BB axle width to the pedal crank flange so no cutting/slimming down of the wide pedelec magnetic disk was required. The sensor itself was simply epoxied onto the frame. Note the mud everywhere from just a couple of rides in this lousy weather. Again the sensor wire did not need to be cut or lengthened and connected to the controller which is attached just behind it on the frame seat tube. Cutting and lengthening the wire before on my Brompton caused me so much grief, this conversion was so much easier.

 

[jerrysimon]

Ok some final pics

Ready to go with bag fitted. The bag looks lopsided but its just because it was stuffed with a jumper which I had to take off because I was too warm riding lol

Front view

Rear view

The real surprise was the ride and this is probably my most successful conversion yet. The stock controller seems to be optimised to get the max RPM out of this little 200W, 1.4kg motor. Engaged and pedaling I quickly accelerate to 21mph plus. I hope I am still legal, but I suspect assistance is well up to 17mph and perhaps a little more

Switching off the assistance, the higher gearing keeps me whizzing along on the flats fast enough that even that cwah would be might be impressed!

This conversion really does get the best out of what is already a very quick small wheeled bike.

 

[jerrysimon]

Just to give you an idea of size here it is folded side by side with my lightweight Goldant equipped Brompton Ti. The Brompton weighs just under 12kg and this new conversion just under 14kg. The Brompton is about 1/2-1/3 the folded size but remember this is a 20" wheeled bike and rides much faster and smoother than the Brompton. I have a few more changes to make to the Brompton Ti but I am hopeful that these two bikes will become my two regular rides. One for light small on the go shorter trips to be taken in and out of shops/coffee shops etc and the other for longer rides that can be left locked up without "too" much concern. This may mean I can then start to cull the herd

These motors are not quite as quiet as the Tongxin Nanos, but as stated elsewhere they seem to freewheel very well.

Both bikes then have a choice of battery from 1.1Ah, (0.5kg), 2.3Ah (1kg) and 6Ah (2kg) DIY batteries giving me around 5, 10 and 30 miles respectively in and around Cambridge. The blue one shown is my latest creation based around 40 Li-Ion Sony Konion cells 10s4p made popular on the endless sphere forum. They are reputed to balance even better than the A123 cells and do not require a BMS.

Here they are side by side the largest one measuring 200mm * 80mm * 70mm and fitting in the back pocket of the Brompton Bag.

Regards

Jerry

 

[Jeremy]

Looks pretty good, Jerry. My own Xootr Swift conversion is far and away my favourite bike, both because it's such a really nice bike to ride in the first place, plus because it's so fast! I used a Q100 rear motor on mine, with a customised 6 FET Xiechang controller and throttle, with a 15S, 5Ah LiCoO2 pack in a small under seat bag. I didn't bother fitting a dérailleur, and just used a single freewheel, with a Speed Drive bottom bracket to give me just two gears. This works very well in practice, the "low" gear uses direct drive with a 50T chain ring and 16T freewheel, the "high" gear multiplies this to the equivalent of an 82 chain ring, meaning that real pedalling at 30mph is possible.

The next mod on mine will be replacing the Xiechang controller and power monitoring/switch system with a home built controller that uses a variation of field oriented control and a true motor torque throttle. I'm hopeful that this will give much better low speed controllability, and get rid of some of the "on-off" effect that the present, relatively high voltage, with the crude speed control throttle, gives.

The Swift deserves a better following here, in my view, as it's far and away the nicest small wheeled bike I've ever ridden.

BTW, I see you'd fitted a riser stem to the handlebar post. I'm thinking of doing the same, as the standard bars seem a little too low for comfort. Could I ask what size the one you've fitted is, please?

 

[jerrysimon]

Thanks Jeremy. I have seen your excellent conversion over on ES.

An 82T main equivalent, that must really shift!

When I am moving at 22mph+ I still feel like I could put in more effort and could do with an even higher gear. I may try one of my 54T Brompton rings on it just to see, though I am not sure if they will work with an 8 speed cassette without throwing the chain. That would give me nearer 100".

You are right this bike is so good even before conversion, it is no wonder it remains even more so after.

I like an upright ride. This is the adjustable stem I used

BBB Highsix 1 1/8 Adjustable Cycle Ahead Stem BHS22 | eBay

A whopping 130mm. I think I replaced the bars which have an inch or so rise as well.

Regards

Jerry

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks Jeremy. I have seen your excellent conversion over on ES.

An 82T main equivalent, that must really shift!

When I am moving at 22mph+ I still feel like I could put in more effort and could do with an even higher gear. I may try one of my 54T Brompton rings on it just to see, though I am not sure if they will work with an 8 speed cassette without throwing the chain. That would give me nearer 100".

You are right this bike is so good even before conversion, it is no wonder it remains even more so after.

I like an upright ride. This is the adjustable stem I used

BBB Highsix 1 1/8 Adjustable Cycle Ahead Stem BHS22 | eBay

A whopping 130mm. I think I replaced the bars which have an inch or so rise as well.

