Mersey Beat
Regular
I bought my Claud Butler Majestic in August 1982 after it had been featured in the first issue of Richard Ballantine's Bicycle magazine. At the time if offered the lowest gearing on a light weight touring frame. It originally had drop handle bars but they were replaced for straight ones some years later when my teenage daughter refused to ride with me as my bike was 'too old fashioned'.
Well after 41 years, my CB still looks and goes as good as it did when it left the cycle shop. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for me. Now 75 years old I had struggled to ride for a couple of years and no longer had the energy for even short rides. In fact I had almost given up riding altogether.
But then I bought a Swytch kit and in the past 3 months I have used my bike more than in the past 10 years. I love it. Here are my thoughts.
I bought the 2nd generation kit which features a hard plastic battery pack that sits in a mount on the handle bars. There is a choice of two batteries: the standard one which costs about £100 has a range of 10 miles, a Max battery that costs about £200 gives a range of 20 miles. When I ordered my kit a year ago the online instant purchase prices were around £1,100 for the smaller battery option and £1,200 for the Max version. At the time a 50% discount was available if you were prepared to order and pay in advance then wait for delivery 6 months later. That is the option that I chose (as interest rates were negligible so money in the bank wasn't earning anything). So I paid and ordered in November 2022 with an expected delivery date in April 2023. The kit arrived in early May after some delay due to customs. I paid about £600 for the kit with the bigger battery.
The kit looks to be of high quality and although relatively expensive I didn't feel that the cost was excessive. Although I did object to the £50 delivery charge that was added to the final price. The company is British and based in England so to charge £50 to send the kit to me near Bristol almost caused me to cancel my order. Maybe OK to charge £50 to ship it to Australia or the USA - but not within the UK.
The company has recently announced a third version of the kit that uses less precision engineering and which will be sold at a lower price. The battery pack can be suspended below the crossbar using velcro straps and will have a range of 20 miles. The cost will be around £500. I have also noticed that recent adverts for the Mark 2 kits are now quoting prices of between £600-£700 for immediate delivery.
The kit was easy to fit. I bought a new tyre and inner tube so that I could retain the original wheel as ready to ride. The pedal sensor was the only part that required a bit of fiddling and adjustment. The 20 mile battery sits in a metal clamp on the handle bars directly above the front axle. The battery weighs about 1 kg but has no influence on the handling. In addition, the motor has no electrical drag so the bike can be ridden with the power off and feels just like normal. As my bike is old with a light weight frame, I bought a torque arm as part of the kit to reduce the stress on the front fork.
There is a small LED unit on the handle bar that allows you to set the bike up: e.g. select wheel size and other options. That only needs to be done once. The same display is then used to select the power level when you are riding. There are 5 power levels of which I just use level 1. (The new cheaper version of the kit will do away with this display and power the bike through a single power level.)
I ride along a disused railway line that is now a cycle and walking path. (It's the Strawberry Line in North Somerset.) The path has only very gentle inclines with a prevailing wind from the SW. If I cycle just hard enough to activate the pedal sensor without putting effort in to the pedals, the bikes motors along at 8-10 mph. If I pedal hard enough to just feel a bit of pressure then I move along at a very steady 12-14 mph.
I typically ride for 30-45 minutes and cover 5-10 miles. In the past 3 months I have covered more miles than I did in the previous 10 years. At the age of 75 I am enjoying cycling again with the wind in my hair (what's left of it). I absolutely love it.
So, in summary: the kit was expensive but the producers are aware of that and are bringing out a lower cost version. It appears to be well engineered and well built. It has allowed me to keep my old Claud Butler, which I didn't want to replace - even though I had found that modern mountain bikes were much easier to ride. I didn't want to have two bikes so the Swytch kit was the solution. I am relatively light (about 67 kg) and a ride on fairly flat ground so that I have been getting more than the expected 20 mile range from the battery. I suspect that I could ride for 25-30 miles.
I absolutely love it.
Well after 41 years, my CB still looks and goes as good as it did when it left the cycle shop. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for me. Now 75 years old I had struggled to ride for a couple of years and no longer had the energy for even short rides. In fact I had almost given up riding altogether.
But then I bought a Swytch kit and in the past 3 months I have used my bike more than in the past 10 years. I love it. Here are my thoughts.
I bought the 2nd generation kit which features a hard plastic battery pack that sits in a mount on the handle bars. There is a choice of two batteries: the standard one which costs about £100 has a range of 10 miles, a Max battery that costs about £200 gives a range of 20 miles. When I ordered my kit a year ago the online instant purchase prices were around £1,100 for the smaller battery option and £1,200 for the Max version. At the time a 50% discount was available if you were prepared to order and pay in advance then wait for delivery 6 months later. That is the option that I chose (as interest rates were negligible so money in the bank wasn't earning anything). So I paid and ordered in November 2022 with an expected delivery date in April 2023. The kit arrived in early May after some delay due to customs. I paid about £600 for the kit with the bigger battery.
The kit looks to be of high quality and although relatively expensive I didn't feel that the cost was excessive. Although I did object to the £50 delivery charge that was added to the final price. The company is British and based in England so to charge £50 to send the kit to me near Bristol almost caused me to cancel my order. Maybe OK to charge £50 to ship it to Australia or the USA - but not within the UK.
The company has recently announced a third version of the kit that uses less precision engineering and which will be sold at a lower price. The battery pack can be suspended below the crossbar using velcro straps and will have a range of 20 miles. The cost will be around £500. I have also noticed that recent adverts for the Mark 2 kits are now quoting prices of between £600-£700 for immediate delivery.
The kit was easy to fit. I bought a new tyre and inner tube so that I could retain the original wheel as ready to ride. The pedal sensor was the only part that required a bit of fiddling and adjustment. The 20 mile battery sits in a metal clamp on the handle bars directly above the front axle. The battery weighs about 1 kg but has no influence on the handling. In addition, the motor has no electrical drag so the bike can be ridden with the power off and feels just like normal. As my bike is old with a light weight frame, I bought a torque arm as part of the kit to reduce the stress on the front fork.
There is a small LED unit on the handle bar that allows you to set the bike up: e.g. select wheel size and other options. That only needs to be done once. The same display is then used to select the power level when you are riding. There are 5 power levels of which I just use level 1. (The new cheaper version of the kit will do away with this display and power the bike through a single power level.)
I ride along a disused railway line that is now a cycle and walking path. (It's the Strawberry Line in North Somerset.) The path has only very gentle inclines with a prevailing wind from the SW. If I cycle just hard enough to activate the pedal sensor without putting effort in to the pedals, the bikes motors along at 8-10 mph. If I pedal hard enough to just feel a bit of pressure then I move along at a very steady 12-14 mph.
I typically ride for 30-45 minutes and cover 5-10 miles. In the past 3 months I have covered more miles than I did in the previous 10 years. At the age of 75 I am enjoying cycling again with the wind in my hair (what's left of it). I absolutely love it.
So, in summary: the kit was expensive but the producers are aware of that and are bringing out a lower cost version. It appears to be well engineered and well built. It has allowed me to keep my old Claud Butler, which I didn't want to replace - even though I had found that modern mountain bikes were much easier to ride. I didn't want to have two bikes so the Swytch kit was the solution. I am relatively light (about 67 kg) and a ride on fairly flat ground so that I have been getting more than the expected 20 mile range from the battery. I suspect that I could ride for 25-30 miles.
I absolutely love it.
