2020 Giant 375Wh batteries

[ghukins]

I just test rode a 2020 Revolt E+ Pro in Ephrata, PA. ( Shout out to Martins Bike shop - outstanding!!!!) The bike was wonderful. It handled like a road bike, despite the wide gravel tires. Very reactive, unlike a Cannondale Synapse Neo SE that I rode last year. Reasonably light weight and very comfortable. With a 1X setup, the shifting was great. The motor worked seamlessly and hardly made a sound - I love this motor! I was ready to buy and take it home until I realized I had done a 9 mile test ride on moderately hilly terrain which included two half mile, 10% climbs and was returning to the shop with 62% battery left. It indicated I had 28 miles left. That's a total of 37 miles! I rode the bike in Auto (like Bosch's emtb mode) for the whole ride. The ride extender, available by the end of next week, would have to be used all the time for our group rides in NJ. That takes away a water bottle cage!
To me it seems that Giant went from 500wh to 375 to lower the cost of the bike, but virtually everyone will need the extender adding about $300 back to the bike. I would far rather pay a few hundred more and get decent range and save my bottle cage. If Giant would come out with a 500 or 625 in tube option, I would buy the bike immediately. I think the 375 strategy is a fail.

Court, have you had experience with these and do you have any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Captain Slow]

A lot of people have felt the same way. I had my eye on a 2020 Road-E until I realized it was only a 375 wh battery.

So I looked elsewhere and bought a Creo which has a 320 wh battery! I was hesitant about the relatively small battery but I read a review in Road Bike Action about how the motor in the Creo was very efficient. I was still skeptical but then I read about owner experiences on this forum and found Creo owners were getting pretty good range. So I bit the bullet, took a small leap of faith and became a Creo owner.

Two days ago I rode the Creo to work, took the afternoon off and took the long way home. I ended up riding 61.4 km's (I previously erroneously said 70 km's) and that used 138 wh of battery, so I had a lot of battery left when I got home. I would have had enough battery to easily do a 100 km ride.

I posted elsewhere that part of the reason I'm getting so much range is that I'm not a very fast rider. If I were faster that would use the battery more quickly because the motor looks at rider power and puts out a % of the riders power. Now you can infinitely tune that, so you can always get more range if you're willing to do more of the work.

But I suppose my point is it's best to look at the real world experience of actual owners. Your test ride is one data point and maybe not indicative of what your long-term experience would be if you bought the bike.

Despite the range I'm getting I might still get the range extender because I ride with some friends who used to be fast racers and to keep up with them requires a lot more battery power.

If Giant produced the Road-E with a 625 wh battery I could see myself buying one.