Wheel config: do I need to take the derailleur into account?

[waldyrious]

Hi all! This is my first post here, although I've been lurking for a few days

I just got my wheel yesterday and apart from the bluetooth connection issues with the app (which I already expected based on past reports), I had a hard time getting it to work consistently. My street has a modest slope, as the ebikemaps profile shows:

I could feel the wheel giving me quick boosts now and again (I'd hear the "whrrr" sound and feel a distinct push), but I expected it to produce a more even assist throughout the ride. I wonder if that is the way it's supposed to work (i.e. in specific, instantaneous boosts rather than consistent support), or if it could be due to the configuration.

As the manual instructed, I in the "front gear" field I put the number of teeth (38) in the middle one of the three large chain rings my bike has, but I'm wondering if the presence of a derailleur may require adjustment in that value (or in the "rear gear" field, which I kept at 18 teeth again as the manual instructed).

Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions I could try? Or is that normal behavior for this kind of incline?

 

[Ablaze]

No, that doesn't sound right. My Wheel would push any time I pedaled forward for the entire time I was pedaling. I had my teeth set to 42 I think. Unfortunately, I only managed to keep my bike for two weeks before it got stolen.

It may have something to do with your top speed setting. If you are going over the top speed then the wheel won't engage.

 

[waldyrious]

Thanks for the reply, Ablaze, and so sorry to hear about your bike

I made a video which may clarify some of these issues (due to the poor quality, I added annotations, so make sure to turn them on):

Basically, it looks like the wheel turns off immediately as soon as it gets below 25km/h, which is a really strange. Not to mention it was supposed to stay on for about 2 minutes after I stop pedaling, according to the manual, which definitely doesn't happen.

As for the speed settings, I initially had set all sliders to the maximum, so the top speed was 25 km/h, but now I brought them all down to about half the sliders to see if the behavior changed (it didn't seem to, but without connecting the app to the wheel while riding I can't really confirm).

 

[Ablaze]

Well I can't do much more than guess at this point, but the blue light is an indicator that it is ready to connect bluetooth and not an indicator of when it's boosting. I would notice the blue light was on often when the bike was stopped. I also noticed that pedaling forward often took a long time to wake the wheel up if it was sleeping, but that pedaling forward and then briefly backpedaling would reliably wake it up. I don't think you should be attempting to test the boosting behavior based on when the lights come on, since I think those are two different systems.

It should boost whenever the pedals are moving forward, coast when the pedals are stationary, and break when you pedal backwards. I didn't get the feeling that it matched my torque at all, just that it boosted at X power level when I was pedaling, even if I was just idly moving the pedals forward. Of course I could put some force behind the pedaling to accelerate more, but the wheel always provided X on top of whatever I did. X diminished the faster the bike was going. The battery would actually take me a little further in stop and go traffic then it would on a long sustained run.

 

[waldyrious]

That's very useful info, thanks! I'll test some more tomorrow, weather permitting, and will report back.

Unfortunately without the ability to connect to bluetooth whenever the speed is below 25 km/h (which seems to be the case merging your info and the experiments on my video) it is pretty much impossible to really be sure whether the wheel is assisting. Nevertheless, I recall distinctly feeling very short bursts while riding, really like someone pushed my bike, which I suspect is not the correct behavior. I'll report back with more info soon.

 

[waldyrious]

Ok, after a few days of different experiments, having some friends try the wheel (all of them saying they couldn't feel a difference) and some back-and-forth with FlyKly support, they're telling me it's likely a defective pedal sensor, and will send me a new one which I can replace myself or do it in a bike shop. As soon as I get to try that I'll update this thread with the results.

By the way, they told me that the light is supposed to be on while the wheel is working, and stay on for about 2 minutes after I stop pedaling, which is definitely not the case (it lasts 1 or 2 seconds at most)

 

[waldyrious]

Hi all,

It's been too long since I last wrote -- I should have written an update a while ago, but life got in the way. Anyway, here's a final update: I ended up sending them the wheel back at the start of November. They repaired it (with the usual slow service and few updates), and sent back to me. It arrived about a month after I sent it.

Since then the wheel has been working properly (apart from the Bluetooth issues), so if anyone has the same problems, it's almost surely a defective wheel.

 

[Iaroslav Timofeev]

Could I ask why did you decide to send the wheel and not replace the sensor yourself?
This morning my wheel stopped working (however I logged almost 3000km already) and I think I also have a broken sensor as the wheel charges and lights up normally but provides no assist.

Also, where did you send the wheel? Did you send the whole wheel or sending just the motor without rim is enough?

As I live in Russia, sending the whole wheel might get quite expensive and I am thinking of taking it apart before shipment.

 

[waldyrious]

Hi Iaroslav. Sorry I never got around to reply to your post. I'm wondering what you ended up doing. Answering your question, the wheel can't exactly be easily disassembled to send just the hub, so I sent them the whole thing, rim included. (I suppose they would have been able to fix the hub if I managed to detach it from the rim, but I didn't see an easy way to do so).

My wheel also stopped working all of a sudden this morning (in the middle of a ride, even), exactly as you describe: it still turns on if I pedal, the lights appear, I can connect to it via Bluetooth, I can see the pedaling speed (without assist), and even edit the configurations. But the motor doesn't seem to actually activate. Did you manage to eventually get your issue fixed?

 

[Iaroslav Timofeev]

Hi Waldyrious!
I ended up taking the hub apart. Inside I found a mess and displaced magnets. I think the seal was not properly aligned so sand and water managed to get into the mechanism. Fortunately, after I removed all the gunk and cleaned the inside, I was able to locate all the little magnets and place them how they were before. I closed the hub and tried to start the wheel and it worked. It seems like the wheel motor itself is fine and those little magnets are the sensors that trigger the wheel.
I don't use the wheel during the winter but closer to spring, I plan on taking it apart again, greasing the inside and I hope the wheel could last another summer for me.

 

[waldyrious]

Hi again Iaroslav I'm really glad you managed to make it work. When I wrote my last message above, I also sent FlyKly an email to support, but after the first response, they never said anything else, so I'll definitely try to fix it myself shortly. It makes sense for the issue to be pieces out of place, since everything was working ok until that day. By the way, I found this video where they detail how to change the sprocket, which will also be useful, along with your photo. I'll let you know of my progress

 

[waldyrious]

Hi again Iaroslav. I replied in a new thread, since this one has diverged quite a bit from the original topic. Please reply there once you get the chance -- I'm looking forward to know if your wheel has indeed started worked normally again. Thanks again for the details and encouragement!