u/mrbigglsworth79

Thanks to everyone who gawked, stared, or came up to talk to us about how terrifying Sheila, our rave totem, is. She rode the rail from Dabin through Zeds Dead, gave Apashe the shivers, and won a major award!

If you want to find Sheila or us (there's more than two of us) at future festivals and raves, please give us a follow on insta @sheilatotem. We hope to give you a harmonica and dance together soon!

Edit: Just popped a wheelie and went down hard at a pedestrian intersection. I came off the curb on the throttle from a stop, my front wheel hit first but when my back wheel hit I was not perfectly straight, popped a wheelie off to the right side and when I eased off the throttle I came down on my right knee. I skinned it and am going to have a bruise. My body weight was not on the bike when it hit the ground, but the right pedal bent so far in that I couldn't pedal the rest of the way home. The guard for the mechanical shifter did it's job, but will need to be reattached. The bike seems fine otherwise. My phone screen has a couple of scratches. I'm going to contact Cycrown about a replacement pedal and look online for a more durable solution should the bike go down again. The only thing I'm really disappointed in is that the pedal bent so badly, screams poor quality. I also feel like I'll need to find a way to put more weight forward in the bike, mid frame mounted saddle bags seem like the move.

Okay trying this again since I accidentally overwrote the body of my last post.

I bought the Cycrown CycHunter 2.0 for a little under $1.2k. I purchased it to commute into work 3 days/week, a 22 mile round trip ride with 1/2 of that being on roads and the other half being on a mix used trail. I got sick of paying astronomical gas prices and want to reduce the frequency of my car maintenance. I have ridden it to work and back three times so far, once to try out the route, and twice to actually commute. Setup took me a little over 3 hours last Friday night, it took me that long because I put it together alone and the instructions are not conducive to putting it together without a second person. This is the first ebike I've purchased, the last bike I bought was 7 years ago, and the last bike I rode a lot was over 14 years ago.

I will not be speaking about the cruise control since I haven't tested it yet.

Pedal Assist Levels are in the 3rd photo, there are 6 including throttle only.

Pros:

• The bike looks great! I've gotten compliments, and it is eye catching whether you love it or hate it.
• The bike has great value.
• Very fun to ride, super stable.
• This bike makes me want to ride.
• Cuts through grass and mud, rides well on the road.
• Seat is comfy.
• The controller's display is visually appealing and provides you the information you need, but I have more to say in the cons.
• NFC unlock is cool, but can be easily bypassed. More details in cons.
• It's a good feature that each battery needs a different key to remove.
• Headlight is bright, doubles as a horn (of sorts). I have it angled to get the attention of drivers.
• The best pedal assist level is 4, 18MPH. Feels like the correct amount of effort to put in at a high gear.
• The throttle is nice and easy to use, very helpful for getting me started moving after a stop. It also is great for cornering.
• The handles are very comfy with nice palm swells.
• The tool kit bag is nice to have even though the tools themselves are cheap.
• The suspension isn't bad, not too stiff or soft.
• Batteries are UL certified.
• Comes with a handlebar reflector and a bell.
• Pump included! I'm not going to use it for the bike since I have a handheld, USBC rechargeable air compressor, but it's nice they include it.
• Having turn signals and brake lights is great.
• Class 3-E bike, it goes 28 mph on the road. I like feeling like I'm keeping up with the traffic flow and not just annoying drivers behind me.
• Hydraulic brakes work well and are not too loud, I can stop relatively quickly, I'll need to test what the stop distance is from 28mph.
• Slower acceleration is great for me. I may want instant torque in the future, but I like having it ease into the acceleration. I did pop a wheelie on this bike, but that's not what I'm looking to do.
• Flipping between mainly Pedal Assist 4 and 5, my door-to-door commute is 40-45 minutes. I have a couple of intersections with long waits, otherwise this would be faster.
• I come into work relaxed and without having spent money on gas.

Cons:

