Known Issues & Problems with Giant Products + Help, Solutions & Fixes

[gorse]

@ Stefan - You've missed the point - his Giant dealer is clearly an idiot. At this point his local Trek dealer is an unknown quantity, but it's not clear that they are also incompetent.

You seem to be suggesting he stick with a brand that has proved to be less than reliable (electrics) and a dealer who couldn't be trusted to sit the right way round on a toilet...

 

[Stefan Mikes]

You've missed the point - his Giant dealer is clearly an idiot.

I agree. Let us not blame the brand, though.

 

[Peddling Pete]

Hi all!
Well I did it, I have made my own YouTube channel and put 4 videos on it about my bike! My channel is Pedalling Pete and they are titled 'Giant Explore E+1 ebike problems'. One of the videos is a bit long and I'm no film maker but you might find them amusing. If you watch them feedback to me please.

 

[pmcdonald]

Hi all!
Well I did it, I have made my own YouTube channel and put 4 videos on it about my bike! My channel is Pedalling Pete and they are titled 'Giant Explore E+1 ebike problems'. One of the videos is a bit long and I'm no film maker but you might find them amusing. If you watch them feedback to me please.

Thank you for taking the time to document your sorry saga Pete. (Here's the channel link btw: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9kKj2ucqjpwIbxLw3oRkA).

With your pending rear light gremlins and the sour experience to date I think I'd be pushing for a return and refund. Even if your dealer did sort the issues out the ownership experience might already be too toxic to come back from. All brands have issues though, and the critical battery and motor components of your Explore are well regarded for reliability.

Have you had the bike less than 6 months? My reading of UK consumer law is if that is the case the onus is on the retailer to make good the issues you're having. If they fail to you can ask for a refund. Failing that do you have other Giant dealer options within a reasonable radius?

Side note - the 0.75 chain wear at 600 miles isn't super, but nor is it unheard of. Your power setting, ride gradient, maintenance regime, weight and leg torque will all affect wear uniquely. There's plenty of threads here talking about chain replacement anywhere from 1000 km at the low end to 3500 km at the high end. I took a measure of mine the other day and it fell well short of the 0.75 mark at 800 km. But I'm pretty religious about easing off the pedals when shifting, live in a relatively flat city, shift pretty attentively through the 20 gears, and give the chain a thorough clean and oil every couple of weeks. I anticipate changing mine around the 2000 km mark - price to pay for the mid drive.

I've loved every kilometer on my Explore and it has fortunately been faultless to date, so its very disappointing to hear of your issues.

 

[Browneye]

My Explore has been fantastic. Wife loves her Amiti too - same bike, ladies version. Very solid.

I may well end up selling mine though, been working on a project to have a quick convert of the Trance for road. Got a set of wheels, you can lock out the suspension, and it replicates a road bike pretty darn well. I'm not sure yet it if can get the same range as the Explore...with the new wheelset I'm thinking it will. These Bontrager E6 tires are dabomb...
The idea was to get just an axle swap for mountain to road. Everything else in place - road tires, cassette, speed sensor magnet. I'll have to get a speedo magnet too. Sure rides nice, kind of like my Explore.

 

[Peddling Pete]

Thank you for taking the time to document your sorry saga Pete. (Here's the channel link btw: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9kKj2ucqjpwIbxLw3oRkA).

With your pending rear light gremlins and the sour experience to date I think I'd be pushing for a return and refund. Even if your dealer did sort the issues out the ownership experience might already be too toxic to come back from. All brands have issues though, and the critical battery and motor components of your Explore are well regarded for reliability.

Have you had the bike less than 6 months? My reading of UK consumer law is if that is the case the onus is on the retailer to make good the issues you're having. If they fail to you can ask for a refund. Failing that do you have other Giant dealer options within a reasonable radius?

Side note - the 0.75 chain wear at 600 miles isn't super, but nor is it unheard of. Your power setting, ride gradient, maintenance regime, weight and leg torque will all affect wear uniquely. There's plenty of threads here talking about chain replacement anywhere from 1000 km at the low end to 3500 km at the high end. I took a measure of mine the other day and it fell well short of the 0.75 mark at 800 km. But I'm pretty religious about easing off the pedals when shifting, live in a relatively flat city, shift pretty attentively through the 20 gears, and give the chain a thorough clean and oil every couple of weeks. I anticipate changing mine around the 2000 km mark - price to pay for the mid drive.

I've loved every kilometer on my Explore and it has fortunately been faultless to date, so its very disappointing to hear of your issues.

Thank you for your feedback! I think I am going to find a different dealer. Once I got the pedal arms fitted I took it for a small ride and instantly fell in love again. This is a great bike poorly put together by the manufacturer and poorly supported by the after sales support network. I have only had the bike since March 2020, I would have expected better from Giant.

