My Commuter-Giant Road-E+ 1

[drewberz]

hi all!

i got this bike with the intention of commuting with it. i originally was looking at a 2018 giant road-e+ 1, but long story short, i got the prior (2017) model with the 4 power settings (off, eco, normal, power). turns out, giant did a mid-year remodel update. so far, i've ridden the 24 mile one-way route to work twice, and expect to ride it MWF. i've been doing joy rides, so it has 332 miles total.

a little about me: i'm 29 and in decent cycling shape. i wanted to give a different perspective. i hope that e-bikes catch on!

so far i have added:
1. large revelate ranger bag
2. shimano a-530 pedals. these provide a platform for regular shoes and SPD clips for your shoes.
3. 35mm schwalbe kojak kevlar bead tires
3. my monkey lights front light. i may need to get some new AA rechargeable batteries, because the current ones are from a camera back in the day and no longer hold charge well!
4. salsa rack-lock 35mm seat collar (you can run rack stays to this). i have yet to install a rack but have a Tubus laying around.

what i plan to add:
1. sks bluemels fenders (have these, working on getting bolts/spacers to install)
2. light and motion nip-n-tuck lights (these are on order from Goride Bicycles out of Redwood City-same place i got the bike!)
3. racktime vida panniers

some issues i wanted to share, in no particular order. none of these are deal-breakers to me, i still love the bike for its purpose:
1. display is slow to switch between settings.
2. front fork caliper mount is IS standard. this requires an adaptor, and personally, i hate things with adaptors/more interfaces.
3. schwalbe durano tires are wire bead. this seems sort of cheap given the $4k MSRP price.
4. i descended kings mountain road and the rotors were hot to the touch on a cool day and squealing at the bottom. i may get some 180mm shimano sm-rt86 rotors to dissipate the heat better. i don't think that size is recommended, but being 200lbs dry, with a 45+ pound bike, plus gear, i beg to differ.
5. the walk button is hard to press. i was trying to use it when i was out of juice on a steep hill, but the little bugger is very hard to depress and keep depressed. almost renders it useless. guess i should do some thumb exercises?
6. the ride of the bike is rough. this is very subjective, but i came off of a trek domane with 25mm tires, inflated to 100psi, which has a isospeed coupler in the rear. the isospeed basically dampens some of the shock. i think large/higher volume tires, with lower pressures is the easiest way to solve the problem without introducing too much $ or complexity or inefficiences. this was my intent with the '35mm' schwalbe kojaks, but they only measure 31-31.5mm @70psi, whereas the stock schwalbe duranos measure 29.5-30.5mm, just a 1mm difference.
7. you need to clear the 'max speed' setting separately from the other settings if you want to track the new ride. kind of like the walk button, it's just annoying.

all that said, it's a lot of fun! feel free to ask me any questions if you are considering getting this specific bike or an e-bike in general. i appreciate all the resources that this site has offered me and want to give back some.

 

[drewberz]

update: got the 'nip 800' and rear 'tuck' lights installed. the front is fork mounted and the rear is saddle mounted. i may post a tutorial if there's any interest. here's it from the front, side, and rear. the front was taken 10 feet away, the side 5 feet, and the rear ~40 feet. i really like the side amber lighting.

 

[drewberz]

update: ridden about 1,900 miles. i got the SKS fenders finally installed. needed some spare bolts/washers and to drill one hole in the rear fender. they seem secure, so i'm hoping there is little rub.

also, i have been breaking spokes on the rear wheel repeatedly, so GoRide warrantied the rear wheel. they were helpful throughout the entire process-so check them out if you need service or good follow-up with a bike purchase.

 

[Don12]

update: ridden about 1,900 miles. i got the SKS fenders finally installed. needed some spare bolts/washers and to drill one hole in the rear fender. they seem secure, so i'm hoping there is little rub.

also, i have been breaking spokes on the rear wheel repeatedly, so GoRide warrantied the rear wheel. they were helpful throughout the entire process-so check them out if you need service or good follow-up with a bike purchase.

Hello Drew Berz what do you contribute to the spokes breaking? (terrain, quality, added weight on bike). I too have broke a spoke on my CrossRip+ and I am not sure why that happens.

 

[drewberz]

Congrats on the bike.

The disk brake heat is perfectly normal on hills considering your weight. If you want to bring the temps down a bit, choose another compound and work on your braking technique. You need to feather the brakes in several iterations rather than squeezing hard once to slow yourself down.

