the do's and don'ts of crystalyte ebike motors

[giguana]

all this info is useful for xlyte 405 408 5xx type motors


1/
TNT does get every penny it can for processing duties...fortunately its offices were raided for losing government data the day my package went through.
edit- unfortunately two weeks later I got a bill -fortunately I was nice to the girl on the phone and no one has called me back since I told her no.they can only hold your ransom while they have the gear.

2/
buy extra nuts for the axle because the ones supplied may be of different sizes and may actually rattle over the axle and pull off thread from your $300 motor-when you fit the nuts on, check if they are loose, in which case you can use a piece of johnny latex over the axle to improve the grip. the nuts should really the same as the axle. you might as well put 2 nuts on both sides of the wheel. EDIT-I got the nut that was a bit too loose and hit it with a sledgehammer, now it is a bit oval, but because the axle of the motor only has to thread going on the top and bottom half, the flattened nut seems to grip fairly well, it's a good compromise for the moment. the guy from the shop sent me some better sized ones for free, they have been very helpful.

2b/the point about the wheel getting undone is that the friction from the motor turning round a bit stiffly on the axle actually can make the axle pivot backwards and forwards a bit which can unscrew the nuts -one nuts is pretty strong but 2 is safer.

C/
you can fit a rack on a full suspension bike with a bit of engineering. I got some metal strips which I drilled and used as steel braces.

C1/
I bought a disc brake from ebike along with the motor-don't bother, it wobbles by at least 1mm laterally and the same lengthwise - its oval and warped - the motor itself seems to turn true so it's either thread on the side of the motor or the disc itself. at the end of the day good regular breaks are more reliable and stronger than cheap disc brakes.

C2/there is a little plastic ring on the side of the cable that is best glued to the axle. if it spins around against the cable it can wear it but it gets a bit fixed on when there is grit.

4/get the right freewheel! 43/14 teeth ratio on the bike I have is completely frustrating for someone like me that can push up 100 kg on my legs, I actually need 57/11 teeth to be comfortable with a 26 inch wheel, if only it existed! and you only need 5 speeds with a motor anyway. get the crystalyte motor with the 11T freewheel.

4b/ perhaps don't bother with disc brakes unless you have your own really high-quality ones. hydraulic disc brakes are very powerful and responsive if ever they are reliable, may be professionals use disc brakes because less can get caught around the rim. but caliper brekes are really good for most use, extremely powerful, more so than the cheaper disc brakes, and I think it's a bit of a gimmick-so opt for calipers-! in my experience they are cheaper, more powerful, more reliable and lighter than the cable disc brakes I have tried..

check if you might need Anderson plugs for your own battery when you buy everything.

6/
tape up any exposed terminals on any batteries because a short circuit sparks and melts the solder in 1 second.
8/
get decent car fuses, the 35a glass ones from eBay wear out every 30 km.

9/the drain brain computer is amazing, but the clip on fixture is highly inconvenient, I took out the back fixture, sealed the back, and have it really snugly fixed to the middle of the handlebars with a strong elastic going around either side and under the bar. great fit and dismounts without a screwdriver. you probably want to keep the fixture, I just changed it for a laugh.

10/
having a 10 kg battery on the back completely changes the bike, the back wheel bounces up and down like a basketball after bumps, hence full suspension is a great idea. comparatively, 10 kg of touring bags only bounces a little bit. the bike flips fast and you can virtually not turn the front wheel at all at speed in muddy tracks. but once you get the hang of it that it's incredibly fun on country tracks!

11/
the crystalyte motor makes less noise than the wheels themselves! people will not notice there is a motor there unless they see the battery.-amazing!


13/
I was told to try silicone and Vaseline/petroleum jelly to seal out all the water from static and moving gaps in the motor. careful if you have petroleum jelly on the nuts, otherwise they will be floating on soap.

15/had a few flat tires, did the mistake of pumping the back one chock full and going flat over a kerb without lifting my weight, the inner tube punctured with a tiny 1 cm hole when it hit the sharp corner of the curb.

