Giant Road E+ 1

[TyrannosaurusTreks]

Again, Has it just stopped working, screen fading?
Edit: Oh i see, you can't switch it off again.

This came on yesterday after 6 miles, think it must of been the sunshine .
I can turn it off & the screen went back to normal then.
Shop said it looks like dead pixels & will put a claim in.

 

[TyrannosaurusTreks]

Bummer. Do you store the bike in an unheated outdoor shed? Just wondering if the cold is getting to it...

Oh, and speaking of the screen. I was wondering about the "Service" icon (you know the one that looks like a wrench / spanner). Is this something that just pops up every xyz miles to remind you to do regular maintenance or will it appear only when there is a more acute problem (dealer no help)? Anyone seen it pop up on their screen yet?

The bike is stored in my garage unheated, Giant had a batch of controllers that Were tested & found where cables went in water was creeping in.
It’s not been out in the wet though?.
The spanner light will come on when a service is needed, bit like a car.

,

 

[Woolyhatcheck]

So I erred on the side of caution ensuring I could charge battery before return. I drove in Wed morn cycled home in eve. 19.2 m around 1000ft climbing and stonv tailwind used 23% battery. Recharged at home then rode in Thursday 19.8m 2000+ft ascent some v steep with strong head wind used 58%.
Both rides using variety of modes but power up steepest hills.
So it should certainly be possible - there is a shorter route but more traffic.(Up winnats pass) So will try that next.

Anyone worked out if its possible to change settings on controller to account for different tyre size??
I think I can get my 29 x 2.2 ardent in fork and something only slightly smaller at back - there is a gravel track option on my commute too!

 

[Pale Rider]

So I erred on the side of caution ensuring I could charge battery before return. I drove in Wed morn cycled home in eve. 19.2 m around 1000ft climbing and stonv tailwind used 23% battery. Recharged at home then rode in Thursday 19.8m 2000+ft ascent some v steep with strong head wind used 58%.
Both rides using variety of modes but power up steepest hills.
So it should certainly be possible - there is a shorter route but more traffic.(Up winnats pass) So will try that next.

Anyone worked out if its possible to change settings on controller to account for different tyre size??
I think I can get my 29 x 2.2 ardent in fork and something only slightly smaller at back - there is a gravel track option on my commute too!

Sounds doable, which is good.

Ebike batteries tend to give pretty much full range straight away, but you might get a bit more out of it after it has been through a handful of charge/recharge cycles.

Does the bike have a 400wh or 500wh battery?

Worth having a think about tyres, the easier they roll the more range you will get.

 

[kcflyer1957]

Bummer. Do you store the bike in an unheated outdoor shed? Just wondering if the cold is getting to it...

Oh, and speaking of the screen. I was wondering about the "Service" icon (you know the one that looks like a wrench / spanner). Is this something that just pops up every xyz miles to remind you to do regular maintenance or will it appear only when there is a more acute problem (dealer no help)? Anyone seen it pop up on their screen yet?

I had the service icon come on once. In my case, the spoke with the magnet sensor on it broke. When the bike shop repaired it, they failed to put the magnet back on. It senses it very quickly and turns the icon on. I've got 1,000 miles on mine and that's the only time I've had the wrench icon turn on. Bike also behaves very erratically when that little magnet is missing.

 

[proton666]

It senses it very quickly and turns the icon on. I've got 1,000 miles on mine and that's the only time I've had the wrench icon turn on. Bike also behaves very erratically when that little magnet is missing.

Kinda thought this was the case as I too have nearly 1000 miles and have never seen it come on. Every 350 to 500 is when I do things like rotate the tires, check spoke tension, crank bolt, break wear, inspect chain, etc. on my non-ebikes. Maybe these new fangled bikes don't need that as often.

Yeah... I got so paranoid about tossing a magnet that I carry an extra one in my saddle bag just in case (along with one of everything else... lol).

