Cyclamatic FoldAway : Powering it up ?

[Julien]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the Pedelecs forum community and I've been wanting to get more speed and torque on my Cyclamatic FoldAway.

As a n00b I will be relying on your help to see what can be done to transform this little e bike into something a little more powerful.

From what I read on this forum members have been working on Cyclamatic Power Plus and getting significant results.

Looking at their work, here is the big picture of what I'm aiming to do on my Bike :

- Upgrading the Battery to 36v​

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- The current controller is a 24v controller, the low voltage Cut off will be too low to protect the battery

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- Will the BMS in the battery pack be able to protect the cells from undervoltage ?

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- How can I fit a 36v baterry into this bike ? there are tons of battery pack looking close to the one used on my bike but I did not find any "square" bar type battery at 36v

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- Performing the shunt mod on controller​

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- I need to check if the controller is the same as on the Powerplus, if so I should be able to add enough solder to draw around 18 amps safely

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- Need to see how can I bypass the speed limit

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- Changing the gearing​

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- the gearing is preventing me from helping the motor on flat land I need to supply more human produced torque to this bike

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Please feel free to comment

Julien

 

[trex]

it's usually not cost effective to modify a high volume bike. You'll need to buy a new 36V 10AH battery with new charger, about £200-250 and a new 36V controller, about £20-25.
You can of course recoup some of the outlay by selling the existing battery and controller but there is virtually no demand for this type.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Cyclezee should be able to help you out with a DNP freewheel gear-set to get your gearing right for cpmfortable pedalling. Cost about £25. You want a six or seven speed with 11T top gear.

The battery is a standard silver fish one. There's only a couple of different shapes, so getting the right size should be easy. The 36v from BMSBattery comes with all the kit: base plate and lock rod, so should definitely fit. You may have to put the seat a bit higher because it's a bit longer than the 24v one.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Cyclezee]

Just to repeat my post in the intro section,

If it was me, I would probably sell the Cyclamatic and for a similar cost to the that bike go for one of these excellent value bikes from Woosh The Zephyr | Foldable Electric bikes from Woosh | electric bike sales & hireor The Zephyr CD | Chain Drive Foldable Electric Bikes from Woosh.

You would have to ask if they would ship to Switzerland.


For retro-fit conversion kits, I would recommend an eZee Mk2 and if you are located anywhere near, Geneve, contact Vélos électriques à Genève : eZee Suisse le VAE pour tous

 

[Fordulike]

Hi Julien, welcome to the exciting world of electric bikes

I have collated most of the threads I started, reference the Power Plus I modded many moons ago.
I've not looked through every one, but there might be some interesting info in there somewhere, to help with your decisions on modding.
The only advice I will give you is, don't expect too much from modding the standard controller. It's got limits which can be easily reached. If exceeded, expect quick controller death

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/8337-cyclamatic-controller-shunt-mod.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/10550-cyclamatic-rear-hub-motor-servicing-help.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/9991-original-beastamatic-back-its-angrier.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/10009-stock-cyclamatic-vs-beastamatic.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/technical/9183-cyclamatic-controller-mod-walkthrough-pics.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/9217-cyclamatic-controller-mod-progression.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/6497-cyclamatic-controller.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/6517-slight-mod-cyclamatic-battery.html

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/5800-clutching-straws-cyclamatic.html

 

[Julien]

Hello Again,

Sorry for the late response and thank you all for your feedback.

trex


it's usually not cost effective to modify a high volume bike. You'll need to buy a new 36V 10AH battery with new charger, about £200-250 and a new 36V controller, about £20-25.
You can of course recoup some of the outlay by selling the existing battery and controller but there is virtually no demand for this type.

Hi Trex,
Thanks for your input, Is it really mandatory to change the controller ? If it's the same a the powerbike plus controller it should handle 36v right ? If the battery's BMS has an undervoltage protection I should even be ok with the Low voltage Cutoff of the actual controller being too low for 36v battery ?

d8veh


Cyclezee should be able to help you out with a DNP freewheel gear-set to get your gearing right for cpmfortable pedalling. Cost about £25. You want a six or seven speed with 11T top gear.

The battery is a standard silver fish one. There's only a couple of different shapes, so getting the right size should be easy. The 36v from BMSBattery comes with all the kit: base plate and lock rod, so should definitely fit. You may have to put the seat a bit higher because it's a bit longer than the 24v one.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi D8veh,

Thanks I'll check with Cyclezee if He can help with a new freewheel. I'm a complete novice on this so I will need also to check how that new gearing will translate into RPMs

I'm concerned abouth the battery base plate, I can't find any information on the baseplate dimension on BMS battery, based on this link it looks like I have a 87*86mm profile, I don't think I can fit the 110*75mm profile from the Cyclamatic Powerplus.
I will contact BMS battery to check if they have a 36v silverfish battery with the right profile and with undervoltage protection. links says that the one I'm looking for would be compatible with Ezee Quando (version 1), I found very little information on this battery ...