I suspect that you have high performance pad compounds. The problem with them is that they often don’t offer high performance when used to stop on hills. The pad is initially grippy but quickly overheats and then starts to slip. This is a classic. Particularly in summer or on hilly descents.

yeah i need to replace the rears after about 2k so i'm going with Shimano J04C which are metallic replacements. hopefully this well help some-I can't say i would change my braking behaviors much lol

 

[drewberz]

Hello Drew Berz what do you contribute to the spokes breaking? (terrain, quality, added weight on bike). I too have broke a spoke on my CrossRip+ and I am not sure why that happens.

so i'm about 200lbs, plus gear, usually i carry a backpack which might be 20lbs. that's some weight, but is it too much? i don't think it should be. the roads in my area were being worked on at the time, but i didn't take any major hits to the wheels. i've never broken a spoke before so i don't know what it is in particular. but i have built my other wheel sets to be more durable (triple butted, 32h spokes on my mountain bike for e.g.). most spokes are j-bend and where the bend is, they break. i've seen/heard spokes break in accidents, so the breakage in this case is more unusual.

to be honest i think the wheel should have more spokes and be built with thicker gauge spokes. these aren't the only things that go into a well built wheel (properly tensioned is highly important), but is a good start. consider the power going to the wheels is amplified by the motor and the weight is 30lbs. greater than average.

 

[drewberz]

currently 2,518 miles. at 2,433 miles. i put on 2 new pad sets (metallic), 2 rotors (designed for metallics), and 2 new tires. the pads were completely worn through and then some on the fronts at around 2200 miles and the fronts were also nearly about done. the rear Kojo tire could be good for another couple hundred maybe and the front longer. i got these gravelkings by panaracer in 38mm. really like them too. they measure about 36mm in actual width at 60psi, but i've been running them at 50psi. brown is a bit of an odd brown, but they ride really well and the rolling resistance is just a little more for a lot more comfort. i think the tires specced on the bike are well undersized.

 

[Marci jo]

currently 2,518 miles. at 2,433 miles. i put on 2 new pad sets (metallic), 2 rotors (designed for metallics), and 2 new tires. the pads were completely worn through and then some on the fronts at around 2200 miles and the fronts were also nearly about done. the rear Kojo tire could be good for another couple hundred maybe and the front longer. i got these gravelkings by panaracer in 38mm. really like them too. they measure about 36mm in actual width at 60psi, but i've been running them at 50psi. brown is a bit of an odd brown, but they ride really well and the rolling resistance is just a little more for a lot more comfort. i think the tires specced on the bike are well undersized.

Thanks for your comments regarding the tires on this bike. I was thinking of putting smaller ones on my Vado 6.0, city tires 2.0 with very high sidewalls. Makes the bike kinda high for my not so tall frame. Now I’m a little hesitant to go too small.
And great commuting distance on your bike! That’s where ebikes shine.

 

[drewberz]

Thanks for your comments regarding the tires on this bike. I was thinking of putting smaller ones on my Vado 6.0, city tires 2.0 with very high sidewalls. Makes the bike kinda high for my not so tall frame. Now I’m a little hesitant to go too small.
And great commuting distance on your bike! That’s where ebikes shine.

curious which ones were you considering and why? 50mm is quite good, is it comfortable/fit right and as 'fast' as you want it? btw I love the Brose motor! are you commuting with yours? I was disappointed to see that Raleigh went from Brose to Bosch. I hate that 2.5 gear reduction-just seems fundamentally flawed. hopefully Spesh continues to use Brose!

 

[drewberz]

hey Mike's Bikes, thanks for the reply. I no longer have spoke break issues-the rear wheel was warrantied. hard to say the source of breakage from my perspective because my wheels didn't experience any catastrophic events. weight does play a role in wheelset stress but agree proper tension is paramount.

Spokes should not be breaking. Get your spokes properly tensioned by an LBS. Has nothing to do with weight. Spokes are under tension, meaning pulling in on the rim, akin to the design of a suspension bridge. Thus they all need to have tension that is equal. The LBS can check the hub and rim for any abnormalities as well.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

update: got the 'nip 800' and rear 'tuck' lights installed. the front is fork mounted and the rear is saddle mounted. i may post a tutorial if there's any interest. here's it from the front, side, and rear. the front was taken 10 feet away, the side 5 feet, and the rear ~40 feet. i really like the side amber lighting.

Those are perfect lights for a commuter bike like yours. Had them on my previous bike, really enjoyed the light output for such compact size.

 

[drewberz]

Those are perfect lights for a commuter bike like yours. Had them on my previous bike, really enjoyed the light output for such compact size.

hey Ravi! just wanted to say thanks for your contributions to e-bikes. I enjoyed reading about your cross country trip...these lights are really something else and for the exact reason you pointed out. prize/size/output are great. the people at Light and Motion were really helpful in answering compatibility questions too. Giant initially just said you can't add lights to the bike lol. one niggle I've had with them is that the front mount that goes to a fork crown (which I've bought separately) isn't quite long enough, thus the front fender gets some light on top of it.

the rear mount is also aftermarket but having it just under the seatpost puts it nice and high for a more eye-level view for drivers, gives it a 'clean' look, and frees up the seatpost for mounting other stuff or just handling the bike.