 

[Country Bumpkin]

Hello another newbie here. I bought a Road E+1 last year and have been enjoying reading your posts, so thought I would join and share some of my experiences.

I have a 30 mile commute (60 mile round trip) that I like to do on my bike at least once a week. I used to do it on my normal road bike (Giant Defy 3) but I found the return trip too much after a full day’s work. Mainly because I’d been on my feet all day but also because the trip in too work (heading east) starts with a whole bunch of big climbs followed by flats with some long but very minor declines. This means on the way home (west)I’m hit with relentless slight inclines with very little chance to build up any pace (this is also made worse by the fact I always seem to hit headwinds in this direction), so I don’t cycle as much as I should.

Then, one day a friend of mine called around with his new electric bike! “Wow” I thought, “what sort of range can you get?” about 60 miles (he claimed) which got me thinking.

So I started to look at what bikes were available on the market and came across the Giant Road E+1, it looked amazing…. then I saw the price!

I thought to myself and can’t see the wife being happy with me spending that amount on a bike.

Well, one afternoon my wife walked in on me looking at videos on YouTube, “videos of the Giant Road E Bike!!!!” and I explained to her what it was and that they were quite expensive. To my amazement she turned round and said “well it would make the difference between you cycling and not cycling to work”. That sounds like a green light to me! (I thought), I’d better get the balls rolling before she changes her mind.

There are no Giant dealers anywhere near me so I was not able to trial one, so I looked on line, found a really good deal and made the purchase.

And here’s what I thought:

The bike looks amazing compared to other electric/hybrid bikes, it’s about 10kg lighter than my mate’s electric bike. The weight distribution (compared the E bikes with hub motors and rear rack mounted batteries) is good in my opinion. I think the bike handles very well when whizzing downhill (probably because of the low down weight). It has a comfortable ride position, well once I replaced the saddle that looked like some stealth fighter printed in plastic on a 3D printer (it was a hard ride!). I even managed 52 miles on my first outing (I headed out on eco then returned on normal). The only negative was the stupid 15.5mph limit, which in my opinion made the bike kind of pointless. I could easily exceed those speeds on my road bike. On my Defy 3 I would take around 1h 40 mins on my 30 mile commute, averaging around 18mph. my record was 1h 28mins (approx. 20.5mph). Given the fact that the road E is around 12-14kg heavier than my Defy 3, I reckoned that the commute was going to be no quicker.

I’d heard of the derestriction packages that were on the market but I’d been a little reluctant at first due to possible warranty issues, but after reading lots of reviews etc. I decided to take the plunge (after all the bike was just going to end up being sold or sat in the garage).

I opted for the Speed Box 2 which sits nicely inside the motor casing out of site and can be switched on or off from the control buttons and the handle bar.

This means if Mr Plod ever decides to show an interest there are no visible modifications (like the Badass tuning box that sits on the rear arm) and it can be switched back to standard with the press of a button.

My verdict?

Now the bike has come into its own.

Let’s be honest Yamaha didn’t designed this motor for one market (UK 15.5mph), they designed it to work through its whole range and assist with up to 80nm of torque. And there must be software to govern and protect the motor when under load. I read report of a guy who’s done over 1000miles in the Alps on his derestricted Road E.

Any way back my commute, it now takes me a very repeatable 1h 15mins each way and I have now made the commute for four working days in a row. Some people think I’m cheating by riding an E bike but I explain to them that I still put in the same effort as I would on my road bike, I just go a little quicker and take a little less time.

There are certain flats on the way to work where I would be doing 22mph I’m now doing 27-32mph and I’ve worked it out that I’m now averaging around 24mph.

The only drawback now is that I’m constantly running in the top two gears (11 and the one below 12?) Now I’m pretty sure 11 is as small as you can go on the rear cassette so I’m wondering if I can increase the size of the front chain ring.


So here’s my question:

Is it possible to get a 54t chain ring for the FSA custom chain set? The current ring looks to be more heavy duty than my current road bike (this might be due to the increased loads) any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated


Thanks for taking the time to read my story and I’m looking forward to further conversations.

