Worth the wait, Hydra is here.

bexamous

Active Member
Region
USA
Ordered Hydra Jan 31st was delivered Nov 18th. Fedex took a couple days longer than they were supposed to, but it got here.

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Nice, that looks to be quite a bit of greenery for end of November. Where do you ride?
 
Yeah, congratulations! Amazing pictures too.

Glad it's feeling great after you have put it through its paces some.
 
Nice, that looks to be quite a bit of greenery for end of November. Where do you ride?
This is Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore, CA. In some ways this is best time go ride, green hills and was 60s today. Next fews day is supposed to hit 70F. Most of the year there is no rain, its all dead grass, no shade, and >90F.
 
@bexamous, congrats on the new bike - that looks like an amazing place for a ride!

If you don't mind sharing, what was your order number? Updates from wattwagons seem to have dried up, so recent fulfilments about the best proxy I have for a timeline.
 
@bexamous, congrats on the new bike - that looks like an amazing place for a ride!

If you don't mind sharing, what was your order number? Updates from wattwagons seem to have dried up, so recent fulfilments about the best proxy I have for a timeline.
Hey bud. What’s your order number. You should hear from our build manager this week, if you haven’t already.

Most of the frames on the remaining orders have been painted or are in the process. We should be close to current in a few weeks.

Finally. 😂😂
 
Hey bud. What’s your order number. You should hear from our build manager this week, if you haven’t already.

Most of the frames on the remaining orders have been painted or are in the process. We should be close to current in a few weeks.

Finally. 😂😂
Thanks Pushkar - that's great news! The order is #1374.
 
I’mpretty sure the frame was dropped off for paint last week. I’ll check with the build manager to confirm build timelines. Hope to get to it mid-late December , hoping controllers come in on time.
 
I’mpretty sure the frame was dropped off for paint last week. I’ll check with the build manager to confirm build timelines. Hope to get to it mid-late December , hoping controllers come in on time.
Thanks for the update, but I hope things are further along than that - Amit said the frame was already painted on 10/20.

As I've been saying in the product availability thread, I think we're all long overdue for an update/explanation - I won't derail this thread further by restating what I've said there, but I don't think I'm the only one that wants answers.
 
Okay so I’ve made some tweaks.

Installed Garbaruk cage and moved chainring to outside of spider. Drive train isn’t 100% perfect but 95% of the way there. I‘m fairly sure I could do better, I’ve just not spent the time. If I use sport5 with 11T and pedal hard I can get skips, but I only do this trying to test drivetrain. Actual riding no issues with 11T or 51T. I will further tweak things when I'm bored one day.

This is pretty dumb, but at higher speeds wind noise has really bugged me.. I got these things friend of mine had years ago: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H2LSOQ6
They actually work, lol. Any less dorky solutions let me know.

Got some Ergon GA3 grips. I'd used this before and always liked them. With Hydra wanted to try something new, actually have bought like 4 sets of grips and dislike them all. GA3 is for me. I think ideally handle bar woudl be up 10mm or maybe have a nother degree or two of sweep or something. Current setup isn't that bad though, I just reach a tiny bit too much.

I removed throttle, I basically never use it. It feels like too much of a on-off switch. I’d rather have the +/- mode selector more easily accessible. Instead of like using throttle on a hill or something I just go up an assist level. -- Kinda feel like its the same. I'm not sure situation where throttle would be better than higher assist level. If a throttle existed that didn't take up so much space, and was more linear, I'd maybe look into it. But so far haven't missed not having one.

I finally got x1 tool registered. I think trick may be, if you’re interesting in messing with settings, start registration as early as possible. You don’t actually need your bike to register. If wattwagons can send you your registration email a week or two before your bike ships, you then have enough time to install app, go through registration, and then it'll likely be verified before you get your bike.

I’d also highly recommend setting up x1 tool. Only had time to tinker with it for an hour or so and already much happier with how bike feels.

Couple general changes I've made:

- 'sensitive torque' -- I'm not sure there is any point going past 3, even at 3 you don't have to pedal that hard to get motor >1500w. Going off cadence just feels like a throttle to me.

- 'motor torque' -- I'm not sure what this technically is doing, it seems kinda like a burst mode. By default WW maxes this out in all modes. IMO this makes sense for commuter bike where you just want some help to start going. But IMO on MTB that extra boost feels unnatural. At least on lower power output modes I don't like it maxed. Lowering this may be the main thing that made bike feel better to me, in the lower modes. Don't feel motor kicking in so much.

FWIW Current settings I'm using, after only an hour of messing with it:

mode, torque, sensativity-torque, motor-torque
eco1, 15%, level1, level1
eco2, 25%, level1, level1
eco3, 31%, level1, level2
eco4, 100%, level2, level4
eco5, 100%, level3, level10

sprt1, 6%, level2, level3
sprt2, 12%, level2, level3
sprt3, 24%, level2, level3
sprt4, 48%, level3, level6
sprt5, 100%, level4, level10

Nothing special about these, just what I'm experimenting with. Don't really have levels 1-10 more like 1-5 in two different ways. Need to try more types of riding. But yeah key I think is lowering motor-torque, in lower modes at least.
 
I also removed the throttle from my UC Pro for the same two reasons you did.
There are times when I'd use it, but I really don't like the on/off feeling. This must be a Bafang thing, as the throttle on my old Pedego Ridge Rider was very smooth. Far superior to the Bafang throttle.

I registered for the X1 tool yesterday. When the 'okay' comes through I'll definitely make some adjustments to tone down the power outputs.
 
With the stock Ultra, you can tone down the throttle with tuning enough to improve it a lot. I find mine highly useful offroad. I would assume the X1 has similar capabilities?
 
key I think is lowering motor-torque, in lower modes at least.
Coming from high-powered electric mountain boards, I've found this to be the key to comfort (it's easy to buck even an experienced skater unless you're super-delicate). In my case, I did this by modifying the throttle curve to lower the torque at the bottom end for a soft start while still ramping to full power at the top end.

Lowering the torque broadly may drop the hill climbing ability and potentially top-end speed a little (I don't know the limiting factor on a bike), but knowing we should have power to spare, trading off a little power for comfort seems like a good idea.

Thanks for posting your settings and the write-up - it gives us something to learn from!
 
@bexamous
Maybe you could repost your settings in the dedicated thread below, so it would be easier to find in the future
 
With the stock Ultra, you can tone down the throttle with tuning enough to improve it a lot. I find mine highly useful offroad. I would assume the X1 has similar capabilities?
I find the throttle very useful offroad too, particularly in steep, rocky areas where I either need to get going from a stop or sometimes power up a difficult incline. Having spent a lot of time offroad motorcycling, maybe I’m more used to the concept. It can definitely be a little twitchy tho I think my size helps to keep the Hydra grounded on throttle.
 
I have been considering buying this thinner throttle, just been lazy about doing it


would like to know if anyone can get the throttle programmed better with archon
 
Thanks @vincent I knew I had seen that somewhere....Grin also makes a throttle that although it is slightly thinner than the "stock" type it does allow for installation without having to remove the grip. Which is marginal because in order to get the old one off you would have to do that anyway! Caveat with any of the options is if it is plug and play....or slit and solder.

And another thought after my initial post and sending a PM to KarT is if there might be some advantage to a group buy perhaps defraying customs/shipping cost. Once it hits the states it won't be much at all to distribute through USPS.

As per @Jon A throttle ramp parameters can be adjusted via programming. It really has nothing to do with the actual throttle itself no matter what kind it is. It just sends the signal and the controller programming does whatever it is set to do and relays it to the throttle via the signal wire.
 
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