1 month of ownership tomorrow for my Giant Revolt E 2020...my 1st e-bike.
It was googling the Revolt that found this thread, and it was reading this thread that convinced me the Revolt was a good fit to my requirements (mostly pavement commuting and getting back into social group rides with friendlies that will tolerate an e-biker
).
I don't have any experience to compare my Revolt with other e-bikes other than some short test rides of an Orbea hub drive and a Focus mid drive - neither of which had the boost I was seeking to give my knees a break on Brisbane hills.
The Revolt has the Yamaha PX2 motor, with 80Nm of torque and up to 360% boost - which I've found to be plenty to haul me up Brisbane's steepest streets!
On my acoustic bike (which has a 38T small front chain ring and 28T largest cog on the back), I've been avoiding hills for a long time to save my creaky knees.
Since owning the Revolt, hilariously I've sought out Brisbane hills to see what it can drag me up
...
Before getting an e-bike I did consider putting easier gears on my acoustic, ie swapping the crank set for a compact setup, and getting a longer throw derailleur to run a bigger tooth rear cassette...
...At the last chain replacement on my acoustic I did swap from a 25T to a 28T largest cog on the rear cassette - a 12% reduction in gearing...which helped quite a bit on my commute...but lower gearing was never going to help me to participate in a group ride again.
Riding my Revolt e-bike has been a revelation - it's totally brought the "fun" back to cycle commuting, which has steadily declined from "fun" to a "chore" over the last 5 years or so as I get older and my knees get creakier.
The 375Wh battery in my Revolt suits me fine.
The range is enough for my commute including a social ride on the way to work...and coming from a carbon acoustic I'm happy with the weight reduction of the smaller battery.
Before I found the Giant Revolt, the other option I'd found was the Cannondale Topstone Neo Carbon 4, at the eye watering price of AUD$8,700 - no way I could justify that expense
.
I've always found Giant bicycles to be excellent "bang for buck" - and on finding the Giant Revolt E+ Pro '20 on the interweb @ AUD$5,700, (the Cannondale being > 50% more expensive), I went searching for Revolts available in Brisbane.
I work in the city, so my 1st stop was the Brisbane Giant store - they only had a medium and a large Revolt in stock, and to their credit advised I would need an XL...
...and they couldn't order an XL as no more Revolt 2020 models were available from Giant (AU)...only the floor stock at bike shops...they advised me to get on the phone and check stock at other Brisbane bike shops...
...bikeexchange.com.au showed me what stock the other Brisbane Giant stores had...and Giant Ashgrove (not too far from me) had an XL in stock...
...I dropped in the next day to the Giant Ashgrove store to take a Revolt for a test ride...I said I was interested in test riding a Giant Revolt in size XL, the sales guy said, "you're lucky - the XL is the last one of those in the shop"
.
The Ashgrove Giant bike shop happens to be on the top of a hill, with some typical steep Brisbane suburban hills back to the top...1 loop in Giant's "Active" mode (still 2 higher boost modes available) was enough to demonstrate to me that the Revolt had
way more boost available than the previous Orbea or Focus e-bikes I'd tried in their max boost modes...and dragged me up the hill so easily...I was sold!
...I got back to the bike shop so quickly the sales guy thought something had gone wrong...he actually said, "I thought something was wrong until I saw your e-bike grin"...
The sales guy had brought their Park bike scales out - by hand the Revolt measured a wobbly but always < 20kg weight...
...a done deal from my perspective!...I put a deposit down to hold it.
It took me a few weeks to gather the cash to pick the bike up...my dad took pity on me and lent me the final instalment...I had just ridden to work on my acoustic when dad called and told me he'd transferred the $ to my account...of course I rang the bike shop and paid the remainder to have the bike ready for pickup the same day...
...at the end of the work day I took a bus to the Ashgrove Giant store and picked up my new Revolt e-bike for the ride home...amazing ride...including "cruising" up the steep street I live on that I've ridden around for the last 5 years or so...
...my acoustic is still at work in the same spot I parked it on the day I picked up my Revolt...
My Revolt is amazing - as I said above, it's brought the fun back to my cycle commuting.
It's got me out on weekend rides again just 'cos it's fun like it used to be before age and creaky knees made my cycling not fun anymore...
Of course lots of e-bikes might be as good as my Giant Revolt...I wouldn't know...
All I can say is that the Giant Revolt E+ '20 e-bike absolutely rocks!
cheers
Mike
