Thought I'd post a bit of an update on my 500W. My bike has done a grand job of getting me 4 miles each way to work and the occassional longer recreational jaunt of up to 14 miles. It's been very reliable so far, being ridden on maximum PAS and throttle most of the time.

 

Changes so far:

• I've removed the front suspension and swapped for carbon fibre - the original forks weren't doing much on the road/packed gravel path. That lost about 1.5kgs.
   
  
• Shorter carbon fibre/aluminium stem. I started by going very short (400mm I think) which made the bike very responsive but almost stressful to ride. Swapped it for a slightly longer one and it feels right now.
   
  
• Carbon fibre flat handlebar, Ergon ergonomic grips - very comfy.
   
  
• Carbon fibre seat post. I was using a cheap suspension post but found it wasn't reacting to the pot holes! Together with a Selle gel saddle I'm more than happy with the carbon post.
   
  
• Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres - bit of a liability in the wet but no punctures!
   
  
• Avid BB7 front brake.
   
  
• Drivetrain changed to 52T front, 11-32 Freewheel. Now using Shimano Acer derraileur (instead of the standard TZ) and trigger shifters. Gear changes are much smoother now.
   
  
• Shunt mod - added a bit of solder and vented the plastic case.
  

I'm very happy so far.

Edited November 27, 20178 yr by Wheel-E

Before and after the shunt mod. It looks like there was a lot of solder already on there.

 

Edited November 27, 20178 yr by Wheel-E

I added some small heatsinks. Unfortunately the larger heatsink in the photos wouldn't fit in the case! D'oh! Oh well, the tiny ones that are left will help for now. More are on order.

I then vented the case, with one vent at the front protruding slightly to stop rain flowing into the hole and two at the bottom.

The controller was just loose and audibly bouncing around so I added some sponge to make it more secure.

 

And thanks to advice from this thread, I finally managed to get the DNP 11T freewheel on! I had to file down a washer slightly as the new freewheel sticks out more than the original.

Extra photos including fork and controller model number:

Edited November 27, 20178 yr by Wheel-E

Nice sensible mods. The carbon fibre stuff is really cheap from Ebay now. You can get complete sets with handlebars, stem and seat-pin.

Good mods, almost looks like a different bike. That seat certainly looks more comfortable for a commute than the standard one.

The carbon fibre stuff is really cheap from Ebay now. You can get complete sets with handlebars, stem and seat-pin.

 

Yes! I was nervous at first, expecting the forks to self destruct but they've been great. The forks were a bit more expensive but £10 each for CF handlebars and seat post is a no brainer.

 

The extra heatsinks arrived today so I soldered the shunt a bit more. Looking forward to testing that later!

 

I've changed the settings so it runs in speed mode rather than "imitation torque control".

Lifting the back wheel off the ground (no load) and pressing the throttle on assistance levels 1- 5:

Level 0: 0 MPH and throttle doesn't work.

Level 1: 14.3 MPH

Level 2: 17.5 MPH

Level 3: 20.5 MPH

Level 4: 23.6 MPH

Level 5 27.5 MPH

Those mods look and sound like they have made quite the improvement to the bike! Quite refreshing to see a modified version of the bike with some different aesthetic and some real ingenuity. Making me what to modify mine some more now, nice job!

 

Ross

I had a few problems with my Stealth Battery of late that you can read up on here. I'm not at all convinced by the quality of the BMS in the battery that Cyclotricity source for these bikes.

Thought I'd start an owners thread for this model as is typical in many forums. Over time, I will add to it with all info relevant to the stealth. I am planning several upgrades to the bike over the coming weeks and will detail all work here.

 

Perhaps as a starter here's what I think are the 3 best and worst things about the bike (1000W):

 

Best

• POWER! Yes, that 1000W motor really rocks. Great for even the steepest inclines.
  
• Configurability. Having the 250w and top speed limit programming options gives superb flexibility.
  
• Comfort & looks - for an MTB the saddle is actually fairly comfy and riding position quite relaxed. Everybody thinks it looks great in the black/white colour scheme.
  

Worst

• Brakes! For a 1000W bike getting on for 30Kg when fully loaded up, the Chinese mechanical items are woefully inadequate. I'm surprised the manufacturer gets away with it really. You won't realise how much better they could be until you get some decent hydraulics on there. This is my upgrade priority - just researching a way to maintain the motor cutoff switches at the moment.
  
• Pedals - cheapest in the world with wooden bearings and loads of resistance. Change them asap!
  
• Alright, perhaps not the worst but find general things like the battery level indicator (on the batt itself) to be a complete waste of time (always shows full). The one on the LCD dash never shows a full 4 bars even when charged overnight, and when down at 1 bar if frequently cuts off the power if you hit a moderate incline on full assistance. This indicates a fairly high cell impedance as you can often get another 5 miles or so after that if you keep the power down.
  

 

After the revelation that the vast majority of '250w compliant' ebikes typically output an average of 400-600W (and peaks of even more) I've started to run the Stealth at 1000W on the road limited to 25km/h. I keep the assistance lvl at 2 and find this by far the best setting for general day to day riding.

 

The problem if you don't have the 25km/h restriction is that the assistance level is so high even at 1 you end up cruising at 35-40km/h with even very light pedal rotation. This just eats the battery and isn't that pleasant due to wind etc.It's like the assistance level is calibrated for 250w.

 

Having the 25km/h restriction just makes it a more enjoyable bike as the motor comes in strong below that (i.e. hills) and then on the flat and downhill you tend to pedal over that speed anyway so saves lots of battery power. At first I thought the motor would be very on & off around the 25km/h point but its very gradual and well measured.

 

The other slightly annoying thing is the battery is not mounted straight on the frame (the bottle fixings that it sits on are not perfectly centered on the frame). Just poor tolerance on the frame manufacture I guess.

