This DIY eBike Crushes Everything! 

Woah, what a kit! Incredible power from the small size, torque sensing, motor! Would you fit one?

This is what you call good content. This is exactly what the industry is lacking. Someone that escapes the premium and normal things and tests crazy stuff like that 1500w motor! Keep it up Rob!

I've now used one of these for almost a year and here is my take on it. Maintenance is going to be a thing, especially when the kit is used at high power. - It's crazy powerful. 1500w is no joke and I commute to work with it at 50kph, almost the whole way, daily. That's around 600 rides per year at near max power just by itself. - The clutch in the chainring ensures the pedals don't spin when the motor is driving the chainring. My first clutch, "freewheel 1.0", died two days after receiving the kit. CYC replaced it with an upgraded "freewheel 2.0", which lasted a few months (and was rated for 350Nm of torque). It too broke, but CYC replaced it for free. My advice is if you like to start up by standing on the pedals and you weigh what I do (100kg) you might overcome the sprags in "freewheel 2.0" after a few months, but it's also possible my first "freewheel 2.0" was defective. - There is also a clutch inside the motor's gearbox which avoids you spinning the motor while pedaling. It's a "one way bearing" sprag clutch. Mine broke after about 9 months of use rendering the motor inoperable. I am currently awaiting a replacement, and this isn't easy; it involves pulling the sprocket and then pulling the bearing, and then re-seating both. This will be a challenge for the mechanically uninclined. That clutch is only rated for 60Nm so it's easy to see why that failed. Bear in mind, my motor is thrashed at 1500w every single day on a commute at 50kph and also in weekends for fun. Also, I suspect the Gen 3 CYC Stealth has an upgrade in this department but don't quote me on this. - The crankarms and BB on the Gen 2 kit are square taper and suffer the usual failure with the square taper on the arms rounding out over time. The Gen 3 kit uses ISIS splined crankarms to avoid this problem. - The BAC855 controller and BAC based app disconnect regularly, but CYC have changed away from this to their own controller and app so this too will likely not be an issue with the Gen 3. - The motor does experience heat rollback if used above 1200w for about 15 minutes in my experience, but the Gen 3 again improves on that. - The provided chainring is designed for a 9 speed or smaller chain and the thick-thin engagements will not work well on an 8 speed or larger chain, leading to chain drops. - The motor is loud. I don't care, but some people might. On the plus side, the brass gears are almost certainly more durable than the nylon gears used by other manufacturers, so tradeoffs have been made here.

Would love to see you try the new CYC Photon, much quieter and better torque sensing

Great video rob. Honest review. If it makes people smile when ridding. Then it's a winner in my book.

Loving the tan walls. Bike looks great Rob. Most home builds look just that!

I think you've opened up a can of worms there Rob, I think once these bolt on units become a bit more refined they'll become a very real alternative to the over priced offerings from the big players!

great that you also test such motors in comparison to your other e-bikes!

Bike looks sooo good Rob! Anxiously waiting this part 2. What a blast. Ill be following the thread for sure

Grate video! Thank you for sharing, I'll definitely consider picking up this kit for a future project.

I love watching DIY builds crush off the shelf premiums.

Keep them coming, I enjoy all of these videos

Really enjoyed the video. Your insight will help me with my recumbent trike E-build. I was considering the cyc motor for a Catrike 5.5.9.and now I am convinced this will be a blast to build and ride.. Ride Hard, Ride Fast, Ride Safely.

I’ve ordered one of these kits - great test! Thank you

Hi Rob After watching this video and considering building my first ebike for sometime now I’m still leaning towards a of the shelve model, but what a beast it is

This is so cool. My grandma is turning 90 soon. I’ll build her this motor in her city bike for her birthday. It will be a surprise. Don’t tell her.

Awesome bit of kit. You built it well.