 

[Leftyrush]

I found a brand-new 2017 Giant Road e+1 for sale in NYC at a local Giant shop and just purchased. Very excited to start commuting from New Jersey over the GWB to Manhattan (25 miles each way). I am having fenders, but can’t decide if I should run the original tires until dead, or upgrade to the panaracers (or something similar) now. Do the 38’s fit well with the fenders?

 

[drewberz]

I found a brand-new 2017 Giant Road e+1 for sale in NYC at a local Giant shop and just purchased. Very excited to start commuting from New Jersey over the GWB to Manhattan (25 miles each way). I am having fenders, but can’t decide if I should run the original tires until dead, or upgrade to the panaracers (or something similar) now. Do the 38’s fit well with the fenders?

congrats on the bike! original tires aren't bad per se, just that these are so much smoother. if you have well-paved trails along the way, i'm sure it'd be fine with them. the 38s fit well! there's some clearance. the loss of speed is more than made up by the traction and comfort for me.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

(25 miles each way)

That is impressive. I just restarted my 23 mile each way commute again. We have had pretty cold winter here in Chicago and I was a little bit of practice.
I need to be really disciplined about the food intake and sleep to keep up this commute.
Do you keep an extra charger at work? if not, you may need it ...

Like yesterday, I was exhausted after work and used generous assistance from the motor to maintain 23mph avg speed: https://www.strava.com/activities/2214259135
This would be difficult if I did not have an extra charger at work.

 

[drewberz]

That is impressive. I just restarted my 23 mile each way commute again. We have had pretty cold winter here in Chicago and I was a little bit of practice.
I need to be really disciplined about the food intake and sleep to keep up this commute.
Do you keep an extra charger at work? if not, you may need it ...

Like yesterday, I was exhausted after work and used generous assistance from the motor to maintain 23mph avg speed: https://www.strava.com/activities/2214259135
This would be difficult if I did not have an extra charger at work.

good point. i was keeping my charger at my most recent work, but was only doing 23 mile days.

 

[Leftyrush]

That is impressive. I just restarted my 23 mile each way commute again. We have had pretty cold winter here in Chicago and I was a little bit of practice.
I need to be really disciplined about the food intake and sleep to keep up this commute.
Do you keep an extra charger at work? if not, you may need it ...

Like yesterday, I was exhausted after work and used generous assistance from the motor to maintain 23mph avg speed: https://www.strava.com/activities/2214259135
This would be difficult if I did not have an extra charger at work.

good point. i was keeping my charger at my most recent work, but was only doing 23 mile days.

I need to find another charger apparently! Also... I ordered the nip and tuck light set that you recommended but also saw that you mentioned I need to order another pig tail to install it all. Any recommendations?

 

[drewberz]

I need to find another charger apparently! Also... I ordered the nip and tuck light set that you recommended but also saw that you mentioned I need to order another pig tail to install it all. Any recommendations?

the charger you should be able to get at a LBS. i think it cost me ~$90. the cables i made myself-pm if you want the raw materials. Lupine makes one but when i bought it from an overseas vendor, it had the wrong sex connector.

 

[drewberz]

2,785 miles as of today. i also noticed moisture in my display that went away while riding. hopefully it doesn't have any lasting affects, because i am at the mercy of Giant being that i am outside of warranty.

at 2,747 i had a rear flat. i suspect the rim edges of the spoke holes caused it because of the location and the fact i couldn't find any sharp objects imbedded in the tires. mind you, this is the replacement wheel from Giant. so i removed the rim strip and replaced it with black electrical tape. never have had issues using black electrical tape as rim tape. it's cheap and available.

the a-530 pedals are not so great in the wet when you use the flat side with normal shoes. i find that i slip if i stand up and crank. i've been eyeballing the T8000 or EH500 pedal by Shimano because they look like they offer better traction.

everything else has been really solid. i added a mount for a Springer so I can actually tire the dog out...

 

[drewberz]

updates:

3,342 miles as of today.
@3,113 mi. i flatted because of a heavy staple in the rear tire. not too long after, i got another flat because of a pothole that pinch flatted the tube. that one may have been my fault because i was using smaller tubes (25c-28c sizing) on 38c tires.

the computer display has fogged up a couple times-but then it quickly goes away so no big deal. i am waiting on some T8000 pedals in the mail and a boomerang v.1 and v.2 which is a mountable tracking GPS for security.

been very happy with this bike so far and am now commuting about 45 miles 3-4 days a week.