 

[gorse]

My Explore has been fantastic. Wife loves her Amiti too - same bike, ladies version. Very solid.

I may well end up selling mine though, been working on a project to have a quick convert of the Trance for road. Got a set of wheels, you can lock out the suspension, and it replicates a road bike pretty darn well. I'm not sure yet it if can get the same range as the Explore...with the new wheelset I'm thinking it will. These Bontrager E6 tires are dabomb...
The idea was to get just an axle swap for mountain to road. Everything else in place - road tires, cassette, speed sensor magnet. I'll have to get a speedo magnet too. Sure rides nice, kind of like my Explore.

Kind of like a Super Motad - must have some pretty bad potholes on your commute

 

[Browneye]

Kind of like a Super Motad - must have some pretty bad potholes on your commute

Exactly like a super-motard.

But I don't commute, and I have not used the eMTB for road. I had an opportunity to get a second set of factory built wheel sets at a really good price - $150. For the price of a set of road tires ($75) and a replacement gear cassette ($70) I can swap them out by simply removing the axles. Instant road bike!

There are two reasons I had in mind for going this route:
1. For guests we now have four ebikes to take out for a casual ride.
2. With the suspension locked out on the Trance mtb, it is nearly what the Explore is on road, or at least appears to be so. I'll soon know when I get all the conversion parts together and test it out.
So with the two bikes, I have a backup for casual and road riding.

In the back of my mind I thought if there is enough reduntcy it might warrant selling off the Explore. Much as I like it, if I don't need it or ride it, then sell it and use the $$ for something else. OTOH, it's nice to have a backup bike should one become disabled or held up for parts or repair. So far I haven't had that issue, except for the hub-drive conversion we have - that unit failed and I waited two months for parts. China is REALLY slow. And that's how we ended up with the third Giant ebike! Now we're bike-poor.

 

[jharrison]

Hi, I am from Dublin Ireland bought a Giant Quick e+ to commute into work. I am riding this bike for a few days now no problem. But this morning it wouldn't power on when I press the on button the display shows the Giant logo for a few seconds and it goes to black again. Battery is full charged as I check this on the battery pack it self. Any idea what's going on?

Thanks in advance,

Rain

Hey I am having the same problem with my Full E + 1 Giant can you get a hold of me I need the fix

 

[Browneye]

Sounds like water in either battery pack connectors or controller pad. Likely the latter. But I don't know how to tell you how to fix it.

 

[Peddling Pete]

If you got the bike wet then water in the thumb pad and or display. It needs to dry out or go to giant for repair. If under 2 years old should be covered for parts. Not labour though. Be prepared to wait while giant twiddle their thumbs

 

[nickt1]

Hi there -been enjoying my Trance E+1 mostly problem free apart from a failed controller that got wet and has been fitted with the updated part under warranty that seems to work fine now. Now I am having issues with battery/charger-it wont charge and the charger blinks 4 times over and over -in the manual it states this as a "non specific" fault-any clues to solving the mystery would be much appreciated.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Exactly like a super-motard.

But I don't commute, and I have not used the eMTB for road. I had an opportunity to get a second set of factory built wheel sets at a really good price - $150. For the price of a set of road tires ($75) and a replacement gear cassette ($70) I can swap them out by simply removing the axles. Instant road bike!

There are two reasons I had in mind for going this route:
1. For guests we now have four ebikes to take out for a casual ride.
2. With the suspension locked out on the Trance mtb, it is nearly what the Explore is on road, or at least appears to be so. I'll soon know when I get all the conversion parts together and test it out.
So with the two bikes, I have a backup for casual and road riding.

In the back of my mind I thought if there is enough reduntcy it might warrant selling off the Explore. Much as I like it, if I don't need it or ride it, then sell it and use the $$ for something else. OTOH, it's nice to have a backup bike should one become disabled or held up for parts or repair. So far I haven't had that issue, except for the hub-drive conversion we have - that unit failed and I waited two months for parts. China is REALLY slow. And that's how we ended up with the third Giant ebike! Now we're bike-poor.

If you must, @Browneye, selling your Explore at a decent price looks very easy nowadays. A Forum member wanted to buy the Explore E+ 0 Pro size S for his wife in Poland. Nowhere to be found except 1 (one) single bike in a respected online store in Germany, with 2-week delivery time!

Your project to make the all-purpose e-bike out of your Trance looks interesting, especially as the U.S. 20 mph restriction is very reasonable. My 25 km/h Trance is fantastic off-road, too slow on-road but I accept that. At least during the warranty period.