That 1500w ⚡bike is awesome👍 Nice clean build🏆

Great video, I us the bbshd, and you dont realise how fast it can climb till you go against a mainstream bike. The CYC is the dream motor

I have both a full fat Levo and a bafang 1500w 52v 20AH rockhopper. You will hammer the battery at 1500w. Even the higher AH batteries dont last as long as you would like when using full power and ultimately leaves you thinking about less power for more range almost every ride. It takes about 30 mins of riding hard up and down trails to realise you better switch to a lower mode to stay out longer. I love power, usually the more the better, but when in the zone of fun, the last thing you want is to be told by your battery its time to go home. The Levo, however, is almost perfect in every way. Yes, less power, but more range, more time out = more fun overall. In my honest opinion, anything over 750w on a primarily off road MTB is pointless until battery tech develops a bit more (solid state MTB batteries perhaps?)

The noise ain’t that bad dude. Friggin love mine. Eats up the Marin Headlands. Thank you for your wonderful channel.

Love this DiY, thanks for sharing it.

Been watching these guys for years. Finally had the spare cash. Thought I would beat the rush ordered last week. Custom 60amp 36v battery and CYC stealth are going on my 2019 Vitus Sommet plus wide range 50-11 8 speed drive train. Thanks for the vid Rob.

Superb video .. great looking kit

Thanks for being positive towards this bolt on motor Rob, other ebike channels are less encouraging and seem to disparage them. The cost of commercial brands ebikes are more than I want to pay for a car but as an older less fit athlete I want to continue in the activity. I run a Tongsheng Tsdz 2 and love it. The chainline is terrible and the Cyc looks much better but the noise has just put me off!!! I encourage you to do more of this type of content as review s of the latest ten grand super ebike are leaving me cold and envious!!!

i really appreciate the honest review that you gave the motor, looking at it from a standard emtb "specialist" perspective. but what i would've really liked to see was a more in depth review talking about the controllers. on most off the shelf ebike you can't do when it comes to mod the ebike, neither it makes sense since the motor are all about optimization more then raw power. but when talking about aftermarket motors (like the stealth, the x1 pro, the bbshd and so on) you have a huge variety of controllers you could chose from. Most of the people are running bac (either 855 or even 2000) with those motors, others are running Phaserunner controllers. in the cyc community it's a well known fact that going from a standard cyc controller to a well tuned bac855 will make a night and day difference for the refinement you're talking about in the video, making it closer to an off the shelf emtb feeling or even better in some case. although cyc is having some problem regarding compatibility with bac controllers, you should've really make a comparison between a bbshd, a x1 (either stealth or pro) both with a bac855, and an off the shelf powerful emtb. really great content anyway!

this has all the information i needed. thank you sir

I have a couple cyc builds, and all the ability to taylor the pas settings are in the app, even including the ramp up and ramp down motor time.

Awesome Rob. Considering you can pick up a new Mythique for £1300 it seems really viable for someone starting out in the ebike world. Great video, love the content. 🤙

I think there is a lot of rider techniques that could improve performance on the uphills, namely anticipation and being in the right gear. The noise could be unusually loud because of the install, the frame can amplify the noise. There are ways to super secure these batteries, which have way more capacity than the low wattage factory bikes.

Good stuff Rob. CYC has long ways to go. Stealth and Pro Gen II is good but their 72V platform on the Pro Gen II needs work with the controller. Great people though. Excited to see what's coming out next. I do love their design more so than the BBSHD. BBSHD is just more customizable and can run 4000W using aftermarket kits which I run at the moment.

That things mental, what a kit!

Fantastic review Rob. I have been waiting eagerly for this and yes it sure is noisy. I also wonder how well the exposed components last in our wet and muddy land? Interesting the point you make about the level (or lack of) torque sensing assistance at low cadence and starting. I love the idea of DIY MTB conversions. I have mentioned before to take a look at the Tongsheng TSDZ2 Torque assisted motor (not to be confused with the Bafang mid mount motor). Though I don't own a fully fledged factory e-bike, I have ridden some. I converted a Giant Trance with a Tongsheng motor which I have been riding for nearly a year now. With the opensource software upgrade, start-up assistance is greatly increase at low cadence and provides PAS up to 120 Cadence. Exactly the points you criticising this for. The Tongsheng is not perfect hangs too low from the BB for example. But It's quiet, punchy, repairable, range of displays and at around £500 with battery (if you already have your donor bike) is worth a punt. BTW was that the same hill climb used to test the Cheeb?

