Giant SyncDrive Pro 2020 "tuning"

Yes, you have the original setup with the spoke magnet and chainstay sensor... so it is a simple setup with the BadA$$ box in under 30 seconds. 😉

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I had one on my Bosch and it worked great. I just needed a bit more top end on our training group rides so I had to go with Volspeed on that motor. But, big difference my particular Bosch motor had the wires easily accessed via the cover without dropping the motor and good enough room to install.
 
@Manu: @BenC has the 50T larger chainring and 11-32T cassette, 700x32c wheels. He can reach 28 mph or 45 km/h at cadence of 76. Ben's motor is SyncDrive Pro (Yamaha PW-X2).

So Ben needs to modify nothing, only to de-restrict his motor... (His e-bike and mine have identical motors and displays).
What a great technical thread you guys have here it has helped me allot !
Ordered a 48 chainring for it mine and with the 80nm motor I am seeing about 32 max on the flats. I only use that for pack dynamics and to get the HELL away from cars across busy stretches quickly. Anyway, it keeps me in my position at the back of the pack drafting where then the speeds can be for me up to about 35 sometimes on the flats.
I know because my volspeed Bosch 50nm motor I do every now and again on our REALLY fast training rides. The group dynamics on hills(rollers). When I was racing I would use my team issue Trek hardtail race rig on our fast group rides with a 44 max in front.....it wasn't easy. Pump up the tires like crazy and stay with them (I was very young and fit lol verses now lol) we would average about 25mph on our 50-100 mile rides and even hilly ones sometimes...no, i was not up front on those lol. Wow, a 50t that is badass ! Edit I just put on the 48 and I once knew this I guess my memory just faded. That xtr 44 in the front was really spinning almost like on a fixed gear try to stay in position on the flast.
This 48t on the ebike just tested rocks and stone cold cranks it out on the flats and small rollers. Glad the rear D's now have such a wide range so I should be able to still do my mountain high cog training.
 
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Hi all, I have just bought a Giant FastRoad E+ E Pro Hybrid. I wanted to pick your brains about the motor and de-restricting it.

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It is a 2020 model with the SyncDrive Pro motor. As far as I can see it uses the 'old' sensor type (sensor bolted onto the inside of the left-hand chain-stay with a magnet on the spokes). As far as I can see there is no sensor in the rear disc brake and only one cable going back to the rear wheel sensor. The display is the LCD RideControl EVO.

A link to the bike here: https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/5539/...pro-e-urban-hybrid-bike-2020-matte-black.aspx

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Standard sensor position

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Modified position

I used the magnet trick on another bike of mine, a Moustache MTB, with a Bosch Performance Line motor and it worked well.

So I then did this with the new Giant. It was working fine for 2 days but yesterday the display showed a Speed Sensor warning, so I shut down the power and rode home using the old-fashioned leg method.

Anyway, my questions are:

- Can this bike be derestricted with the magnet method?

- If not, which one of the tuning boxes do you recommend for this bike?

- Does the SyncDrive Pro motor also have another sensor in the motor itself? I wondered whether it threw the error because I was riding outside of its programmed parameters, ie my legs were going ten to the dozen, yet the speedo was reading the crank speed of, say 10mph and the computer said: Nope, you should be going faster than that, something fishy's going on here.

- Can I reset the bike's display / memory with an app?

Many thanks for your help.

