01 Fun facts of CYC X1 PRO
Important motor spec:
Motor KV: 150KV
Maximum rpm 14krpm
Rated torque: 5N.m. (At crank 180N.m., which the other motor factories are usually referring to)
BLDC Motor: X1 PRO is a sensored BLDC motor which means that there is no carbon brush like the brushed motor has. Thus, there is no physical wear and much more durable. Genrally the BLDC efficiency is much higher, and the noise level is lower than brushed motor. Brushed motor is an outdated technology and it is very easy to overheat under high load at low rpm. Meanwhile the BLDC motor of X1 PRO is a completely redesigned BLDC motor which is using the most advanced technologies in controller and motor. With the built in Temperature sensor, it is practically impossible to fry the motor, even at extreme loading of >6kW.
In-Runner Motor: X1 PRO motor is an in-runner motor with the stator directly in contact with the air. The stator is potted with highly heat conductive epoxy, which increases the heat conductivity by 50% to the exterior aluminium fin. Some customers have asked us before if ferrofluid at the air gap would improve the heat dissipation. The answer is no. It is unnecessary to add any ferrofluid in the air gap as the stator is already dissipating heat very efficiently via the aluminium fin. Only out-runner motor would be benefited by filling air gap with ferrofluid.
Comparable motor: Astroflight 3220 motor is also an 80mm O.D. motor which is the same as X1 PRO. Astroflight 3220 has been used as the most extreme motor for ebike in the market, and the motor X1PRO is a shorter motor, but it has similar spec and better efficiency. Many customers have been running the X1 PRO motor at over 6kW continuous at 72V without issue.
Efficiency: Our motor is now proven to be one of the most efficient BLDC motor in the e-bike market, with over 90% of efficiency through the controller and motor. It is possible because the motor has 0.2mm lamination, which reduce eddy current lost.
The SPM rotor allows minimum magnetic flux loss, and further increase the efficiency.
We also manufacture the very popular Cyclone motor (Low cost version): https://www.gngebike.com/gng-2019-3000w, which is a less efficient motor and much less costly to build. Although it is also very durable, X1 PRO can handle twice the power at almost half the size. This is the reason for paying the premium price.
Maximum Torque: The Maximum Torque depends on the current that you are running through the phase wires. We have measured 50N.m. with the stock 52V controller at the output shaft of the gearbox, which means that it has over 300N.m. at the crank. There is no other motor system achieving such torque at crank.
03 Choosing the Bottom bracket options
For our X1PRO, we support a number of bottom brackets, including traditional BSA threaded bottom bracket, which ranges from 68mm to 120mm and press-fit bottom brackets such as the BB92 with a width of up to 92mm. The said bottom brackets are very common amongst mountain bikes and this guide is to help you check which bottom bracket you have and how to choose the correct bottom bracket option.
What bottom bracket do I have?
There are two main types of bottom brackets:
1. Traditional BSA threaded bottom bracket.
These bottom brackets, as the name implies, are assembled to the bike frame by threads. When these bottom brackets are removed from the bike frame, you can see there are threads on both the bottom bracket and the bike’s bottom bracket. The BSA threaded bottom brackets can be further separated into two types, a) BSA threaded bottom bracket with external cups and b) BSA threaded bottom bracket with sealed cartridge.
a) BSA threaded bottom bracket with external cups:
BSA threaded bottom bracket with external cups
This type of bottom bracket has two external cups on each ends of the bottom bracket. The external cups typically have bearings on the side facing outwards and threads on the side in contact with the bike’s bottom bracket.
The cups are typically threaded on to the bike by a bottom bracket tool as shown.
Bottom bracket tool
b) BSA threaded bottom bracket with sealed cartridge:
BSA threaded bottom bracket with sealed cartridge
This type of bottom bracket has two parts to it, first part is a spindle and a drive side cup assembled together, the second part is a non-drive side cup alone. Both cups are threaded on the face in contact with the bikes bottom bracket. This type of bottom bracket needs to be removed using a different looking bottom bracket tool.
