Crystalyte Updates Aplenty

Last month we received what was one of our largest sea shipments of Crystalyte motors to date, large because there were so many new motor models and enhancements to get us excited. Here is the short summary:

Crown motors with Normal Spoke Flange

Previously, the large Crown motors had a pseudo straight-pull spoke design which meant custom wheel builds or even run of the mill spoke replacement was a great inconvenience. Well no more, they’ve now been retooled with a regular flange taking standard spokes, giving freedom to custom lace at will.

Narrower Crown motors

As well, we’ve received a narrower version of the Crown motor with a 30mm wide stator, which allows it to fit in a 135mm bike dropout with a 7-8 speed freewheel (Normal Crown motors are really for 1 or 3 speed freewheels). Although that also means less power and torque than the 40mm Crown hubs, it makes for a much more rideable bike conversion.

NSM and narrow SAW motors for folding bikes

We’re also introducing two new motor series designed for the special requirements of folding bikes with 75mm fork dropouts and small diameter wheels.  The Crystalyte NSM motor is the smallest direct drive hub we have seen, and is ideal for Brompton and Tikit conversions with 200-300 watt assist levels. The 20mm SAW motor is larger in diameter for better torque, power, and efficiency, at the expense of a bit more weight. Both come with 75mm axles that are machined with 8mm axle flats for a drop-in fit on Brompton forks.  

The SAW motor we also have stocked in a larger 20” wheel suitable for the range of Dahon folders. We will be building more dedicated kit packages around these smaller wheels for easy installation with Brompton, Bike Friday Tikit, and Dahon bikes, but for now have the motors themselves available for those doing a DIY build.

Unlaced with Options

Finally we’ve increased the availability of motors stocked unlaced, including front and rear H series motors and the Crown hubs as well. This simplifies those doing custom wheel builds for fat tire bikes or rim matching, and reduces shipping cost significantly for overseas orders.  

For all of these new hubs, we’ve created full 3-D CAD models and also characterized their performance behavior and put them on the motor simulator page accordingly.

NSM CAD	SAW20 CAD	TC30 CAD	TC40 CAD

Battery Bags

We’ve also got a good stock of the Crystalyte rear trunk bag as a battery enclosure option for the Naked Allcell battery packs. This as a built-in wiring harness with an on/off switch, so that you don’t need to rely on unplugging and plugging connectors, and has sufficient ground and side padding to keep the heat-shrunk packs protected.