 

[TyrannosaurusTreks]

Glad your enjoying the road e, not sure on the chainring, as to the speed box what battery life are you getting as when I reversed the speed sensor I did a 37 mile run averaging 20mph & When I got home I only had 10% left.

 

[Foghat]

Is it possible to get a 54t chain ring for the FSA custom chain set? The current ring looks to be more heavy duty than my current road bike (this might be due to the increased loads) any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated

You may find the following of some use, which relates to the 2016 Road E+1. The frame on the 2017 version was I think virtually identical, but the new 2018 Road E+1 Pro has a re-designed frame, so may have a different chainstay design.

I too find the 50t chainring too small, particularly during non-winter months when I ride quite a bit faster on both e-bikes and non-e-bikes. I therefore decided to investigate the options for fitting a larger chainring.

On close examination of the space available between the 50t ring and the chainstay, I could see it was going to be touch and go whether a larger ring would even fit, due to the way the chainstay flares outwards immediately past the outer ring's teeth. I nevertheless thought there was a fighting chance a 52t ring would fit IF I also fitted some chainring spacers to offset the 52t ring outwards to help ensure that the teeth cleared the flaring chainstay.

It was a very close-run thing, but when I did the first phase of my proof-of-concept testing, I found the 52t ring JUST cleared the chainstay when 1.2mm chainring spacers are used. I severely doubt whether a 54t ring will fit on the 2016/2017 frames, unless VERY thick chainring spacers and possibly longer chainring bolts are used, but have no idea for the 2018 frame which I suppose may have better teeth-chainstay clearance.

Watch out for FSA chainring designs and availability. I could not find any outer chainrings on the internet that visually matched the ring fitted as standard to the Road E+1. Giant shops can source matching 50t/34t sets though, but they ain't cheap. So I went for the FSA Unisex Pro Road N10/11 110BCD Chainring ('Unisex' - how ridiculous!). However, this has a different (thinner) bolthole thickness and teeth-offset (i.e. dishing) compared with the fitted 50t ring, meaning the use of chainring spacers of some kind becomes essential anyway.

For this experiment, I established that 1.2mm was the minimum spacer thickness needed to clear the chainstay. I haven't actually ridden the 52t ring yet, as I only tested clearance in the workstand before removing the 52t again for the winter, so don't know how shifting between rings may be affected by changing the ring separation. I'm not too bothered if shifting is compromised, as I only use the 34t ring for 10 metres at the start and 10 metres at the finish of my commute, spending the whole of the ride in the big ring, even the steep hills.

I may of course find, when I eventually test-ride the 52t set-up, that whilst the teeth cleared the chainstay during static testing in the workstand the forces going through the chainset during riding may flex it enough to mean the teeth do make contact with the chainstay, in which case switching to thicker (e.g. 2.0mm) chainring spacers may provide enough clearance. I've got various sets of spacers from SJS Cycles to play with: chainring spacers

If you do experiment, please report back on the results!

 

[proton666]

Well, one afternoon my wife walked in on me looking at videos on YouTube, “videos of the Giant Road E Bike

lol... got busted watching cycle porn eh? Well welcome. We all do it. I'm in the US so I get assisted up to 27MPH. They must do something to regulate the battery draw better than the speed box because I get very good battery life. Just today I did 33 miles with 3700 feet of climbing, averaged 17.8 MPH and got home with 41% left. Normaled all hills.

Can't answer the chainring question but would also like to know this too.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

I think you guys in the US are running at 500 watts of drive, we in Europe are only running 250 watts of drive so theoretically we should have twice the range.

Regarding the motors, I think I read that Giant say the US motor is 500 Watts and the European version is 250W, now I'm no expert but I've been and electro-mechanical engineer now for 28 years and it would surprise me if Yamaha were to make two versions of the drive system (mechanically). It would make more sense to produce one model and control its performance with software.