This will hopefully show that you don't need to spend a fortune for an ebike. Some of the prices coming out for the new ebikes are just becoming ridiculous! Awesome content Rob 👍

I have been running this motor for 3 months on a 2005 santa cruz nomad. Set at around 500watts peak seems to work for me. mostly bike parks. so much fun! But yes when following my mate on a pedal bike the slow uphill is less assisted, going to look at higher gearing to get cadence up. Oh and the noise is a bit embarrassing.

Great e bike build!

As an ageing Mountain biker of 63 years old this really appeals to me. Great review and something for me to consider.

I watched your previous video on the bike build and ordered a Stealth. Fitted to an older 09 Giant Reign 0 which is in great condition, using existing rear cluster and chain. The motor absolutely rocks. I have run in normal street mode and played with the assist levels and tried race mode on assist level one and found this to be great on single track trails, gives you the torque to tackle anything. I used a ceramic lube on the chain and found it cut the noise down. I'm hoping the cluster and chain can handle the power otherwise I'll change to a Box 2 Prime 9 speed group set. I did 23kms of singletrack on a mix of street and race assist and still had a relatively full battery at the finish. The bike weighs 19.5kg complete. My wife rides a Focus Thron2 6.9 with the Bosch kit and now I have no issue keeping up. With the loose battery issue I have 2 stainless steel hose clamps around the battery as well as the bottle mount screws. Thanks for your inspiration to do this.

Hello from California really good video I really enjoyed it. I built a downhill bike with the Pro gen 2 (250nm) with strong, quality components and it is INSANELY fun and with great throttle feel. It does 38 mph easily. I'm reminded by you to proceed cautiously.

I enjoyed the video and the build

Wicked, might consider this motor and build an eBike!

I love it, always liked mid drives

Ordered a stealth Gen 3. Gonna put it on my full suspension giant trance 27.5" I'm pumped. I heard they refined the torque sensing a bit and quiet upped the motor a little. I'm really excited. How's your rear wheel and hub holding up?

That's awesome, Rob.

Can't beat a nice diy ebike, tha satisfaction of putting it together yourself. I love your build. I've a bbshd with a ludicrous controller running about 200nm and I call it my uphill mountain bike 😁.

Would be interesting to see a similar DIY bike but with a Bafang BBSHD in that test.

Yes! powerful motors is what the UK YT space is missing.

I'm running a bafang 250w motor on my normal mountainbike and it's quite refined and so wonderfully easy to unlock....

Between crushing the hill climb and pulling away from the drag race this makes a really compelling case for DIY ebikes

What ! Nice work!

Thanks for your feedback Rob. Great video! Can't wait until my kit arrives to give my Chinese hardtail new life.

This was awesome.

Great VIDEO… Makes me want to build one!!! For that price YEAH!!!

I don’t think the power should get any higher that the current full fat 80-90Nm bikes. More focus should be on losing weight and increasing range. If we are not careful, it will harm access to riding areas for everyone as they will be seen as motorbikes but making it too had to differentiate from lower powered bike, so all ebikes (and maybe non assisted bikes) will be locked out.

I have just fitted a Bafang BBS02 kit to a trek dual sport. I bought the USB programming cable & used changed the parameters using settings I found online. Game changer! You mention the CYC motor doesn't start straight away. Can this not be changed? I changed my bbs02 and the power now eases in gradually plus it's now very gear dependant. I'm so impressed with my conversion. Yes, it doesn't look as good as a manufacturer bike but it was less than half the price of a new ebike.

