Giant Trance E+ Can Have Internally Powered Lighting?

[Stefan Mikes]

My brother Jacek has owned (formerly mine) Giant Trance E+ 2 Pro (2020) since June last year. As this is his only e-bike (and he is an excellent bike mechanic himself), he really takes care of his Trance! Numerous mods, everything up to date, maintained perfectly: I can only talk about my brother in superlatives. Actually, he didn't need an e-MTB as we live in a flatland but he loves leisure rides in nearby National Park. Still, the Trance E+ is mainly his commuter e-bike. Therefore, he rides Johnny Watts tyres in the warm season, and Ice Spiker Pro in the winter. Of course, his e-bike has been "commuterized" by Jacek, with solid fenders (but no rack or a kickstand).

Jacek wanted to go for another National Park ride for last Sunday but he discovered his Trance would not power on! That is, the bike was powering on and immediately switching off! (No error codes!) So, brother spent the whole Sunday analysing the cause: it was the wet handlebar remote. Drying it cured the misbehaviour of the Trance. Yet, my brother found something else after he dismantled part of the bike.

The whole motor chamber was full of water and mud! And there was a wire floating in water. Jacek did a lot of work to clean and dry the motor compartment. And then he started wondering what was that specific wire for. As it has turned out, it was an unused lighting wire! As an e-MTB, Trance E+ has no integrated lighting but the RideControl One handlebar remote has the lighting switch!

Now: It seems it would be doable to install e-bike powered lighting on the Trance E+. Ideas? Please share.

 

[Coolbob]

I think Giant has one wiring harness that they install in all their bikes, including Momentum and Liv sub brands. My Momentum Transend E+ didn't come with bike-powered headlight or tail light even though the Ride Control 1 handlebar mounted controller had a headlight switch. I removed the key and lock mechanism for holding the down tube integrated battery and discovered an unused connector that supplied 6VDC when the bike was powered up and the headlight switch was activated. I also discovered an identical connector under the mid drive motor, so I added a Light & Motion Nip&Tuck headlight and taillight.

Here's the writeup on installing a headlight with extensive photos I did back in the summer of 2020:

Adding aftermarket 6-volt headlight to Momentum Transend E+ (& Giant and Liv bikes)

As far as I know all Giant, Momentum and Liv bikes use the same Ride Control One control pad which includes a Light button, even though some bikes do not come equipped with lights. I therefore assumed that all Giant, Momentum and Liv bikes use the same wiring harness, which means that even...

electricbikereview.com

About a year ago I decided to install the Light & Motion Tuck taillight. Here's the instructions for adding the taillight. I eventually had the time to also swap out the cheap headlight I initially installed for the Nip headlight.

Wired-In Ebike Lights Guide

While visiting my buddy Chris Nolte at Propel Bikes in Brooklyn, NY we spent some time talking about bicycle lights. Chris runs an electric bike shop, so most of the models we looked at had the option to wire-in some lights to run off of the ebike battery. Some of these lights would work just...

electricbikereview.com

Here's a video of my bike with the Nip & Tuck, along with a lot of other accessories.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Thank you very much Bob for the advice!

 

[EnduroDad]

I installed a Magicshine 2000lm e-bike light on my 2021 Trance X E+. It was pretty easy, the light came with a Giant-specific cable and it simply plugged into the harness. I had to pull the battery and lock mechanism to get to it. Here's the light I purchased. ME 2000 with Yamaha cable.