• The most concerning thing is how the shocks are connected to the upper portion of the frame. There are arms that extend out from the frame with tabs that the shock sits in. Those tabs are not super thick. The male bolt is threaded into a female nut that is almost as long as the bolt, and that surface is what connects the shocks to the upper frame. My friend who rides a lot is concerned that the tab might crack or shear if too much force is put on it, or that the bolt may come unthreaded over time. I will be tightening the bolts for the frame once a week checking the tabs to ensure they aren't showing signs of deforming or cracking, but it does seem less than ideal. It seems like the 1.0 has a worse set rear shock, but how it's placed in the frame appears to my untrained eyes to be a stronger setup.
• The controller display is fine, but I do not like the controller itself. I wish it was touch screen and had options to turn more features on or off.
  • The NFC unlock feature is cool, you can walk the bike but cannot back it up and cannot pedal. But it has a fatal flaw: if you turn off both batteries and turn them back on, the NFC unlock resets. This is half backed as hell, the fact that it doesn't have memory of it's last setting is ridiculous.
  • Park mode kind of sucks. Because I am pedaling instead of using the throttle most of the time, I have to put two full rotations into the pedals before the assist kicks in. Most of the time I have not downshifted (maybe just a nooby problem), but that means I need to make at least a rotation of the pedals before I can use the throttle. You can shift pedal assist levels to get out of park mode, but then you're at a higher or lower level than when you started.
• I wish the motor kicked in w/o throttle after a quarter-half rotation instead of two full rotations.
• I have smaller hands, so the e-shifter's controls are difficult to reach. The controls aren't relieved to allow them to be moved closer to the hand, so I'll probably need to modify the left handle's grip. The controls are much better consolidated on the 1.0 model and easier to reach.
• The 1.0 model included a horn button, this one doesn't. The 'horn' sounds whenever you press a button on the e-shifter, but there is no dedicated horn button, and I don't want to press the odometer change button just to make the horn sound. There is a horn button included on the 1.0, so it feels like an opposite of an 'upgrade' that it isn't on this version.
• I never know how much battery I actually have remaining. After fully charging both batteries, I rode it to work and back for my test run. The battery gauge on the controller display showed 2/5 bars left. But when I press the button on the battery body that will make it show the remaining charge, both batteries show 4/5 lights remaining. How much do I actually have left? IDK, but I want an accurate readout. I guess I'll find out how accurate the display is vs the battery levels when the bike dies.
• The pedal assist levels at the middle to higher range are too close together, with too great of a jump to the highest level. My ideal would be to have 8 total including throttle only. Level 3 should be at 16mph instead of 15, level 5 should be at 20 instead of 18, level 6 should be at 24 mph, and level 7 should be 28 mph.
• The pedal assist kicks in after two rotations, and doesn't turn off until a second after you stop pedaling. This can be an issue in tight spaces, as the bike will jump and start gaining speed. I don't understand why it doesn't instantly stop giving power, particularly because one you ease off the throttle it immediately stops providing power.
• Throttle only will only go up to 20 mph. This is probably to prevent excessive battery drain and I really only use the throttle to help me from stops and to give a bit of gas when coming out of a turn or corner, but it still is disappointing.
• Pedal assist level 6 is poorly setup. When you reach this level, all resistance is removed from the pedals as you approach top speed, but you have to keep 'pedaling' to maintain speed. At first I looked like I was pedaling as quickly as possible with no resistance, but then I started pedaling as controlled and slowly as possible to maintain speed. What should happen is that the pedals retain resistance and the force of your pedaling reduces wattage pull from the batteries, it doesn't do that and it's annoying.
• There is one charger for two batteries and no y splitter, both batteries need to be charged separately. Not ideal for charging overnight. I purchased an additional charger, but add $50 to the cost of this bike.
• This bike is IPX4 rated. I believe the 4 rating is due to them not wanting the batteries immersed in water or sprayed with a garden hose to clean the bike, but I am concerned that too heavy of rain might be an issue while commuting in the fall, winter, and spring. I'm going to contact Cycrown to ask how concerned I should be with the electronics going through a moderate to heavy rain.
• No regen, but I guess that would be exceptional for a model at this price point.

Additional gear I have or will purchase:

• Light vest with flashing, rainbow fiber optic cables for night riding.
• Mirrors, I am looking at putting them on a fork stem mount https://rammount.com/products/ram-b-342wu?variant=46370737422486.
• Bern Helmet, bright yellow, has a rechargeable LED red light that snaps into the back of the helmet, includes a brim flap, NTA E-Bike rated, seems great.
• Saddle bags, looking for any decent recommendations, water resistant to waterproof.
• Water bottle holder
• Rain Cover
• Litelock bike lock, but I if there are cheaper options that offer that much security I'm interested.
• Rain pants, probably going to get OR Foray pants.
• Reflective tape for the frame.
• New display.
• New controller.
• Tubes.
• Flate repair kit
• some spare nuts and bolts

Summary: I am happy I purchased this bike. I'm excited to ride it every morning, I like the way it looks and feels while I'm riding it. I've found the range to be good, and the bike has great power. It's stable and comfortable, and I feel like has decent features. However, the 'upgrades' in the 2.0 are half-baked. The hydraulic brakes are nice, as is the extended range, but the NFC being defeated so easily is really weak. The e-shifter controls are poorly placed, and I feel like the bike needs better gear settings for the motor. I hope the frame holds up long term, and maybe Cycrown can work with me on some of the issues I've found with the 2.0.

Right now I would recommend the Cycrown Cychunter 2.0, but advise people to really do their research since there are some significant flaws. A lot of the issues I discussed are nowhere to be found in other reviews, so hopefully this adds to the body of literature on this ebike.

I'll post a follow up review at the end of summer before going into fall to let you know how it's held up to my commute and general use.

Blurred some things out (didn't want my Glock to make this a NSFW post). I also removed my company name and logo from the second image.