Review: Swytch’s electric bike conversion kit is wheely fun

Fancy an electric bicycle but don’t want to throw out your old wheels? Swytch can help.

Swytch's conversion kit turns your pushie electric.

A UK start-up has cottoned on to the fact that not everybody wants to throw out their old bicycle, and a better approach might be to convert the old pushy to something with a little more kick.

Swytch has run a pretty strong campaign in recent months, one that caught the eye of us casual cyclists, who don’t mind a quick pedal to the local cafe or even the workplace on the odd occasion when we’re feeling energetic.

The start-up sought to crowd-raise for their big pitch – a 250W motorised wheel, 36V battery and pedal sensor turning any bicycle electric – in 2017 and have since delivered over 50,000 kits.

A Swytch kit on a vintage-styled bicycle.

The Australian has put one of these to the test, kitting out a 2017 model Reid Cycles Roller Vintage with the new wheel, pedal sensor, battery and pedometer.

Despite the distance, the kit arrived in a little over two weeks, all packaged into a box only slightly larger than a 26-inch wheel.

Inside was the wheel, of course, as well as a sensor, battery, charger, battery mount, pedometer and some tire levers, allen keys and a shifter.

The whole installation took a little less than an hour, most of which is just zip tying cables into place. The hardest part – if you could call it that – was deflating the front tyre to add to the new wheel.

The Swytch wheel, battery and battery holder.

Shortly after tightening the nuts of the new motorised front wheel, we were off, clocking 27km/h down a flat street in Sydney’s inner west.

Like most electric bicycles, the motor kicks in upon sensing the rider is pedalling. The more you pedal, the more it kicks in.

It’s not a one-speed-fits-all operation, but rather the rider can choose between five modes – and you can bet we spent 95 per cent of the time on ‘mode five’ other than testing out the difference.

For those who want to rely solely on the motor, you can put it in a low gear and pedal leisurely while being pulled along.

But for those who want to get the maximum out of the kit, you can put it in a high gear and get that little extra.

The max speed we found was around 37km/h down hill, at least according to the speedometer.

A man riding a bicycle with the Swytch kit installed.

Uphill, we’d cruise around 22km/h while putting in a decent amount of effort on the pedals.

The battery comes in two sizes, either a 15km 90Wh “pocket” sized battery or a 30km 180Wh tablet-sized battery. We opted for the larger battery and found it didn’t always deliver on the 30km promise, but often came close.

One thing we enjoyed a lot was the fact that you could barely tell it was an electric bike, despite a few cables on the front and the battery. It certainly didn’t stand out like most electric bicycles, which typically don’t look good.

Most of the electric bicycles seen around Sydney come in odd sizes, from those with little wheels to folding bikes and others with oddly-shaped frames to store the battery.

The Swytch kit on a small-wheeled bicycle.

Some manufacturers store the battery behind the seat in a rack, but that’s not to our taste.

One advantage of having an electric front wheel, having a little extra traction on the front – which felt like it helped pull us up hills.

For the more adventurous and speed demons among us, the kit would work well with an electric bike, which was rear-wheel drive. With two batteries and motors doing the work, it would be sure to cycle past that legal limit of 25km/h assist.

The verdict? We loved it. It’s a little on the pricier side starting at around $1000 but for those who have spent a small fortune on a road bike or mountain bike, it’s not a lot to pay.

And for those who are perhaps not as mobile as they once were, the boost this kit provides could be the ticket to some much-missed fun.