Help please - Giant RideControl Dash bricked!

[Torvald]

Hi everyone,

I just bought a Giant Talon E+3 home yesterday. It powered up just fine initially, but when I tried to connect the RideControl app, the app required an update for the bike. 5 minutes later Dash screen was still showing a laptop, and the progress bar on the app had stalled at 22%. The connection failed soon after, and then the bike screen went dead. Now it shows no sign of life at all no matter what I do! The battery was at 100%, and still is.

Can you help please? I'm due to leave on a three-day bikepacking trail tomorrow (Wilderness Trail, on the West Coast of NZ's South Island), and I really don't want to do the whole thing by pedal power!

 

[Torvald]

Update, just in case this helps anyone else:

Firstly, I did the trail under pedal power and left the battery behind - no regrets, both the bike and me coped with the challenge just fine, even with a pack and a 10Kg drybag on a carrier. I even kept up with my 13-year-old son riding a nice Haro MTB. The trail is awesome - the uphills are generally either short or very gradual, and there are some really great views, fascinating heritage stops, fun downhills and genuine characters out west.

The advice from our local dealer was to leave the battery out for a couple of days to give it time to reset and try again. Sadly, still no sign of life. They are now asking Giant Australia to approve replacement of the RideControl Dash. Fingers crossed that's sorted in time for me to enjoy some of the great rides in Otago later in the summer.

The moral of the story - expect technology to let you down sometimes, but it's only a problem if it gets you down. Fortunately these are well-built, reliable bikes even without power.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I think your issue would be eventually solved by Giant. That's a trustworthy brand.
(It is depressing though to read your ride got bricked in the holiday season before you actually rode it...)

 

[Coolbob]

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your new bike! So far, I have not had any problems upgrading the Giant (Momentum) firmware on our bikes, but a few on the forum have experienced problems.

As I understand it, the device you are using to update the bike acts as a conduit, downloading date from Giant's servers over the internet via the WiFi or Cellular and sending it to your bike via Bluetooth. A glitch anywhere along that journey during an update can mess things up. To minimize the chances of something going wrong, update your device to the latest software/firmware. Make sure your device is fully charged, Make sure your Giant App is the latest version. Reboot your device and avoid having any other applications running. Make sure your device has have a strong WiFi or Cellular signal and it is in close proximity to your bike (bluetooth has a very short range) before attempting an update. I hope you are able to get things going soon, then the shop where you bought the bike should take care of the problem.