Bottom bracket tool
Here are the typical measures of the BSA bottom bracket.
The bottom bracket diameter can be measured according to the image.
The typical widths of the BSA threaded BB are 68mm (road bikes), 73mm (mountain bikes), 83mm, 100mm and 120mm.
2. Modern bike frames with press-fit bottom bracket.
These bottom brackets, on the other hand, are pressed into the bike frame, stays there by means of strong friction between the bottom bracket cups and the bike bottom bracket. The easiest identification of the press-fit bottom bracket is that there are no threads inside the bike bottom bracket, nor on the bottom bracket cup.
Usually there are no clear installation marks for press-fit bottom brackets, as these kinds of bottom brackets require the press-fit tools to install and remove them.
Set of press-fit bottom bracket removal tool
Currently, we only support BB92 press-fit bottom brackets with a width of up to 92mm.
The bottom bracket diameter of the BB92 is 41mm.
Which bottom bracket option should I choose?
Please refer to the chart below for reference:
click to enlarge
05 Choosing the controller and display options
We offer three types of controllers for X1 PRO, namely the Stock controller, ASI BAC800 and ASI BAC2000 controller. The power capability of the three options from ascending orders are:
BAC800 < Stock CYC < BAC2000
After further tuning of the BAC800, the starting torque is around 70-80% of the CYC controller but it has a higher rpm due to field weakening function. Thus the BAC800 can achieve higher top speed but less powerful.
For both the stock CYC and the BAC800 options, the controllers are integrated between the mounting bracket of X1 PRO, therefore, you would not need to mount the controller independently. Meanwhile for the Bac2000, as the dimensions are too big, it needs to be mounted independently from the frame. We have left a very adequate wiring length for the BAC2000 option to give you the maximum flexibility.
The characteristics of each of the choices are discussed below:
Stock 36-72V controller
Stock controller supports 36-72V battery(nominal), in order words, 10s-20s lithium batteries (Fully charged 84V).
The controller can handle 50A continuous current and 65A maximum current from the battery, which means that the maximum power with 72V battery is around 5kW when fully charged.
It comes with the CYC color round display (Only choice for this controller). There are three presets in total, which you can switch by long pressing up on the display, with this feature, you can switch between legal and extreme power mode easily.
The controller can be highly configurable via our mobile app. The new CYC app released supports both Android and IOS platform.
It is worth noticing that there were some quality and firmware issues with the Gen1 X1 PRO which has now solved after countless hours of redesigning, programming and tuning. We packed a 24 mosfetscontroller in such a small integrated form factor to support the extreme power.
The controller is FOC so it is as quiet as ASI controller options.
Optimized to be used with cadence and torque sensor.
ASI Controllers
ASI controller supports 36-72V battery(nominal).
The BAC800 controller can handle around 90A max phase current and around 50A max battery current.
The BAC2000 controllercan handle around 200A max phase urrent and around 80-90A max battery current.
They can be paired with 500C or 750C display. 500C supports up to 52V while 750C display takes everything below 72V (Nominal)
The controller can also be highly configurable via our mobile app. Currently the new Gen 3 CYC motor app is under construction which will also support ASI controller and more features.
Julet high quality waterproof connectors are used throughout the setup just like the stock controller options.
The controller is FOC and support field weakening which can help you gain even more rpm than the stock controller, so there will be more top speed with BAC800 version.
The BAC controller options are now optimized to be used with cadence and torque sensor.
06 Choosing the throttle and pedal assist options
There are three throttle options, the thumb throttle and two different half twist throttle options. All three options of the throttles have the same function and settings, you only need to choose according to your preference.
There are two pedal assist options, the torque sensor option and the cadence sensor option.
The torque sensor option includes both a torque sensor and a cadence sensor inside the spindle. The main feature of the torque sensor is to sense and provide assist when there isn’t any crank rotation. This is because all that the torque sensor needs is a change in the force applied on the pedal. In other words, the motor is able to provide assist even when the bike is on stand still, this is particularly useful when you are trying to pedal from stand still on a slope. As soon as you step on the pedal, the bike will start moving.