16/been doing some fairly bumpy cross-country with the motor, one of the spokes started to creak for a couple of days-I think the spokes are badly done because they cross each other in pairs, so that in total each spoke is bent in the middle by about 3 mm and if they rub against each other much and they will wear faster, I don't know why they haven't been done straight. anyway a bit of creaking is no good in the spokes, and we will see in time how much bumpiness this motor can take.

after a few weeks riding in puddles,the motor started malfunctioning completely,turns out the motor I got was a bit low quality on the inside,there are three little chips fastened on one edge, if the wires going into then get exposed they form a cell and corrode completely so you have to completely change the chip,that probably doesn't happen so fast in most motors,just my one came with some of the coating of the wires slightly scraped inside the motor.they became all rust.it's not really an all-weather motor.to open it up I found it was best to unscrew everything,lay the wheel flat with cushions underneath and stand flat on the spokes next to the hub,the magnet holds about 50 kg. once you get inside it's easy to appreciate how easy it is to maintain,but it does take a fair while.


hmmm...just about sums it up for the moment, I will update as I find out more about this so far wonderful piece of kit.

 

[flecc]

I actually need 57/11 teeth to be comfortable with a 26 inch wheel, if only it existed! and you only need 5 speeds with a motor anyway. get the crystalyte motor with the 11T freewheel.

Chainwheel's no problem, I use a 60 tooth on one of mine. Highpath Engineering can supply from stock or make almost any size you like, my 60T was ex stock.

Shimano's multi sprocket freewheels include one with 11 teeth top.

Can't say I approve of the low cadence with such high gearing, regardless of your leg strength. that 57/11 means a cadence of 50 at 20 mph and only 37 at 15 mph, dangerously slow with high exerted pressure.

The accepted optimum cadence is about 90, and although people vary, 37 to 50 seems well out of line, and your knees could well pay a very high price when you're older.
.

 

[Jeremy]

Interesting point about cadence, Flecc. Knowing little about this, but wanting to better understand the science behind it, I read quite a bit of research on optimum pedal cadence rates a few weeks ago (I was looking at the best gear range for my 'bent at the time).

The sports science I dug out, based on power and endurance measurements carried out on a large number of riders, shows that the normal range of cadence (the one where the body can perform with a relatively flat power/endurance characteristic) is quite a bit lower than 90, in fact the range was about 40 to 80, with the peak at about 70.

Some riders were able to give high outputs at much higher cadence rates, because they were either physiologically or psychologically adapted to this way of riding - Lance Armstrong stood out as being the highest at 120.

Generally it seems that pedalling at low rates, below perhaps 60, reduces endurance slightly, which is why the data is skewed slightly towards the higher end of the "acceptable range".

Several papers commented that there was a belief amongst riders that a high cadence was good, even though the evidence doesn't seem to support this. The data also showed that cadences below 40 gave a significant reduction in delivered power, although, just like at the top end, there were one or two individuals who could happily put out lots of power at low rates.

All told it was an interesting exercise, particularly the bit about recumbent cadence rates. The limited work done on riders in this position seems to show that lower cadence rates are better and that it is hard to spin quickly when the body is laid back.

Jeremy

 

[flecc]

It's not just about the output though Jeremy, indeed not even.

The reason for the accepted optimum in cycling circles is that it's the best balance between output, endurance and physiological safety.

The many early years of cycle competition experience with lower "power" rates of cadence produced huge numbers of knee injuries affecting later life, the lower the natural rate adopted, the greater the pressure on the knee bursa.

Doubling a rate from 45 to 90 for a given work output halves the individual pressures on the bursa, greatly reducing the incidence of breakdown and the subsequent inevitable arthritis. My cyclist brother is just one of the many who suffer from this cycling injury after years of using too low a cadence and may yet face a knee joint replacement, and we have a number of members in this forum who've declared similar cycling injuries.

Low cadences can never be better when the result is a severe cost to physical health.
.

 

[giguana]

60T- wow. it really makes sense for long-distance travel to go at maximum safe and comfortable speed, I went through France on a touring bike @ 49/11/28" and could definitely have done with 60T to always have work to do on propulsion.

Racing produces masses of injuries because it's really a five-hour a day seven days full exertion pursuit, much of it spent well outside comfort zones...leisure cycling should always be leisurely.

I might have to replace the whole crankset because of the proprietary fittings and chances are that racing chainrings might dig into the mountain bike frame.

 

[flecc]

Highpath can do all sorts of specials, so I'm sure they could make something for you. Here's my 60 tooth:

 

[giguana]

cor blimey guvner look at the the cogs on that one!