Purchased From: Fulford Cycles (via ebay)
Purchase Price: £1100 (List £1699)
Time Owned: 2 months (600 miles)
Local Terrain: Mainly flat, but windy
Background: I’m nearly 50, and I’ve been cycling to work 10 miles each way for an average of three days a week; it would have been more if it hadn’t been for the amount of wind we get here in Blackpool.
We do have a handful of hills, of which a couple are surprisingly hard work; they can be avoided by choosing another route, but that means options become limited.
My hope was that an electric bike would mean I could cycle more often, and not be completely exhausted by the end of the week, while still getting a decent amount of exercise.
This bike has a Sanyo front hub motor (like all the Giants I believe), 36v 10AH battery and Shimano Nexus 7-speed gears.
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Strengths:
Very sturdy build quality.
Nexus hub gears (would prefer Alfine though).
Built-in lights.
Smooth ride.
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Weaknesses:
Price: I would never have paid list.
Brakes: a bit weak.
Springy pedal feel.
Wide pedal spacing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary:
This is my first pedelec and as such it’s a revelation simply because of what it is; it’s converted me to the cause even though it probably isn’t the best out there.
As a bike, it’s a solidly-built workhorse; even without the electrics it would be heavy, but it makes for a very smooth ride with no rattles whatsoever. Components seem to be good quality though most aren’t branded so it’s hard to tell; the bike just generally feels right. The forks, for instance, provide a well-controlled smooth ride without being bouncy. Wheels have remained true, and spoke tension is fine.
The gears are Shimano Nexus 7, in the rear hub; I already have an Alfine 8 bike and this feels similar except it uses a twistgrip instead of the Alfine triggers. I initially preferred a trigger shifter, but have found that the twistgrip allows me to shift up quickly as I often want to go from 1st to 4th in one shift.
Brakes I find to be a bit weak; I suspect this can be improved with new pads, but the terrain round here (Blackpool) means I don’t use them much anyway. My other bike has hydraulic discs, so it could just be that I’ve been spoiled.
All cables go through the frame, which is specific to the Twist range; generous openings at the headstock and bottom bracket give plenty of room and lend the bike a tidy appearance. The controller is on the rear rack and cables feed down a channel in the mudguard, before being fed into the frame at the bottom bracket. This means the mudguard is specific to the bike. One quirk of the cabling that I took a while to work out is that the connector for the front hub is actually inside the frame; you have to carefully pull it out to disconnect before you can remove the front wheel.
Lights are permanently fitted, the rear one being built into the battery casing; it looks neat, but presumably adds to the already expensive cost of a replacement battery. There’s also a frame lock (Abus Amparo) for which I’ve bought an extra cable so I can fix the bike to something using the same lock and key.
The chain’s part-enclosed, so trousers are protected and it doesn’t seem to pick muck up too badly (sand’s a big issue round here, and one reason I won’t entertain a derailleur for commuting). The chainwheel is fully enclosed, and contains the torque sensing mechanism which I assume uses springs in the cranks or bottom bracket.
Riding the bike is great; I usually just leave it in ‘Sport’ so that I can get quick acceleration – I seem to get a range of about 40 miles on this setting, so expect significantly more on ‘Normal’. Reaction to pedal pressure is almost instant and most of the time I don’t have to think about it; I have found, though, that it prefers a high cadence. Go up a hill in a high gear and it’ll occasionally cut out for a fraction of a second; drop down a gear and it’s smooth.
The assistance makes riding in traffic much easier, and headwinds are no longer a problem (it can get quite extreme on the promenade, so I avoid the worst of the wind by using an inland route).
Assistance begins to taper off at 15mph, but the motor doesn’t go into freewheel until around 17mph. As I’m already a reasonably fit cyclist I find my cruising speed is around the 15-17mph mark so I do tend to dip in and out of the assistance zone; sometimes it can be frustrating but I assume it’s the same for all legal ebikes, and at least this isn’t an abrupt cut-off. All in all it feels very well thought through.
The only glitch I’ve noticed was once when I was riding with a strong tailwind and somewhere between 25 and 30mph; the speedo suddenly went to zero and assistance didn’t kick in when I slowed down. However, after I came to a stop it seemed to start working again; it looked like a software issue to me, and hasn’t happened since.
The battery meter on the display doesn’t always read the same as that on the battery itself; the latter tends to read slightly lower. When I ran the battery down completely though, both meters were in step.
One thing I’m not so keen on is that the springy torque sensor in the crank makes the pedals feel mushy; I’ve got used to it and it’s only really an issue if I’m in a high gear or riding without power. Also related to the torque sensor is the fact that the pedals are further apart than I would like; not absurdly so, but noticeable when I switch bikes.
So far I’m chuffed; this is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and my poor motorbike hardly gets a look-in. It feels like it’s built to last, one downside of course is that I’ll be reliant on proprietary Giant parts.
I’ve rated the bike at 8 out of 10 because its list price is so high; at over £1600 I would be looking at a crank-drive bike. If it had been the £1100 that I actually paid I’d give it a 9.