On the other hand, the cadence sensor may not have the same incredible function as the torque sensor, it can and will still provide the necessary assist with respect to your bike speed, the motor would provide a good amount of power and speed to make your riding experience less difficult. The greatest advantage of the cadence sensor is that, it is a lot lighter than the torque sensor due to the design and the components of the whole cadence sensor setup.
07 How to choose the suitable batteries and what are the top speeds?
The Gen 2 X1 PRO controller accepts batteries from 36-72V (Nominal), which means that lithium ion batteries of 10s to 20s all work well with the motor system. 72V (20s) batteries fully charged is around 84V. The X1 PRO controller can accept 72V (20s) batteries at most.
The controller has a battery current limit at 65A and can support 50A continuous.
The maximum power that the motor can output is equal to the product of batteries voltage x Maximum current.
Which means that the maximum power of the motor are:
(With 36V batteries)~2800W
(with 52V batteries) ~3500W
(With 60V Batteries) ~4000W
(With 72V batteries) ~5000W
The Top Speed with different batteries:
Meanwhile, the voltage also affects the maximum speed that you can achieve.
The motor kV is 150, which means that the maximum rpm of the motor are:
(With 36V batteries)~5500rpm
(with 52V batteries) ~8000rpm
(With 60V Batteries) ~9000rpm
(With 72V batteries) ~11000rpm
To calculate the top speed you will achieve, please input your bike gear ratio and maximum rpm to the cadence in this link: https://www.bikecalc.com/
The top speed at the crank varies with the chainring options you choose:
If you choose 11/53T chainring options (Comes with 32T bike chainring), the reduction ratio from motor to crank is 1:28.9. Therefore the top speed at crank with 11/53 option are as follow:
(With 36V batteries)~190rpm
(with 52V batteries) ~277rpm
(With 60V Batteries) ~311rpm
(With 72V batteries) ~381rpm
If you choose 11/63T chainring options (Comes with 38T bike chainring), the reduction ratio from motor to crank is 1:34.4. Therefore the top speed at crank with 11/63 option are as follow:
(With 36V batteries)~160rpm
(with 52V batteries) ~233rpm
(With 60V Batteries) ~262rpm
(With 72V batteries) ~320rpm
If you choose 12/72T chainring options (Comes with 42T bike chainring), the reduction ratio from motor to crank is 1:36. Therefore the top speed at crank with 12/72 option are as follow:
(With 36V batteries)~153rpm
(with 52V batteries) ~222rpm
(With 60V Batteries) ~250rpm
(With 72V batteries) ~306rpm
With the above information, you can determine the top speed of your bike after conversion.
Some customers may have concerns regarding the motor spinning too fast and causing them to not being able to pedal. There is no need to worry about this. The controller calculates the cadence and match the motor rpm with your cadence rpm. Therefore you can always have the most natural feeling when using pedal assist.
Range and efficiency
X1 PRO has an astonishing efficiency when compared with other high power motor. That's why it is capable of running high power with smaller form factor.
From our customers we summerized the following range for reference:
65kg rider
Normal ride style:
Run at PAS mode at around 500W (e.g. trail riding and : 15Wh/mile,
Agressive ride style: Run at throttle and PAS mode at more than 1000W : 30Wh/mile.
The motor and controller overall has an efficiency of over 90%.
When compared to high power e-bike like Sur Ron with the same rider, the battery consumption efficiency is around 60Wh/mile.
08 Is it noisy?
There are some early motors sold and they were quite noisy. However, in the new batch after all the parts upgrades and refinement we can now say that the X1 PRO motor has a very acceptable noise. When using pedal assist in low rpm it is very quiet and would not be significantly noisier than high power prebuilt e-mtb like the TQ motor.
The noise will start to be noticeable when the motor rpm is over 5000rpm.
This video made by our customer has made a noise comparison with BBSHD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRe19eAXvnU
