Cyclamatic Folder...5 days on!!

[kwackerman]

Hi All,

As promised an update on the Cyclomatic.

Well it hasn't all been plain sailing I'm afraid. The bike fits nicely in the boot space of my Vauxhall Corsa which is good news so off I trot to Chepstow to try it out on my first commute to work. The amount of wind on both the Severn Bridge and the A403 had a big influence on my journey time when riding my non electric hybrid so it could take anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes to ride the 7 - 8 mile journey. I zipped over the bridge on the Cyclomatic despite riding into a fairly strong headwind and I maintained a fast speed ( no speedo fitted yet) all the way down the 403 to work. Time taken from end to end exactly 30 minutes and I felt fresh as a daisy with no sweat whatsoever so I was very pleased. The battery indicator had dipped down to amber if I stopped peddling but was showing all three lights when I parked the bike up.

13 1/2 hour shift later I jump back on the bike switch on the ignition and all 3 lights are shining so I go to pull away and.......no motor.......just a very slight drone sound from the hub area when the throttle was turned which would last about a second and then nothing ....dead as doornail. I fiddled around with the wires etc, checked the battery but nothing seemed amiss. So I had to peddle the thing 7 miles in the wind back to Chepstow which took nearly an hour and half killed me.........I was not happy!!

The next day I had the bike indoors to see if I could find the problem. I charged the battery and visually inspected the wiring but found no obvious fault. I was about to give up and phone the supplier when as I lifted the bike off my dining table I accidentally twisted the throttle and the bike sprang to life and took off towards the bay windows. Fourtunately I managed to catch it and avoid and damage to house or bike.

I jumped on and took it for a 2 mile test ride and everything was fine. I now had to decide whether to take a chance and ride it to work or not? Sod it I took the chance and did my commute to work with no problems....phew!! I then spent my 14 hour shift worrying that the bike would not work and I would end up struggling back home again. As per usual 10 minutes before my shift ended the snow starts falling and it has dropped to minus 2!!! As I walk across the car park towards the Cyclamatic I vow that if the motor does not work I will throw it off the severn bridge when I'm halfway across!!!

Well I still have the bike because it zipped me back home through the snow in record time (25 minutes).!!!!

So apart from that rather annoying problem ( anyone any idea what it might have been?) and the chain jumping off the sprockets every now and again I am very pleased with my purchase but I will deffinately be up grading to a hopefully better ( faster?) bike in the near future and keep the cyclamatic as a spare which hopefully the wife will use a couple of times a week.

Regards

Andy

 

[NRG]

Did you fully charge the battery before use? I presume you did ...the battery BMS 'fuel gauge' needs to go through a learning cycle to full clock the battery capacity, so full charge/discharge/charge cycle is required, otherwise the battery protection circuit can kick in earlier than it should.

 

[onmebike]

Although I have a Cyclamatic folder and had several more pass through my hands which were ordered for friends I am yet too actually ride it.
What I have noticed with the couple of batteries I have connected the charger to is, both appeared fully charged out of the box and showed a green light on the charger when connected[Red light when charging]
Dave, Old Timer, on the other hand didn't find this with his batteries which did take a charge.
As NRG has said, it would have been advisable to run the battery down initially and fully charge before use.
One thing I found strange on the Cyclamatic is the red button on the twist grip. On some ebikes this switches the twist and go facilty off leaving just the pedelec on. On the Cyclamatic this is an on/off switch for both pedelec and tag.
Regarding the chain coming off several times, a little fine tuning on the gear cable and adjustment should sort that out.
Old Timer has made some modifications on his folders by fitting larger 55/57tooth chainwheels because the gearing was too low. This has greatly improved things.

 

[Barnowl]

Low temperatures have a negative effect (though temporary) on battery performance as well. I was surprised your bike didn't have the same problem at -2C if it had been out in the cold all day. Maybe it was a combination of low temperature and battery learning cycle the first day with the battery perking up in the warmth indoors.

 

[Old Timer]

OK! Kwackerman

After dismantling my wifes Cyclamatic + MTB to fit the puncture protection I removed the side cover of the controller to see if I could gain any extra cable(you wont need to on the folder because it has a plug half way down the chain tube) I did gain some extra cable but like most E bikes I`ve seen the controller box is crammed packed and the connections from the rear wheel and battery are of the bullet type. what I found was that I needed to crimp the female plugs a touch for a better fit, in fact I reasembled my wifes bike and had no power till I did that extra crimping trick. I would think the folder is similar. So that`s maybe where the problem was. As onmebike as metioned I have increased the size of the chainwheel by buying a new 130BCD double crank arm, putting the larger ring on the outside and leaving the smaller ring on the inside in case I want to ride up a 1 in 3. That has given me a decent top gear. I wonder if your chain is a touch too long? I must admit that the new chain ring tends to sit a touch to far out and I will need to maybe file out the sq drive to get the crank arm further in and that will get the chain running more in the centre of the chainring. I haven`t had any problems with chain coming off with the standard crankset. One other point! check that the chain ring runs true and hasn`t been bent a touch in transit.

So! without that hiccup you can see the benefit of a bit of electric help then?