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Overall Rating (out of 10) : 8
Purchase Price: £1100 (List £1699)
Time Owned: 2 months (600 miles)
Local Terrain: Mainly flat, but windy
Background: I’m nearly 50, and I’ve been cycling to work 10 miles each way for an average of three days a week; it would have been more if it hadn’t been for the amount of wind we get here in Blackpool.
We do have a handful of hills, of which a couple are surprisingly hard work; they can be avoided by choosing another route, but that means options become limited.
My hope was that an electric bike would mean I could cycle more often, and not be completely exhausted by the end of the week, while still getting a decent amount of exercise.
This bike has a Sanyo front hub motor (like all the Giants I believe), 36v 10AH battery and Shimano Nexus 7-speed gears.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Strengths:
Very sturdy build quality.
Nexus hub gears (would prefer Alfine though).
Built-in lights.
Smooth ride.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Weaknesses:
Price: I would never have paid list.
Brakes: a bit weak.
Springy pedal feel.
Wide pedal spacing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary:
This is my first pedelec and as such it’s a revelation simply because of what it is; it’s converted me to the cause even though it probably isn’t the best out there.
As a bike, it’s a solidly-built workhorse; even without the electrics it would be heavy, but it makes for a very smooth ride with no rattles whatsoever. Components seem to be good quality though most aren’t branded so it’s hard to tell; the bike just generally feels right. The forks, for instance, provide a well-controlled smooth ride without being bouncy. Wheels have remained true, and spoke tension is fine.
The gears are Shimano Nexus 7, in the rear hub; I already have an Alfine 8 bike and this feels similar except it uses a twistgrip instead of the Alfine triggers. I initially preferred a trigger shifter, but have found that the twistgrip allows me to shift up quickly as I often want to go from 1st to 4th in one shift.
Brakes I find to be a bit weak; I suspect this can be improved with new pads, but the terrain round here (Blackpool) means I don’t use them much anyway. My other bike has hydraulic discs, so it could just be that I’ve been spoiled.
All cables go through the frame, which is specific to the Twist range; generous openings at the headstock and bottom bracket give plenty of room and lend the bike a tidy appearance. The controller is on the rear rack and cables feed down a channel in the mudguard, before being fed into the frame at the bottom bracket. This means the mudguard is specific to the bike. One quirk of the cabling that I took a while to work out is that the connector for the front hub is actually inside the frame; you have to carefully pull it out to disconnect before you can remove the front wheel.
Lights are permanently fitted, the rear one being built into the battery casing; it looks neat, but presumably adds to the already expensive cost of a replacement battery. There’s also a frame lock (Abus Amparo) for which I’ve bought an extra cable so I can fix the bike to something using the same lock and key.
The chain’s part-enclosed, so trousers are protected and it doesn’t seem to pick muck up too badly (sand’s a big issue round here, and one reason I won’t entertain a derailleur for commuting). The chainwheel is fully enclosed, and contains the torque sensing mechanism which I assume uses springs in the cranks or bottom bracket.
Riding the bike is great; I usually just leave it in ‘Sport’ so that I can get quick acceleration – I seem to get a range of about 40 miles on this setting, so expect significantly more on ‘Normal’. Reaction to pedal pressure is almost instant and most of the time I don’t have to think about it; I have found, though, that it prefers a high cadence. Go up a hill in a high gear and it’ll occasionally cut out for a fraction of a second; drop down a gear and it’s smooth.
The assistance makes riding in traffic much easier, and headwinds are no longer a problem (it can get quite extreme on the promenade, so I avoid the worst of the wind by using an inland route).
Assistance begins to taper off at 15mph, but the motor doesn’t go into freewheel until around 17mph. As I’m already a reasonably fit cyclist I find my cruising speed is around the 15-17mph mark so I do tend to dip in and out of the assistance zone; sometimes it can be frustrating but I assume it’s the same for all legal ebikes, and at least this isn’t an abrupt cut-off. All in all it feels very well thought through.
The only glitch I’ve noticed was once when I was riding with a strong tailwind and somewhere between 25 and 30mph; the speedo suddenly went to zero and assistance didn’t kick in when I slowed down. However, after I came to a stop it seemed to start working again; it looked like a software issue to me, and hasn’t happened since.
The battery meter on the display doesn’t always read the same as that on the battery itself; the latter tends to read slightly lower. When I ran the battery down completely though, both meters were in step.
One thing I’m not so keen on is that the springy torque sensor in the crank makes the pedals feel mushy; I’ve got used to it and it’s only really an issue if I’m in a high gear or riding without power. Also related to the torque sensor is the fact that the pedals are further apart than I would like; not absurdly so, but noticeable when I switch bikes.
So far I’m chuffed; this is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and my poor motorbike hardly gets a look-in. It feels like it’s built to last, one downside of course is that I’ll be reliant on proprietary Giant parts.
I’ve rated the bike at 8 out of 10 because its list price is so high; at over £1600 I would be looking at a crank-drive bike. If it had been the £1100 that I actually paid I’d give it a 9.
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Overall Rating (out of 10) : 8
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