Ben
2 weeks nother edit: Still perfect. 4/25/2021 (So this is a done deal now and with this particular motor SychDriveSport 2019 and first quarter 2021 firmware works fine and silly to drop the motor and do a volspeed for me. I am retired engineer and have no problem with doing that...for fun even.)
old Edit: Well still working but getting the magnet perfect the way I have it set up has been a problem. Once I do it is error free and hitting 30mph in my sprints like on my mechanical bike. 2 different 2+ hour rides and no codes.* (several times trying to get it right and it would throw codes. have learned if it throws code, look and see if magnet/sensor orientation has moved.) Just so you know the people that are complaining about surging when they do this I imagine many of them did not measure the distance the magnet was from the sensor when it was on the spoke. You have to do that and get the same distance from the sensor with the magnet on the crank. Too far away you will get errors and simply turn system off and adjust, turn it back on and you are good to go. Too close you get the surging and slowing down over and over and once again; turn system off, get the magnet same distance from the sensor as it was when on the spoke.
Yep, before volspeed motor surgery (why do it if the chainstay method works ???. I must say it is fun stuff though if you love electronics and dropping the motor for us electro geeks is really pretty easy. ) for clean install, (tried this about 4am) last night lol. ZOOM... I will hit 30 easy (80nm motor), on my next few rides. My big deal is the battery. So for this model https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/explore-eplus-4-gts giant speced the sport motor (yea saw that and instantly bought one $2.5k and 70nm 👏🏽) but with a 400 watt battery. 🙄 Just perfunctoriusly dumb. Had a giant dealer tell me they just screwed up the spec and did not notice their mistake until it went into production 2021 sees it with 60nm motor and 500watt battery.
Even before the mod or fast riding on mix mode I got 1.5 hours that ate 2 ticks off the battery yesterday....yikes. I can't find a side pull (not integrated) 500 or 650 or even a spare 400 EnergyPak anywhere in USA or UK to deliver here.
Here is another thread where other folks seem to be having good luck with simple mod on "some" of the giant/yama motors.
** Good news is the regional sales rep for Giant is getting me a spare battery (500watt side release) 600 bucks shipped. Try that with agents of Bosch motors. Minimum 500watt $765 + shipping here in the USA. I know cause I had to buy a spare.
> Btw, this may have been special deal just to me. I hear going rate is 800+shipping in USA. I discovered and pretty large error in the description of this bike that no one had noticed from 2020-2021 plus had a couple of complaints against my dealer who screwed up something. Not complaining I will take 200 dollars off no problem. :)
 
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Interesting developments.

I let my brother ride the Trance E+ for a long term. The EVO display stopped working properly after having been washed under pressure :( So I handed out my original Ride Control One remote to Jacek; he installed it with ease. Surprise! Now Giant Ride Control App could see two e-bikes (each entry for different remote or display). My brother had to reconfigure VolSpeed 3, using a smartphone as the display. All went well, except Jacek is really missing the display but doesn't own a smartphone handlebar-mount. So he de-restricted the SyncDrive Pro at 50 km/h and zoomed to his work. Then, he had to return on leg-power, as the 500 Wh battery went flat too fast :)
 
Now, something interesting: My experience with VolSpeed 3 and Ride Control One remote.

A known fact is the Ride Control One remote expects a connected smartphone to be able to fully control VolSpeed 3 (you do it in the Ride screen of the app as you need the speedometer displayed on the phone screen). Now, I went for a longer ride with no operable Ride Control 2 App, so I had no display available. Whenever you derestrict your Giant e-bike prior to the ride, you need to go through the Down-Up-Down-Up button sequence, and then you need to wait a while (VolSpeed 3 gives you the chance to modify the current speed restriction value). Having no display, I didn't know how long I would need to wait to be able to change the Assistance Level. And you know what I have inadvertently done? I was gradually able to decrease the speed restriction from 36 down to 27 km/h! :D How miserable I felt as I could not understand the reason my Trance was "hitting the wall" at relatively low speed! :D

(Only updating the bike with Ride Control 2 app let me understand what had really happened...)
 
Another tuning option for Giant motors is the Speedbox. Speedbox 2.1 for Giant supports Giant motors from 2017 to 2021. They also have products compatible with older Giant motors.
 
Now, something interesting: My experience with VolSpeed 3 and Ride Control One remote.

A known fact is the Ride Control One remote expects a connected smartphone to be able to fully control VolSpeed 3 (you do it in the Ride screen of the app as you need the speedometer displayed on the phone screen). Now, I went for a longer ride with no operable Ride Control 2 App, so I had no display available. Whenever you derestrict your Giant e-bike prior to the ride, you need to go through the Down-Up-Down-Up button sequence, and then you need to wait a while (VolSpeed 3 gives you the chance to modify the current speed restriction value). Having no display, I didn't know how long I would need to wait to be able to change the Assistance Level. And you know what I have inadvertently done? I was gradually able to decrease the speed restriction from 36 down to 27 km/h! :D How miserable I felt as I could not understand the reason my Trance was "hitting the wall" at relatively low speed! :D