Glad you posted this. I've been weighing up the pros and cons of this little fella vs the Lift-MTB for my 2016 Pivot Mach 429SL. The X1 Stealth wins hands down I think. I'd like to know what the saddle is on your self build? It looks really comfortable, exactly the shape I'm looking for.

Great video! I like the reflection on the pros and cons. Did you see and ware on the drivetrain due to the motor extreme power?

Nice bike pal

Great vid Rob thinking of converting my Giant Trance for the Mrs to ride. Had a look on the Moshon-E site and their Moshon E ebike looks a lot like the cheeb sadly all the motors are sold out so this proves to be a popular product for converting your existing bike.

I really want to see the 'lightest ebike' motor if it ever gets into production. Several power options, good torque rating, and supposed to be quiet too. But it has been promised to be available for around a year now, and still no signs of any actually being produced.

Get the brass gears with a good packing of the special grease and low end noise becomes a lot more quiet .defo still screams on high rpm same as the steel gears

Amazing review! Thanks for bringing unbiased info about these kits to the world. Indeed, it's the little details that really matter. I've used the bafang bbshd (tonnes of power, but no torque sensor so for on-road use only), and the tongsheng TSDZ2 (half the torque, a torque sensor, but needs a lot of DIY skills to unlock its potential with firmware changes). I had big hopes for this motor, but bang on, getting the power delivery curves right is why you pay Bosch et al the big bucks. I love that cyc are continually improving their products, and I can't wait to upgrade my Frankenbike when they're on the next gen!

So looks this is the 2 stroke of the E-Bike world!😁

Great video first video that I've seen where the DIY crushes the performance of store bought ebike. I will say if you used another DIY BBSHD mid drive with the same BAC 855 Controller the BBSHD is quite as a mouse. I cant tell you how many times I've startled deer on the trail. Now if you want a real treat put the mid drive on a Down Hill Bike with 200mm of travel. Now were talking. Similar to what that is but just not as LOUD. Mount that battery above the motor on the down tube for better COG if you have the clearance. You want a lower center of gravity. I bet you feel a difference especially around corners. WOW is that mid drive loud. That would drive me crazy on the trail. Try the BBSHD it's so quite and bullet proof up to 2500W with the proper controller.

I'm sure you put a lot of thought into your choice of chassis to get it good ride from the bike. Have you tried it on a good downhill line like you find in a bike park? I remember the first ebikes I rode back in 2012-13 were like witchcraft going up a hill but they ruined the downhill as thy didn't handle well on steem downhill runs.

Great set of videos. Do you have any opinion on how the frame and components stand up to the extra power and weight of the motor and battery?

Thanks Rob, really entertaining. All well and good in the dry, but what’s it going to be like in the slop of a British Winter. There are several exposed moving parts and how waterproof is the whole set up. Can we have part two in February? Cheers

great video

Hi Rob! I was wondering how this bike compares to a more refined bike such as the trek rail going downhill. is there a noticeable change in performance? I am thinking about adding the motor and battery to my 2017 canyon spectral cf 9.0. In other words, do you think it is worth adding this to my current bike or saving up for a refined ebike.

I have a vitus mythique and what's cool about this setup is that there's enough room to fit a water bottle on the downtube in front of the motor and still clear the front tire when the front fork is fully compressed.

Great video, Rob. This comparison is like a Harley vs a 250 2 -stroke, both with the same outright power but very different delivery through the rev range. With a 250W uk power limit you’re getting high power density with double the torque of the Bosch. Food for thought for many! I’m on a 2020 Trek Rail 9.7 BTW.

@Rob Rides EMTB. could i ask how much riding/range that 52 volt battery gave in the 250 watt format. and what connection the motor / battery is. many thanks.

I have an old Bulls Copperhead ...this might be real fun to try :P

Hey I have a vitus mythique too! Awesome bike. This is very interesting. So you've got yours at 63 HA, thats a 2 degree angle set with the 160mm fork right? Think it's much better with the slacker head angle? I've been thinking a 150mm fork and 1 degree angle set.