According to the speed box dongle specifications my drive system will in theory assist to 61 mph but it will never achieve this for several reasons (In my opinion!).

Once you exceed a certain cadence (or caydence for you US readers) the power drops off. And because of the gear ratio 50 to 11 (top gear) this is achieved at around 35 mph (downhill).

Plus 250 watts isn’t a great deal of added oomff at that ratio.

I find myself topping out on the flats at around 32 mph and that’s with 100% leg effort!

I’m running on the 11t at the rear and to be honest I probably couldn’t push a much higher gear on the flats it’s on the down hills I could do with more.

So that’s one reason why I wish to alter the gear ratio. I can hit 45 – 50mph on my road bike (defy 3) going down the same hills.

Another reason I which to change the front ring is to reduce the strain on the chain and rear cassette. My thinking is that all that force from my legs and motor is being transferred into 11 teeth on the rear cassette. If I change to a 54t chainring I could run the same ratio with the chain positioned around the middle of the cassette and only going on to the 11t on down hills where the applied forces are greatly reduced.

Moving on.., I racked up nearly 300 miles last week and the bike, motor and my legs are all doing fine….. It’s my backside (or “BUTT!” for you American readers) that’s paying the price. I normally where a pair of cycling shorts with a built in gel pad, but given the resent British weather, -2°C this morning (28.4°F) I’ve taken to wearing my cycling bib tights/trousers (“Pants!”) with my short over the top. The problem is my shorts keep slipping forward or backwards and I can’t be arsed (pardon the pun) to keep stopping to fix the issue. I’ve read that some cyclist don’t even wear underwear under there padded cycling shorts/trousers because of the issue of slippage, but that would mean investing in enough outfits to cover every day of my commute (too much money).

So I’ve found a site making padded boxer shorts (underwear) the pads are on the outside of the shorts which in all intent and purposes looks like a baboon’s arse! but hey who's going to see them. They weren’t a great deal of money so I thought I’d give them a go, the idea being that if they work I could afford a pair for every day of my commute. Has anyone tried these before or have any other tips on how I could reduce my suffering?!

 

[sight-pin]

I think I read that Giant say the US motor is 500 Watts and the European version is 250W

Your correct by the looks of this https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/road-eplus-1, never noticed the difference before.

I don't wear underpants under cycling shorts as they tend to ride up and cut into my privates. I do wear a pair of cargo shorts over the cycling shorts though mainly for the pockets they're handy for my phone etc: But i only ride for fun.

 

[sight-pin]

I can hit 45 – 50mph on my road bike (defy 3) going down the same hills.

I would of thought your'd be slightly faster on the e-bike down hill being as a much heavier bike. Silly question i know but are the wheels binding in any way, tyre pressure etc. I assume a similar wind direction upon the comparison? Free wheeling down hill i'm faster on the e-bike.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

Glad your enjoying the road e, not sure on the chainring, as to the speed box what battery life are you getting as when I reversed the speed sensor I did a 37 mile run averaging 20mph & When I got home I only had 10% left.

Sounds about right, I have a 30 mile commute and I run the bike on "normal" and depending on the temperature (because this can affect the battery) and how much effort I’m putting in myself, and wind conditions etc. etc. etc. I get to work with around 20% remaining although the other day when I road in at -2°C I was down to 5% a mile from work so had to drop to “Eco”.

I just take my charger with me to work and charge it under my desk (normally takes around 4-5 hours)

 

[Country Bumpkin]

I would of thought your'd be slightly faster on the e-bike down hill being as a much heavier bike. Silly question i know but are the wheels binding in any way, tyre pressure etc. I assume a similar wind direction upon the comparison? Free wheeling down hill i'm faster on the e-bike.

I hear what you’re saying. I'd expect the heavier bike to go quicker as well, but I guess it’s because in both instances I’m not just freewheeling I’m peddling and I believe the E bikes gear ratio is lower than Defy 3