Swytch Review
I started this last month, but I’d already blogged twice at that point and had another one drafted (which I’ve since published), so why had I started another? Are blogs like buses? Well, not this blog, which is about a different form of transport: the good old bicycle, or in this specific case a Swytch eBicycle!
I blogged about cycling here when I purchased a new one in 2017, and while I did get out cycling more than I had, it never became a regular thing. For the past few years, I’ve only been out with my daughter, and I tend to go out on my older Dawes 401, which is more comfortable and better suited for cycling along canal paths.
My Boardman Road Team Carbon has been unused for the last two years, and I can’t remember where exactly the idea of turning it into an eBike came from. I signed up on the Swytch website earlier this year to order one of their new Go eBike Kits. It has been a pretty strange process, and I’m still not entirely sure it’s one I would recommend, so let me try to explain why.
While I think you can go online and buy some of the Swytch kits (from the likes of Amazon and eBay), you can’t do that from their website. If you want to buy a kit directly from Swytch, you have to register your interest and, in return, are offered fairly substantial discounts when it comes to ordering. I don’t know how realistic the discounts are, but I was reasonably happy with my price compared to similar eBike kits from UK sellers. If you look further afield, there are many options, but I wanted to buy from a UK-based company, for which I’d have some comeback if I had any problems.
I can’t remember exactly when I signed up, but it was the 12th of August when I received an e-mail to say I could place my order. I got to select which kit I wanted and had to pay a deposit of £200, and I was told the final configuration and order process would be completed later. Quite unusual, but it all had been so far. I reached out to Swytch at this point and asked about the compatibility of my Boardman Road Team Carbon. They said it was, with a typical asterixed cavitate *Please note that our technicians have done their best to identify your bike’s compatibility based on the data provided. We believe the Kit will fit, but we cannot guarantee this in all instances.
About a week later, I received further details and a deadline to complete the order process and select any accessories required. I did a little more research as the process isn’t that obvious, and I thought I needed a Universal Pedal Sensor and a Universal Torque Arm, as the forks on my bike are carbon. I didn’t have an option to change the display from LED to OLED, although even if I had, I might not have selected this given the price was now over my £500 budget, including the £30 delivery.
My order was locked on the 25th of August, but shortly after reading more reviews, I contacted Swytch about changing my order to include the OLED display instead of the LED one. The OLED provides additional information about speed and distance, and most reviews suggest getting this over the basis LED option. This was the point where my first concerns were raised. It took several days for their e-mail reply, and it wasn’t all that helpful, suggesting that as my order was locked, any changes would delay delivery from September to October. I said this was fine, and then they suggested I would need to add the OLED display for £60 when I just wanted that instead of the LED one, which was £30 in their accessory store (most of which are out of stock)
I was close to cancelling my order entirely when they eventually reopened my order and allowed me to edit the kit I had selected. I expected this to cost a further £30, but the Go+ Kit with OLED was £40 cheaper than the kit I ordered! I asked them about a refund, which was processed quickly, so I felt reasonably happy by the end of the process and waited for October to arrive. In the meantime, I’d been reading many reviews. I joined a few Swytch forums, full of horror stories from people confirming orders and then waiting several months for kits to be delivered, with estimated days being pushed back month after month. I contacted them once again at the beginning of October to express my concerns but was assured that my order would be delivered in October, and to be fair to them, it was.
I received a confirmation from UPS on the 16th of October saying it would be delivered the next day, but I was going to be out all day, so I rescheduled for the 18th. It arrived in the morning, but I didn’t have time to look at anything until Sunday, the 20th, when I foolishly started by removing the tire and innertube from my Team Carbon and fitting them to the Swytch wheel. It was pretty straightforward, but it would be removed as events progressed.
If you stumble upon this blog and take anything away, be it this. Don’t always start with the first step in the instructions! In hindsight, I should have checked out some of the other steps first, specifically whether the Universal Pedal Sensor (UPS) would work with my bike. The UPS (not the ones who delivered it!) has two parts – a round disc with small magnets around the edge that attaches to the pedal and rotates as you pedal, and a sensor connected to a clip that attaches to the frame in a way which aligns to the round disc. There was no way this was possible on my bike, and even following the suggestion to remove the clip (this is molded so that it would have needed cutting), it did not seem there was any clearance between the pedal and either the down tube or seat tube to attach the sensor, and for it to be aligned with the disc.
I was pretty disappointed at this point and was unsure what to do. I considered returning the whole kit, but I still like the idea of electrifying a regular bike. Returning it would also result in a loss of £60 as their terms state delivery costs are not refunded, which I guess is fair enough. It looked like the kit would have fitted onto my Dawes bike, but I didn’t want to electrify that as that’s what I use when going out with my daughter. A few people in the FaceBook group (Swytch Bike Chat) suggested buying a second-hand bike to use, implying I’d be ruining a carbon road bike, so I had a quick look on Gumtree and, to my delight, found a second-hand Boardman Sport for sale just 10 miles away for £100. It was exactly the same bike that a friend now used on their turbo trainer after upgrading themselves, so I gave them a call and asked if I could pop around to check if the UPS would fit. There is much more clearance on this Boardman, and it was apparent it could be made to fit without any modifications to the sensor, so I contacted the seller on Gumtree and collected it that afternoon.
The bike was in excellent condition and had a new set of tires fitted, too! The bar tape and seat are white, which is not ideal as they both looked pretty old and grubby, but they are easy to replace. Installing the Swytch kit was very simple on this Boardman, although the tires were much more difficult to remove and refit. I’ve not finished the installation, as I ordered some new black bar tape, so I haven’t installed the OLED display or tidied up the cabling, but I took it for a bit of spin once everything was cable-tied out of the way and it makes a nice difference going up the pretty steep hills where I live.
Somewhere in the process, I broke one of the lugs on the locking wheel washer, so I contacted Swytch, who sent out a replacement set within just a few days. I also contacted them about the Torque Arm, which I couldn’t see how to install, and their instructions are not great. The response directed me to the manual, so I went back to them and asked them to send this back as it’s not required now. I’m not using the bike initially intended. A refund for that will help offset the cost of the ‘new’ bike, although I might end up selling the Team Carbon, which might just cover the cost of the Boardman Sport, Swytch Kit, and accessories! It took several unhelpful e-mails, some days apart and some responded to in a matter of hours, to finally get the return approved, which pretty much sums up Swytch.
I will add some pictures once everything is finished, but I think that’s enough of my Swytch story. Would you recommend them after all that?
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