Thinking of putting one of these motors on a 2010 stumpy fsr

I can’t wait to get this motor on my bike! Ima buy the 72v version and beat everything which has pedals 😂

my 60yr old dad turned an old marin quake freeride into an ebike during lockdown. the thing is nuts.

Awesome video! Which Drone do you have?

What a great review, after hearing the noise and not so instant RPM I decided to keep my pushbike as it is and cary on saving to get a new Levo.

This is how I use bbs02 starting out on hills- punch the throttle for a second or two to overcome the lag built into straight assist mode, motor engages instantly with trottle, no need to pay extra $ for advanced torque sensing capability doing this simple trick!

Brilliant!

Curious if you could get noticeable drop in the center of gravity using a hardtail which would allow for more room in the diamond to lower the battery, and if so, would the difference be good enough to outweigh the benefits of full suspension. I realise this is hugely personal to riding style and variations in frames, though it'd be great to hear your opinion from a high-level perspective. This video has inspired me, like a cherry on top, to go this route as I've been studying a while & your videos are in my reference list ~ cheers!

Impressive for that small size (that's what she said) I have a bafang bbs02b 750w (max 1470w) and that does around 120nm of torque. Way less noisy than this one and under half price :) I'm close to 3000km on it, haven't really been too nice to it, but it still runs like new. Although i actually did lower the controller amps from 24 to 20 in the beginning. Can still do 50kmh on flat if no wind. You should give that a try if you haven't already ;) The only thing i can say, is the size, if you do a lot of trails with rocks etc, this one is probably a really good pick since it's so small.

i like the DIY method. the pride in creating something very personal can be emotional at best.

I have a DIY BBS02 hardtail that has been ridden hard off road for seven years with neither maintenance nor problems and would like to put this kit on a FS bike. Does it have an RPM sensor or anything that is linked to the rear wheel, and if so, how did you accommodate for rear end travel (I assume just have a wire connection with slack)?

Does it have a thumb throttle option as well or is it only pedal assist. I might have missed if you mentioned that. If it wasn't so loud I think I would have to get one. Even if it only had about 50-70% of the power but was much quieter I think I would have to buy one to try out.

I'm planning on building an ibis Ripley AF with the CYC stealth kit and a custom 2kg battery. One of the aspects that attracted me to it is the ability to mount the motor inside the frame triangle, so you don't lose ground clearance. The Ibis rear suspension allows that kind of setup.

Finally channels like this consider those conversion kits. ...and those ridiculous legal power and speed limitations have to go away in this time and age of alternative transportations. Bikes are no longer just for exercise.

Really great video. I would consider upgrading my wife's MTB so she can hang with me on my eMTB. Have you done a range test? Would be curious to know. Cheers, Gigi

I've fitted a Bafang BBSHD Motor to my old Scott 29er Hard tail, and it's bonkers offroad. I've a 2100ah battery on it and the motor is rated at 1000-1500w. Marvellous offroad and drive it with a thumb throttle as well as peddle assist. Once you've gone electric, it's hard to go back. I fitted my battery inside a frame bag so solved the mounting issues. I may see you in Swinley Forest Rob.

How does it compare to the lift mtb kit?

We need a: * Bafang M625 Motor VS * CYC X1 Stealth Motor Comparison plzzzzzz

How long did the battery last in turbo legal mode? And the price?

For the noise , did you get the version with steel or brass Gears ? Thanks

Is there a reason why you can't use the original cranks when you retrofit a bike? I have Raceface cranks that I would like to keep using. Do you lose the freewheel with this motor setup?

Rob, great comparison, my biggest issue is the noise of the CYC motor, while riding do you notice that as much as I do as a viewer? Oh wait you covered that haha, cheers!

Is it possible to convert a Vitus Sentier hard tail to electric? Or do they not work with 20mm bolt through rear axel

I am going to put this on my Hello Dave :D

Question. What is pedaling like when the battery dies or is disconnected? Would you be able to make it home or be stranded?

Great video on the build and test rides. How much ground clearance did it take away being underslung like that?