 

Finally, if you follow the owners manual (which doesn't come with the bike incidentally and has to be downloaded), it recommends having the batt turned on and the charger off before plugging in the charging jack. This inevitably results in a disconcerting 'crack' as the output capacitors in the charger are suddenly charged by the bike battery. Far better to have the charger turned on before plugging in the jack.I have a feeling that Cyclotricity intended the battery switch to disconnect the circuit to the charger - it doesn't. It makes no difference to charging whether the battery switch is on or off (despite what the manual says).

 

Overall I do think it was superb value for money at the 2015 price of a smidge over £1,000. This year that has been hiked by over 20% to nearer £1,300. I would have loved them to have spent some of that on hydraulic brakes (maybe would have cost them another £30- £40). At £1,250 it starts to hit some pretty serious competition and if it wasn't for the 500 / 1000W options I think they would be running seriously low on USP's considering the level of kit specified.

 

The bike does handle well though despite the weight, with only the excruciating 'clank' of the basic Suntour XCT forks when pulling up over curbs etc causing a minor annoyance.

 

UPGRADES SO FAR...

• MEETLOCKS® Bike Pedal, Injection Aluminum Body, Cr-mo CNC Machined 9/16" Screw Thread Spindle, 3 Ultral Du/sealed Bearings.£18.99 from Amazon. (Superb bearings and match the Stealth colour scheme perfectly)
  

[ATTACH]14279[/ATTACH]

 

• Slime puncture resistant innertubes (as a stopgap before upgrading to Scwalbe Marathon plus MTB tyres)
  

 

• Lezyne microdrive 400XL front light. (£25-£30 from Ebay) I wanted something usb rechargeable that I could plug into the usb port on the Stealth battery. This fits the bill perfectly and has a great range of light modes.
  

[ATTACH]14280[/ATTACH]

 

 

• Moon Pulsar COB LED Rear Bike Light - LAA570. (£10-£15 from Ebay). Looked at rechargebale rears but you don't really need the lumen level on the back so you actually get much better performance from AA / AAA cells. Love the Moon Pulsar, has great viewing angle, is incredibly bright with hundreds of hours runtime from a single set of batts. Also like it remembers which mode it was turned off in so no fiddling around going through modes every time you turn it on.
  

[ATTACH]14281[/ATTACH]

 

NEXT UPGRADE

 

• Shimano hydraulic brake set BR-Mxxx (£50 - £80). xxx can be 505, 555, 615 etc, I don't think there was a massive difference. The front rotor really 'ought to be 180 or 203mm. You have to be very careful with the Stealth that the caliper width is not too high otherwise it will foul on the motor hub. I will post my findings on here and also how I implemented the brake switch.
  

Can you explain how you limit the top speed please?

Download the manual on post #39 of this thread and it tells you how on pg10 of the manual.

Andy,

I bought a couple of these from Halfords:

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-parts/bike-brakes/shimano-br-m965-metal-disc-brake-pads

Simply because they were the same shape.....

They seem to work, but I have no idea about the materials used and whether I am ruining the discs by using them.

Cyclotricity could really do with some owner FAQs.

Maybe we could help them with that....

 

I bought these brake pads from ebay, ( Shimano Deore SLX BR M800 M965 M966 M975 Semi Ceramic Sintered Disc Brake Pads £11.78 for two pairs) i thought i would give them a try as they were cheap, they are no better than the originals for stopping power but they seem to have stopped most of the squealing, when i change them again i will go for the Sintered pads instead of the Ceramics pads as i think they might have a bit more stopping power. or rub my trainers on the back tyre like the kids do ;-)

I got B01S pads from Noah & Theo and found them useless even with cleaned discs, in the end got very cheap China branded for £1.49 a pair. Braking was/is awesome.

Has anyone successfully used panniers on the Stealth? I have the rear rack they provided but with the panniers from my mountain bike they would just catch in the wheel.

Has anyone successfully used panniers on the Stealth? I have the rear rack they provided but with the panniers from my mountain bike they would just catch in the wheel.

 

When I had my Stealth i put the Topeak one on with no problems

OK thanks will look that one up.

Ah right , that just sits on the top? I wanted sizeable double ones that hang down the sides to use for touring.

This one? https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/waterproof-bags/397-pannier-drybag-dx

Just wanted to let Stealth owners know how important it is to tighten their rear spokes after a month or so of ownership. My rear wheel was getting really noisy - like a 'clacking' sound when engaging the motor. Got the bike back to the garage and about half the spokes were really loose. They obviously stretch under the high torque of the motor.

 

Went around each one tightening no more than half a turn at a time (which means you end up going around the wheel 4 or 5 times) until they were all about the same tension. Wheel still perfectly straight and now runs completely silent. Massive improvement.

 

If you haven't done this on your stealth yet I recommend you do it asap.

Had mine a year - better check! How do you tighten them?

Can anyone help how to set time on Cyclotricity stealth lcd

Many thanks

I have the stealth but haven't paid much attention to the LCD yet. Isn't it in the manual then?

Thanks for your reply unfortunately I don’t have Manual

What do you think of your stealth ?

Well currently I'm disappointed as a planned cycletour has had to be cancelled as it doesn't seem possible to fit large panniers or a rear rack that attaches to the frame. No one seems to know , cyclotricty don't reply.

 

I've changed the settings so it runs in speed mode rather than "imitation torque control".

Lifting the back wheel off the ground (no load) and pressing the throttle on assistance levels 1- 5:

Level 0: 0 MPH and throttle doesn't work.

Level 1: 14.3 MPH

Level 2: 17.5 MPH

Level 3: 20.5 MPH

Level 4: 23.6 MPH

Level 5 27.5 MPH

 

How do you change the settings?