I bought one of these a week or two ago and thought I would post a short review of my experience so far.
I'm 64, 88kg and occasionally tour on a regular touring bike with about 35lbs of luggage. When touring I'll do 50-55 miles a day for 10-15 days. I have a high natural cadence and normally push low gears. I live in a fairly hilly place, and I'm soon to move to a house about 400ft higher and a few miles further away from places I regularly visit than I am now. So I want something for hills, really.
I had tried out a few different bikes, including a Raleigh front hub model, a Kahlhoff with a bottom bracket motor and a Trek fitted with a Bionx rear hub. Weight was a problem with Kahlhoff especially, but they all provided a power boost, as you'd expect.
What attracted me initially to the Giant was the low gearing. I really enjoyed the test ride and since it was heavily discounted and on zero interest credit, I bought it.
I switched out the pedals for SPD/platform ones and the plastic razor saddle for an old comfortable one I had lying around. I added bar ends and a Topeak seatpost beam rack.
For my first rides, I did a few local climbs varying from a few percent to maybe 8 or 9%, on tarmac and gravel. It was enjoyable and way less effort than unaided, bit as I'm sure everyone here knows, you have to put in an appreciable effort yourself, so I felt I'd had a workout.
Charging, which I've only done once so far, took about 3 hours from 20% to full.
I thought I'd stretch the battery a bit, so I put about 12lbs of luggage on the back and set off for a longer ride. Thst made the total weight similar to a touring set up for me.
The route was fairly flat for the first 10 miles or so, then a few hills before going off road on undulating mud and gravel tracks. To give you an idea of the hills, top speed going down was 32mph, and you can't pedal this bike faster than about 22mph because of the low top gear.
For the first 31 miles, I was parsimonious with the assist - lot of the time Off, some Eco and only using Normal or Sport on hills. Basically I used what I felt I needed; that consumed about 29% of the 400wh battery.
Then a break for lunch, after which I'm normally a bit sluggish, but not on this bike!
For the return on similar terrain (but only 24 miles to give a total of 55 miles for the trip, total ascent about 1900ft) I had the assist set to Sport almost all the time.
By the time I finished, the battery was down to 7% (and it went down very quickly from 11% to 7%, given that the last mile or so was only very gentle uphill).
---------------------------------
What I've learnt -
I really like this bike, but/and I don't want to give up unassisted cycling either.
I definitely get a decent amount of exercise if I climb any hills at all, and I do feel as if I'm cycling.
I can get away with about 1% battery use per mile if I'm careful.
If I'm carefree instead, I use about 2.7% battery per mile, which still gives a range of about 37 miles.
Choosing the right gear is different to on an unassisted bike. As a lifelong cyclist, I have the automatic reaction to change down as I approach a hill and that's not necessarily the right thing to do with this bike. Most of the time I'm in top gear or almost there; actually, most of the time I don't really know what gear I'm in, but when I look it's top or near.
I'll be grateful for the very low gears on the day I miscalculate the range and have to pedal home unassisted up that hill.
-------------------
Pros
Pretty much all the above.
Cons
Difficult to add full panniers or mudguards.
The bars are ridiculously wide for my purposes; I'll cut them down one of these days.
Hope this is helpful to someone,
David
I'm 64, 88kg and occasionally tour on a regular touring bike with about 35lbs of luggage. When touring I'll do 50-55 miles a day for 10-15 days. I have a high natural cadence and normally push low gears. I live in a fairly hilly place, and I'm soon to move to a house about 400ft higher and a few miles further away from places I regularly visit than I am now. So I want something for hills, really.
I had tried out a few different bikes, including a Raleigh front hub model, a Kahlhoff with a bottom bracket motor and a Trek fitted with a Bionx rear hub. Weight was a problem with Kahlhoff especially, but they all provided a power boost, as you'd expect.
What attracted me initially to the Giant was the low gearing. I really enjoyed the test ride and since it was heavily discounted and on zero interest credit, I bought it.
I switched out the pedals for SPD/platform ones and the plastic razor saddle for an old comfortable one I had lying around. I added bar ends and a Topeak seatpost beam rack.
For my first rides, I did a few local climbs varying from a few percent to maybe 8 or 9%, on tarmac and gravel. It was enjoyable and way less effort than unaided, bit as I'm sure everyone here knows, you have to put in an appreciable effort yourself, so I felt I'd had a workout.
Charging, which I've only done once so far, took about 3 hours from 20% to full.
I thought I'd stretch the battery a bit, so I put about 12lbs of luggage on the back and set off for a longer ride. Thst made the total weight similar to a touring set up for me.
The route was fairly flat for the first 10 miles or so, then a few hills before going off road on undulating mud and gravel tracks. To give you an idea of the hills, top speed going down was 32mph, and you can't pedal this bike faster than about 22mph because of the low top gear.
For the first 31 miles, I was parsimonious with the assist - lot of the time Off, some Eco and only using Normal or Sport on hills. Basically I used what I felt I needed; that consumed about 29% of the 400wh battery.
Then a break for lunch, after which I'm normally a bit sluggish, but not on this bike!
For the return on similar terrain (but only 24 miles to give a total of 55 miles for the trip, total ascent about 1900ft) I had the assist set to Sport almost all the time.
By the time I finished, the battery was down to 7% (and it went down very quickly from 11% to 7%, given that the last mile or so was only very gentle uphill).
---------------------------------
What I've learnt -
I really like this bike, but/and I don't want to give up unassisted cycling either.
I definitely get a decent amount of exercise if I climb any hills at all, and I do feel as if I'm cycling.
I can get away with about 1% battery use per mile if I'm careful.
If I'm carefree instead, I use about 2.7% battery per mile, which still gives a range of about 37 miles.
Choosing the right gear is different to on an unassisted bike. As a lifelong cyclist, I have the automatic reaction to change down as I approach a hill and that's not necessarily the right thing to do with this bike. Most of the time I'm in top gear or almost there; actually, most of the time I don't really know what gear I'm in, but when I look it's top or near.
I'll be grateful for the very low gears on the day I miscalculate the range and have to pedal home unassisted up that hill.
-------------------
Pros
Pretty much all the above.
Cons
Difficult to add full panniers or mudguards.
The bars are ridiculously wide for my purposes; I'll cut them down one of these days.
Hope this is helpful to someone,
David
