Giant Prime Hybrid help needed

Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Hi everyone

I bought a Giant Prime Hybrid from Saint Luke’s Hospice on e bay .

It has the Mid Drive Yamaha motor

They are not now allowed to sell me the SH battery or a PAC tested charger.

I thought when I went to pick it up I may have been able to find a way to get it no luck though.

I do not want to spend 600 odd quid on replacement’s.

Does any one know a HL or other half decent after market new battery can be fitted and is it worth the effort. ?

at the moment I am trying to sell the motor to get my money back and them sell the rest of it in bits.

If I can fix it I will sell my wife’s pendalton Somerby and keep it as it’s a better bike I think !!!

pls see photos

Its on sale on here eBay and the Gumtree

Cheers

Baz
 

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saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,851
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Telford
Generally, you can only use the Giant stuff on Giant bikes because they use a special version of Yamaha, so Yamaha stuff won't work, neither will the Yamaha hacks. You need to find out if yours is a natural Yamaha system. If it is, you can use a hack to fit a standard Chinese battery.
 
Last edited:
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
That’s a good piece of kit .

How do I find out if it’s a natural Yamaha motor ?
And then will the controller be Yamaha
I am assuming that the controller is part of the motor ?

Do I need to take the motor off and open it up ?
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Without looking in the motor The Yamaha Motor has Yamaha brand on it
However the battery is a Giant Brand Pylion made in china is that any help ?
 

chris_n

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 29, 2016
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Niedeau, Austria
You should be able to find some answers here https://www.pedelecforum.de/forum/index.php?forums/yamaha.46/
The site is in German but you can use the translate function on most browsers. Look at the reverse engineering thread or the threads that are highlighted Giant. There is one Hungarian guy on the reverse engineering thread who has some experience with Giant, you will be able to find him as he usually posts in English, you could ask him for help.
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Thanks Chris
I just got back from the pub so I will have a look over the weekend .

I just bought a volt meter to have a look at the dishwasher I think I am very interested in doing an electronics courses .
Any advise one one to do one that helps with motors and building batteries ? Would be welcome
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,919
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the batt and motor are can bus locked nothing 3rd party will work with it and no way to hack it either as giant use the yamaha motor but make there own bms and motor controllers displays.

the og yamaha motors use uart programming and a hack chip can be used but not on the giant stuff.
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
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6,516
can you have the batt and charger if you pick it up as most bike shops wont even post batts that big?
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Thanks SW .
I have the motor on sale so I will tell any interested parties they must use it with the correct battery.

I called up the charity I am actually a registered business B&S Autos used to sell vans.

So I need to find a legal way to advise the charity on how they can sell me the original battery and charger any thoughts ?

I thinking get the items to a battery tester and get a recognised safety certificate that it is working properly with no faults and its general condition would be the way to go , it would also help with the sale of the bike.

Option Two is to sell the motor for spare parts and then the rest of the bike in bits. I have ended up doing this with a Carrera Vengence it works well with this brand as they are so popular and the spares are expensive.

I will have to change my Handel on here to

” Baz The Bike Breaker “

Cheers
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Fed Ex is One of the only courier companies that will ship batteries but you must be a business and have an agreement set up with them like YOSE has .

The Battery and Charger are in South End so not to far for me to run about if I have too .

If I can find an open and fully legal way to deal with this , it will help them too with future sales as they get e bikes donated and now they can not raise the market value because of the new regulations.

I would like to try help them out my dad used Saint Luke’s Hospice 3 times before he passed.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,851
3,173
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Fed Ex is One of the only courier companies that will ship batteries but you must be a business and have an agreement set up with them like YOSE has .

The Battery and Charger are in South End so not to far for me to run about if I have too .

If I can find an open and fully legal way to deal with this , it will help them too with future sales as they get e bikes donated and now they can not raise the market value because of the new regulations.

I would like to try help them out my dad used Saint Luke’s Hospice 3 times before he passed.
Only a Giant dealer would have the necessary equipment to test the battery, and I bet many of them wouldn't be able to do it.
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Oh so when these charity’s get donated good e bikes they have to scrap the batteries what a shame for them to have to do this and lose money.
I seen some companies on e bay offering a battery testing service have you seen them ?
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,851
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Telford
However I suppose Giant can recondition them as Halfords do I wonder what this entails ?
You can't recondition a Giant battery, and I don't believe Halfords can recondition their batteries either. There are people, who can re-cell some sorts of batteries, but I don't know who you can trust to do it properly.

The best thing for you would be to get the battery and charger from the shop. There's nothing they can do with them. Offer to write them a disclaimer so that they have no liability. There would be no liability anyway if they give it to you FOC. Explain to them that the battery is locked to the bike by software and you can't use any other one, so the bike is useless without it.

There's also the possibility that the bike uses standard Yamaha stuff. You need to contact Giant or a Giant dealer and ask them about that.
 
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Jul 17, 2024
94
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Ok thanks mate ,
I have tried to do this with them ie lots of angles but they are frightened of any come backs .

It nonsense really they said even if they get a brand new batt donated they can not re sell it !

I think they are going well over the top with the rules and how they are applying them .

but I will try on Monday Both things
 

chris_n

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 29, 2016
737
441
63
Niedeau, Austria
I think I would be telling them without the battery and charger you can't take the bike. When you buy a new ebike it comes complete with battery and charger so second hand should be the same.
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,919
6,516
the batt is prob worth more than the motor so there throwing money down the drain a 500w bosch one is 700 quid and 150 for a charger
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
I have had to strip and sell 2 x Carreras because e bay will not let me sell batterys attached to bikes even with a business account.

These are expensive CE components with .

The original replacment Gint Battery and charger is £700.00 I see some china companies are now making after market stuff that fits locked motors and batte7but they have to have the demand to do it .

we always go OTT in this country with everything.

that said I always try to recharge out side and I have a good powder fire extinguisher in my kitchen a big one
 
Jul 17, 2024
94
5
Yes I would happily put a whole new Bafang or other cheap kit on this SH bike but the only bit left is the motor and it’s proving to be a hard sell.