Cyclezee


Just to repeat my post in the intro section,

If it was me, I would probably sell the Cyclamatic and for a similar cost to the that bike go for one of these excellent value bikes from Woosh The Zephyr | Foldable Electric bikes from Woosh | electric bike sales & hireor The Zephyr CD | Chain Drive Foldable Electric Bikes from Woosh.

You would have to ask if they would ship to Switzerland.


For retro-fit conversion kits, I would recommend an eZee Mk2 and if you are located anywhere near, Geneve, contact Vélos électriques à Genève : eZee Suisse le VAE pour tous

Hi,

These Woosh bike looks way better than the Cyclamatic, seems to be worth the extra money. Yet I would like to keep working on the Cyclamatic as I see an opportunity to gain knowledge on the ebike's DYI world But I'll keep in mind your suggestion.
I'm a little far from Geneva but I'll check the eZee Mk2 conversion kits. There's a bike store in town that I need to visit OCOBIKE CUSTOM BIKE AND E-BIKE - OCOBIKE- Beach Cruiser vélo shop Neuchatel,Lowriders bikes,Choppers bikes,Custom vélo

In the introduce yourself forum Bob Wrote :

Hi Julien and welcome, I have put a suspension seat post on mine which improves the comfort.
If you have the 24 volt battery you can improve the torque by soldering the shunt in the controller by about 25-30 % or you can use a 36 volt battery, however you will need to increase the chain wheel to at least 52 teeth and even with that size chain wheel I have trouble catching up with the bike
A Healthy and Happy Christmas and New Year to all.

Bob you seem to have made some of these improvement on your Foldaway already, thanks for your feedback. Did you find a 36v battery that fitted the existing profile ? How did you perform the shunt mod ?

Hi Julien, welcome to the exciting world of electric bikes

I have collated most of the threads I started, reference the Power Plus I modded many moons ago.
I've not looked through every one, but there might be some interesting info in there somewhere, to help with your decisions on modding.
The only advice I will give you is, don't expect too much from modding the standard controller. It's got limits which can be easily reached. If exceeded, expect quick controller death

Thanks a lot for your help Fordulike, lots of usefull information on these post
I take note that the controller mod must be limited, since changing the controller will be tricky since it's so small it will be difficult to fit anything else in there ....

Basically for now I'm having trouble finding a 36v battery with the right dimensions, and I need to find a way to control the amp after the shuntmod on the controller to prevent controller death. Also, if the battery discharge rate is too low will the shunt mod be of any help ?

I read some interesting post from people that added a 12v battery in serial with an existing 24v. It could be interesting to fit a cheap 12v battery but how can I prevent undervoltage current on the new 12v battery and how will the discharge rate be affected ?

Julien

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I have measured my Cyclamatic battery (Powerplus), and the dimensions of the case are 75 x 108mm. That is the basic rectangle ignoring all the other features. That makes it a standard Silver Fish battery,exactly the same as many other behind-the-seatpost batteries. Can't you measure yours? In case you didn't know, the Powerplus is also 24v. Don't forget that you also have the option to fit a rack battery or a bottle battery if you're going to buy a new one.

If you look on the Amazon discussion, I'm sure a guy installed the BMSB one.
Amazon.co.uk: Customer Discussions: Cyclamatic Power Plus
I think there's a couple of other threads on there about Cyclamatics, so have a good look around. IIRC, the guy had to file something and switch the terminals over. Whatever battery you get, always check the polarity before connecting.

Cyclezee does indeed have the 7 speed DNP free-wheel for £31; however, if you're near Germany, this one might be cheaper, and you can get their removal tool that definitely fits (others often don't)
Shop

You can measure your before and after current for the shunt mod with a piece of wire and a voltmeter.
Poke a piece of wire in the battery negative slot so that it makes contact when the battery is in. Do the same to the negative controller connector, and then connect a voltmeter to the two wire ends.Set it to the 200mV scale. Run the bike up to full speed with the back wheel off the ground Keep the throttle wide open and then apply the back brake to slow the motor right down to nearly stall. Don't let go the throttle. Make a note of the highest number of mV shown, which should happen when the motor is going the slowest. Add solder to about 25 -30% of the length of the shunt, and repeat the stall test. Compare the new mV with the previous reading. The mV goes in direct relation to the current, so whatever current you had before,you have a proportional increase. Say you had 30 mV in the first test and 36mV in the second. That's a 20% increase, so if your controller says 14 amps,you now have 16.8amps.


A booster battery is simple in principle, but complicated to manage. Unless you're good at electrical things, or already have lipos and charger from RC hobby, it's best to avoid it.