(Only updating the bike with Ride Control 2 app let me understand what had really happened...)
You might try the chainstay sensor method, very easy to try and then return if not working for you and your firmware and motor. It has worked really pretty well for me. Key is get your position just right. Before you move it for the try, be sure and measure the exact (to the mm) distance from the magnet to the sensor . I have a giant syncdrive sport 2020 motor on this bike 70/80nm. https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes-explore-eplus. I sometimes once or twice per ride (sometimes days without it) get the sensor error red but simply turn it off for a second and back on in motion and good to go. It does not shut you down it keeps it at level 3 (at it's highest setting!) even with the code. Giant is not real aggressive in their policing what you do with your speed de-restricting (at least in this firmware release on this motor) like Bosch (iow, no limp mode or that bullshit.) The error code is from sensor too far from magnet by just a fraction sometimes I would guess. If you get a jumping of the motor some complain about it is because they may not realize and they put the magnet is too close thinking closer is better (then they blame the technique not working.) It is easy to simulate that effect just move the magnet really close to the sensor lol. I imagine with speedbox or any that require feedback from a display there will be issues of user/interface interaction. With this you can set and forget and not have to set up every time the motor is turned on.
I use this bike on dynamic group rides where speed change suddenly and jumps in speed are common (converted it to drop bars and a cross/gravel bike.) Of course I have no idea if it will work across various firmware versions and motor models. Glad I at least tried it for fun on this particular one. Saved money and dropping the motor (even though it would be kinda fun tech geek here :) )
 
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Wow, that’s a lot of work! Nice job!
Here’s the installation of the SpeedBox on a Shimano for comparison. The motor wiring and routing is significantly simpler.

Speedbox is a good and solid product. I use Speedbox on my ebike and I am 100% satisfied.
 
Another tuning option for Giant motors is the Speedbox. Speedbox 2.1 for Giant supports Giant motors from 2017 to 2021. They also have products compatible with older Giant motors.
Forgive my ignorance in asking..... Will the Badass Box system work with my 2019 Giant LaFree+E1 (giant/yamaha sync drive) ?
Please advise if anyone knows.
Thank You all for your constant input on this forum. :cool: Craig
 
For the benefit of other EBR members, try using the BadAa$$ box to tune your Yamaha motor.

No motor drop or disassembly is required ... just clip the box to your speed sensor. Job Done! 😉

Will this work on my 2019 Giant LaFree E+1 (with Giant / Yamaha Sync Drive Motor) ?
 
It will, but not recommended. These work on any of the bikes with a speed sensor on the chainstay.
You can only pedal so fast - so while it does unlock the speed limiter, you have to pedal faster and faster to go faster. I tried the speed sensor relo-hack and it surely goes faster, but for practical purposes only a couple of mph additional are usable.
Plus it voids your warranty. The internal computer also tracks average speed and distance, which will become erroneous, so even removing it will not prevent a warranty claim denial. And your speedo app thingy no longer works right for speed and distance.
I tried it on a couple of my bikes and went back to stock.
 
I think this whole complicated speed modifier is way overthought, with on/off via the lightswitch, messing with the speed reported to the control unit, etc. All a unit needs to do is intercept the Hall effect speed sensor and normally pass the magnet pulse waves through while riding under max speed, and slow those pulses down to a max of 19 mph in the case that the pulses are coming in faster than that. So, when you go over 19 mph, it just reports back magnet passes at 19 mph. No modes, no nothing, and mostly accurate ODO/Speedo readings except when you are in getaway mode from dogs or cars, in which the interpreted speed never goes beyond 19mph. Got to get my Arduino stuff out once winter fully hits.
 
Just an update as far as everyone bad mouthing the speed sensor hack because bosch has everyone scared to take possession of their own bike(s) lol. Let's face it folks if they speed limit you; they own your bike, not you. Now as far as the Giant firmware working with other models of their bikes last year I "purchased..." a Giant Revolt E-plus Pro Gravel bike that I use on fast group rides and to keep it safe while I am in the back of the pack I of course owned it with the speed sensor hack done the correct way. No one needs to worry about being behind me when we hit rolling hills and I hit that 28mph limit and the bike "disengages"....
It has been flawless if you get the exact conditions including the distance away angle, direction etc between the magnet and the sensor on the crankarm. It won't work for gestapo bosch's bikes because they have put in so many anti-bike riders measures to keep them from using their bikes the way they want measures in their firmware. Mind you, there is no speed delimiting of their cars on the autobahn..
In case any cycling luddites out there are wondering, cars kill people on bikes, not the other way around. Yep, they are small minded idiots.
 
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