Just Finished Up My X1 Ultra Installation

[reed scott]

Rode the bike a grand total of about 4 hundred yards and all I have to say is ....

HOLY SMOKES I'm even more in love than when I first got the bike. I was fine with the existing motor but this is better. Power comes on like a thoroughly controlled freight train. I didn't get out of ECO mode and 8th gear and I was way over my personal speed limit. My dog was ticked off. Left him in the dust.

I will try to ride tomorrow and get a better feel just how the Wattwagons controller does what it does. Will report back.

Install was not bad. Stuffing all those wires is always the PITA. Bolts went in pretty easy but I took care to flatten all the wires into the top of the mount and put the two unused motor white wires on the opposite side from all the connections which made for tad more room. Also did the motor swap with the bike upside down. Only way to go. Allows you to apply the pressure to the motor housing to get the three bolts to go in OK.

FYI: The Bike is a rebadged Frey AM 1000 from Bolton Ebikes.

 

[jbortega]

Rode the bike a grand total of about 4 hundred yards and all I have to say is ....

HOLY SMOKES I'm even more in love than when I first got the bike. I was fine with the existing motor but this is better. Power comes on like a thoroughly controlled freight train. I didn't get out of ECO mode and 8th gear and I was way over my personal speed limit. My dog was ticked off. Left him in the dust.

I will try to ride tomorrow and get a better feel just how the Wattwagons controller does what it does. Will report back.

Install was not bad. Stuffing all those wires is always the PITA. Bolts went in pretty easy but I took care to flatten all the wires into the top of the mount and put the two unused motor white wires on the opposite side from all the connections which made for tad more room. Also did the motor swap with the bike upside down. Only way to go. Allows you to apply the pressure to the motor housing to get the three bolts to go in OK.

FYI: The Bike is a rebadged Frey AM 1000 from Bolton Ebikes.

Nice!! Did you get the 2300w version? Let us know how you like the torque pedal assist...

 

[TomW]

Welcome to the Archon club.
I am sure you will continue to be impressed, it does everything as advertised or better in my opinion.
I did the upgrade because I blew up my old controller so it was intended as a repair,
I would of been happy with it just fixing the issue but the improvements were so good I would not consider buying a Ultra without a X1 fitted in the future.

 

[reed scott]

Nice!! Did you get the 2300w version? Let us know how you like the torque pedal assist...

Nope. The 1000 watt is more than enough. I'm no spring chicken any more.

 

[reed scott]

Want to extend a very warm and large THANK YOU to Pushkar for getting this motor to me promptly. Got it in one week.

(you gotta pay though )

 

[jbortega]

Nope. The 1000 watt is more than enough. I'm no spring chicken any more.

Would you say its a night and day difference from the stock controller?

 

[reed scott]

Would you say its a night and day difference from the stock controller?

Well ... I don't want to answer that till I ride some more. But ... I am of the opinion that these bikes that Kyle at Bolton ordered had some work done on the controller. I really had no issue with how the stock controller was functioning on this bike. No jerky power or surging. Always ramped up smoothly and the power was there with even just a quarter turn of the crank. All I can say now because it was getting dark and I didn't ride it much is ... there's more there there. More tomorrow.

 

[reed scott]

Rode a bit more today but not enough to truly scope things out. Cold and crappy weather. The thing I like the most is the torque sensing. It's exquisite. You put a bit of pressure on the pedal, the motor does the same. The second you double or triple that pressure ... the motor does the same. I rode a few steep, very rocky and rutted hills and didn't really want to be out of PAS 3. Or need to be. There is a small catch to this great torque sensing. Suppose you come to the top of a hill and plan to make a U turn? You didn't need to shift much further than 6th or 7th going up as the motor is that strong. Trouble is now you want to U turn and you don't need a lot of power, almost none, but you're still in PAS 3 and in that gear the bike wants to surge forward.

I remember some post months ago where a guy was really POed about this situation. Think he crashed. So ... I guess I need to learn to always drop to PAS 1 when making U turns.

What else can I tell you? The motor is pretty quiet. Can barely hear it unless climbing. Even then it's not loud at all. PAS 1 feels almost like riding a normal bike. The power delivery is subtle but there. PAS 2 is noticeably stronger. I'm tempted to keep it in 8th or 9th around the neighborhood when just meandering so the dog can keep up. Any real pedaling and you're going 15 mph in short order. PAS 3 is a jump. You can use 8th to 10th right here and be going faster than you want to. PAS 4 and 5 I don't know yet. Used them for a few seconds and scared myself. Sport Mode ? Fugidaboudit.

Oh Yeah! Power consumption: I only rode about half an hour but was pushing it. Several hills. I could only get the battery percentage down 1 % on a 48v 21Ah battery.

 

[Cuz Vinny]

Rode a bit more today but not enough to truly scope things out. Cold and crappy weather. The thing I like the most is the torque sensing. It's exquisite. You put a bit of pressure on the pedal, the motor does the same. The second you double or triple that pressure ... the motor does the same. I rode a few steep, very rocky and rutted hills and didn't really want to be out of PAS 3. Or need to be. There is a small catch to this great torque sensing. Suppose you come to the top of a hill and plan to make a U turn? You didn't need to shift much further than 6th or 7th going up as the motor is that strong. Trouble is now you want to U turn and you don't need a lot of power, almost none, but you're still in PAS 3 and in that gear the bike wants to surge forward.