Regards

Jerry

You're right, it does shift! With the Speed Drive in "overdrive" and the 50T/16T combination the bike runs at 103 gear inches, in direct drive it runs at 63 gear inches. I find that 63 gear inches is fine when riding mixed use cycle paths and 103 is ideal for keeping up with traffic in the city (TBH, I usually end up staying ahead of traffic when pulling off from lights, which feels safer to me). The only slight downside with the Speed Drive is the rather unintuitive heel click gear shift. you can only change gear with the relevant crank facing forwards and it's a bit of a knack remembering whether it's the left or right crank you need pointing forwards in order to shift correctly.

Thanks for the link to the stem, like you I prefer to be a bit more upright and the standard post and stem is puts a bit too much weight on my wrists, I find.

I find the fold is fine for fitting the bike in the back of my car, although I remove the seat post completely (with the battery bag) which makes it easier to lift in and out. Mine pretty much lives in the back of my car and gets used all the time now as my "commute into town" bike from the free parking on the city outskirts. It's pretty much ideal for this, if not the perfect bike for the Brompton commuter crowd who use public transport a lot.

Did you buy your Swift direct from Xootr or via the UK dealer? The latter doesn't seem to push the bike much, it seems, which may be one reason we don't see many of them about here.

 

[jerrysimon]

Avon Valley Cycles are selling them for a guy who imported quite a few of them. In my opinion they have them up for too much.

Xootr Swift Folding Bike - www.avonvalleycyclery.co.uk

They are also being listed on ebay by him at a more reasonable £100 cheaper and "make me an offer".

xootr in Push Scooters | eBay

That is where I got mine from. I put in an offer when I was down at Bath visiting my father and he accepted it, so I picked it up and brought it home to Cambridge.



Regards

Jerry

 

[Jeremy]

You're right, that price is a bit on the high side. Mine cost about that price in US $, including shipping and the other bits I added, like mudguards etc, but excluding the Speed Drive, so was around 30% less, but I did get lucky with the VAT and duty. Had that been added on the price would have been close to that from Avon Valley. £650 sounds reasonable, as the bike is well made and certainly rides very well. I doubt there's another small wheel folder that rides as well as the Swift for that price.

 

[jerrysimon]

I doubt there's another small wheel folder that rides as well as the Swift for that price.

Well the closest would be the Moulton TSR (splits not folds)which I own and love. However as you say this is about half the price and I think gives the TSR a serious run for the money. The Xootr is also more likely to still be there when you return having locked it up when out and about

Regards

Jerry

 

[Cyclezee]

Nice work Jerry.

I hadn't heard of the Swift Xootr before, thanks for drawing my attention to it.

As usual you made an excellent job of the conversion, very stealthy and neat.

 

[Jeremy]

I hope Jerry won't mind my barging in on his thread, but following on from his tip about the longer adjustable stem I ordered one, it arrived this morning and I've just fitted it to my Swift. It certainly makes for a more comfortable riding position. I took the opportunity to take some photos of my Swift in its current form:

 

[jerrysimon]

No problem posting your pics Jeremy it's nice to have all the options in one thread

Your conversion is very clean and in keeping with the bike. I suspect it really shifts.

Glad the adjustable stem works well for you too. With age I find low stooped front riding positions are just too uncomfortable for me.

Regards

Jerry

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks Jerry. Yes it does shift - 60V driving the highest speed version of the Q100 makes for a fairly fast bike, but also, unfortunately, makes the throttle response rather jerky, almost just on/off at modest speeds. The next stage is to replace the xiechang controller and power control stuff in the silver box with a proper torque driven controller, which I hope will give a smoother response than the speed throttle that most ebikes have.

I found the stopped over riding position with the standard stem put too much weight on my wrists for comfort. Judging from the short ride down to the shop and back earlier I think that the more upright position with that adjustable stem will be a lot more comfortable.

 

[Cyclezee]

Jeremy,

Another very professional conversion of this great looking bike.

A question to yourself and Jerry, what are the respective weights of your converted Xootr's?

 

[jerrysimon]

I posted mine in the thread above John. With the battery option in the ruck sack from 0.5kg to 2kg the actual bike carry weight is below 14kg.

My light motor is lower powered though and I am running at 36v so this no super fast incline climber.

Regards

Jerry

 

[hech]

That is a nice wattmeter you have put together Jeremy. Am interested in what you mean by a 'torque driven controller'?

 

[jerrysimon]

Here are a couple more pics to give you a comparison of Brompton and Xootr carrying profiles.

Apart from the obvious difference in height (though with the Brompton seat it is about the same) and the larger 20" wheels protruding behind you its certainly manageable. I will certainly be able to take it into office next week when I try it for the first time on my daily commute.

PS the handle bar/stem is also removable as is the seat post if you need to get it to go even smaller, though the seat post holds it all together. Folding pedals would help too. With those and removing the bar/stem it would be flatter than the Brompton when folded,

Jerry

 

[Cyclezee]

Thank you Jerry.

Regards,