 

[Browneye]

Hi there -been enjoying my Trance E+1 mostly problem free apart from a failed controller that got wet and has been fitted with the updated part under warranty that seems to work fine now. Now I am having issues with battery/charger-it wont charge and the charger blinks 4 times over and over -in the manual it states this as a "non specific" fault-any clues to solving the mystery would be much appreciated.

Can you get access to a known good charger to test? Your dealer, a fellow-owner? That would be my first task in troubleshooting. I would also inspect/clean/ube pack and bike contacts. Water and dirt could be an issue.

Does the bike run otherwise?

 

[nickt1]

Can you get access to a known good charger to test? Your dealer, a fellow-owner? That would be my first task in troubleshooting. I would also inspect/clean/ube pack and bike contacts. Water and dirt could be an issue.

Does the bike run otherwise?

Thanks for your reply Browneye, bike runs fine -cleaned contacts so it looks like it could be a charger fault? I will find another charger as suggested to confirm this-thanks for the helpfull advice much appreciated.
Regards
Nick Taylor

 

[Peddling Pete]

Update on my Explore: just over 2 weeks ago I got the pedal arms from my local dealer Mountain Mania in Didcot to fit to my bike. At the time I said I needed to book it in due to other issues, the rear light and other electrical gremlins that persisted. They said give them a call in 2 weeks as we will be quiet due to there being no more bikes to sell. So I rang them Friday and they said there is a 2.5 week delay. I reminded them of what they agreed but they denied it.
So this morning I decided to check the wiring for the rear light out myself. One of the screws that holds the side cowling on is now too long for me to remove without undoing the 36mm nut that holds the chainset spider in place. It is the screw that holds the cowling in place on the down tube and should be fitted there. This is clear proof that despite claiming they had not removed the pedals they clearly have because they have gone deep enough to remove all the cowling around it, so why wouldn't they? I am now convinced that post repair all the new issues are with my local dealer. As much as I like the bike with the nearest Gaint Store being a 100 mile round trip this bike is no good for me.

 

[Peddling Pete]

A bit about the rear light. The light works when given power from an external source, but not when the light is powered via the bike supply. I measured the Volts, I get anywhere from 4.5v - 10v but the amperage is too low to run the light. The light works at 0.045A or 4.5 mA but the bike only supplies 1.9mA. This will be due to either a dodgy connector, a break in the wiring or dry solder on the controlling circuit board, namely the thumb controller. I wanted to drop the motor to do a resistance check on the loom but cannot due to the wrong screw in the wrong place.
Having spoken to the original supplier today though, it seems that when an issue like mine happens Giant ask for it to be returned to Giant for their tech whizzes to fix it. So on account I have explained all this to Giant Customer care over the phone on numerous occasions over many weeks, why have they not told me this?
Other issues include the lights turning off when the display is in night mode (when you need lights), Bluetooth not enabling for tuning, a rattling from the frame which turned out to be a loose lock barrel. Such a shame.

 

[KuRi]

I was changing the rear brake hose to upgrade my brakes on my fathom e+2 pro and now the bike won't turn on. Ride control one switches on all lights when pressing on, and then suddenly it turns off completely...

I checked that no cable were damaged or moved during installation but I removed temporarily battery base to easily pass the cable through... Don't know what happened

P.D: Now the bike brakes a lot better, but cannot be used xD

 

[2019QuickE]

Rotational Squeaking

I’ve had my 2019 QuickE+ for a year now. It’s been mostly reliable, but for an irritating squeaking from the rear wheel, that seemed to occur at low speeds. I’d had it back to the bike shop twice, but it kept happening. I’d learned to live with it, but it was really frustrating. Finally after filming the rear wheel on my smartphone, I realised it was happening every time the valve was at the ground contact point. I had a lock nut on the valve, so hadn’t thought that would be causing it, but it turns out even with the nut tightened, there was still enough movement to cause the squeaking sound.

After smearing a tiny bit of grease around the valve stem, the squeaking has stopped! I’ve had valve stems rattle before, but never squeak. So if you have a Giant and are affected by rotational squeaking, grease those stems people (although you should keep the grease away from the tube itself).

 

[Peddling Pete]

I have returned my Giant to the original supplying dealer. a 146 mile round trip. The Original dealer was completely different to my local dealer in level of knowledge and professionalism. It is a shame that they are 146 miles away. I have given a synopsis of all the issues I have had and are still having with the bike, they are horrified. They were even prepared to discuss the return of the bike to Giant permanently.
Clearly the lesson for me here is a bike is a bike and it is all about the dealer experience. This was mentioned earlier in this thread and turns out to be the defining point. I cannot do with taking my bike 146 miles for servicing or warranty work though so this is still not the bike for me. Not just because of the suspect build quality of my Giant but because of the poor level of support by their dealer network in Oxfordshire.
I will continue to post on here to keep all updated but want to thank you all for your contribution.