I remember some post months ago where a guy was really POed about this situation. Think he crashed. So ... I guess I need to learn to always drop to PAS 1 when making U turns.

What else can I tell you? The motor is pretty quiet. Can barely hear it unless climbing. Even then it's not loud at all. PAS 1 feels almost like riding a normal bike. The power delivery is subtle but there. PAS 2 is noticeably stronger. I'm tempted to keep it in 8th or 9th around the neighborhood when just meandering so the dog can keep up. Any real pedaling and you're going 15 mph in short order. PAS 3 is a jump. You can use 8th to 10th right here and be going faster than you want to. PAS 4 and 5 I don't know yet. Used them for a few seconds and scared myself. Sport Mode ? Fugidaboudit.

Oh Yeah! Power consumption: I only rode about half an hour but was pushing it. Several hills. I could only get the battery percentage down 1 % on a 48v 21Ah battery.

Can’t wait to get my 2300 watt Hydra and take it for the first ride. Sure to be a “oh s*it” moment

 

[reed scott]

Can’t wait to get my 2300 watt Hydra and take it for the first ride. Sure to be a “oh s*it” moment

I gotta get holt of Pushkar and change my order. I mentioned it to him but was indecisive. I am now in the camp with TomD in really not needing 2300 watts. You young and or crazy go on and have all the 'fun'.

 

[tedacura1]

I gotta get holt of Pushkar and change my order. I mentioned it to him but was indecisive. I am now in the camp with TomD in really not needing 2300 watts. You young and or crazy go on and have all the 'fun'

you can set it to 1000 watts with the programming

 

[greeno]

Reed if you have the brake cut-off switches option just feather the brakes at the top of the hill until you turn around that will disable the motor and be less jumpy. Just an idea.

 

[reed scott]

Reed if you have the brake cut-off switches option just feather the brakes at the top of the hill until you turn around that will disable the motor and be less jumpy. Just an idea.

Yeah. Why dint I think of that? duh

 

[pushkar]

I gotta get holt of Pushkar and change my order. I mentioned it to him but was indecisive. I am now in the camp with TomD in really not needing 2300 watts. You young and or crazy go on and have all the 'fun'.

I waffle between 2300 and 1000. But i have never had the courage to go back Sport mode.... tried it once and i had to get a change of clothes. Lol.

 

[jbortega]

I waffle between 2300 and 1000. But i have never had the courage to go back Sport mode.... tried it once and i had to get a change of clothes. Lol.

I wonder like what speed can you achieve on 2300w? Really itching to have one of wattwagon bikes. hehe

 

[pushkar]

I wonder like what speed can you achieve on 2300w? Really itching to have one of wattwagon bikes. hehe

I struggle with this question. gets asked all the time.

IMO speed is a function of gearing. The additional wattage will get you to your there faster and allow you to go faster for the same pedals cadence. this will allow you to go faster relative to your original benchmark but gearing is still the defining metric.

The additional wattage does the following
1. higher assist gets you to your desired speed faster.
2. provides higher assist while pedaling, so you can maintain higher speed at the same cadence.
Point #2 here will make you feel that you are going faster than before (since rider is used to pedaling at a certain cadence, but due to extra assist, you are going faster thatn you typically would).
So technically you do have higher speed but in all cases, the max speed is a function of gearing.

In real life we have a user doing well beyond the recommended 28 mph. Like well well well beyond, where the speedometer starts with 4 and sometimes potentially starts with 5!
We recommend keeping within legal speed limits. And please wear the right safety and riding gear.


Edit: re-worded my earlier statement to clarify the point.

 

[jbortega]

I struggle with this question. gets asked all the time.

IMO speed is a function of gearing. The additional wattage will get you there faster and allow you to go faster for the same pedals cadence. this will allow you to go faster relative to your original benchmark but gearing is still the defining metric.
In real life we have a user doing well beyond the recommended 28 mph. Like well well well beyond, where the speedometer starts with 4 and sometimes potentially starts with 5!
We recommend keeping within legal speed limits. And please wear the right safety and riding gear.

Thanks @pushkar. Keep up the good work! I'm gonna save up to buy one!

 

[Ebiker33]

Yes but with more power supply, comes higher draw from the battery, wouldn't the 2300W version drain the battery much faster than a 750W version ?

 

[pushkar]

Yes but with more power supply, comes higher draw from the battery, wouldn't the 2300W version drain the battery much faster than a 750W version ?

Oh yes. Absolutely. I believe the higher wattage motor consumes around 20-35% more than the 750W version in different terrains.

 

[Zachdds]

I do not understand that. To me level 1 and 2 never get much over 750 watt draw. So why would it be drawing so much more juice? Now if in level 5 and trying to accelerate up hill as much as possible it would make sense