Range 100 Miles Giant Road-E.

M

michael mcvey

Member
Giant 2018 Road-E+ - Range 100 mile
Yes, I just rode 100 miles on one battery charge.

The Bike - 2018 Road-E+. Yamaha 500WH. Set up with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. 700*38C.
Great tire last set road 10,000 miles with no flats.

Bike set up for touring and comfort. Cain Creek Thudbuster seat post, Brooks B17 saddle. Rear rack. Arkel Handlebar bag, Arkel Tailrider trunk bag and 2 Arkel rear panniers.
Myself - I’m 68, 140 pounds, been riding normal bike my whole like, enjoy riding the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Orange County Ca. Now ride about 5,000 miles yearly.

Goal with E-Bike. Take the pain out of touring. Ride 100+ miles per day and not feel dead at the end of each day. Would like the E-Bike to provide small amount of assistance and have power to help get over the hills. Increase MPH average by 20%. Range at least 150 miles per day.

I have been looking and reading about E-Bikes for 2 years and not encouraged by post that state the ranges are 20-50 miles. But the LBS owner assured me she is getting 80+ miles from a battery and offered to let me use her Giant E-bike for a couple days. I did and riding 60+ miles with ease on 50% battery, I decided to purchase one. I’m so happy I did.

Special thanks to Kristen (LBS owner) at Pure Ride Cycles in Lake Forrest Ca.

The trip- One Day from Port Hueneme Ca to Mission Viejo. 125 miles. It was really a two day trip. I road the train from MV to Santa Barbara, road the first day from Santa Barbara to PH and spent night in hotel. I’m not counting that first day mileage in this story. I carry two days of clothing, an extra Battery ( yes, I plan to carry a second battery on long trips), food, water, tools, etc. The total extra weight is about 30 pounds.

So the goal was to cover 125 miles along the coast in 1 day and, achieve 100 miles from 1 battery, increase average MPH by 20% and reduce overall time by 2 hours. I do this trip 2-3 times a year on normal bike. My average on normal bike is 12 mph at the end of the day and 13 hours elapsed time. To average 12 mph you spend a lot of time at 16 mph, you lose MPH with the rolling hills and stop and go areas along the route.

The route- Yesterday was strong headwinds from Redondo Beach to Laguna Beach. Usually these are tailwinds. Huntington Beach was hosting the Airshow with Blue Angels and about a million people show up for this, slow going thru this area. The rest of the route was perfect.

Well I did it, battery down to 2% at 100 mile mark. Average speed up to 14.5 (2 mph increase). Change batteries at 100 miles and flew the last 25 miles. Total trip was 11 hours 15 minutes.

How- The Giant Road-E has 3 power settings Eco, Normal and power. I’ll refer to them as level 1,2 and 3. My plan was to stay in level 1 for 85% of the time, using level 2 for hills and headwinds and never use level 3.

And that is how I achieved the 100 miles on 1 battery. So the Road-E meets my goal for multi day touring. I plan to Tour the Pacific Coast this summer. Hopefully CalTrans is able to repair and reopen Coast Highway in California by then. 100 miles on a battery is achievable!
 
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Yes, really impressive on the part of the rider and the bike. To be able to do that kind of mileage in one day (rider) and on one battery. Way beyond my abilities. Would also love to see some pics of bike and ride.
 
Sounds terrific. I saw a Road-E in a bike shop in Lake Placid a couple of days ago, almost fell over. They're a tab bit snooty about ebikes up that way in Ironman country, but even so I get stopped and asked about my xm700+ when I'm riding around the area. No outright hostility yet! I really like the Giant E line, all of em. Love to see some pictures of the bike and the trip if you've got em.
 
Excellent post, Michael, and an inspiration for me, as I’ve been planning a 70 mile one day trip for awhile now. I need a little more time on local trips to strengthen my legs first, though.
 
Sonoboy said:
Excellent post, Michael, and an inspiration for me, as I’ve been planning a 70 mile one day trip for awhile now. I need a little more time on local trips to strengthen my legs first, though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing in that excellent post, Michael. You were careful to give lots of credit to the bike, but I rather imagine most riders would not attain that kind of mileage in the same circumstances. Being fit and thinking about how best to stretch the available current in your battery were both obviously big factors in what you accomplished. This cannot help but make me think of the second ebike I ever owned, the Giant Lafree Sport. It was my primary transportation for seven years. I got through those seven years with it with only one replacement of the two twelve volt, twelve amp hour SLA batteries. No way could I have gotten anywhere close to that kind of range on that Giant ebike no matter how miserly I was on using the battery resources! Giant bikes and ebikes in general have progressed greatly since Giant introduced the Lafree Sport. It was a pretty efficient ebike for the day, even though it was heavy. And one paid a bigger price in battery long-term longevity by running SLA batterypacks down to the final 10 to 15 per cent than one does doing the same to current commonly used ebike chemistries. Keep us posted on things. I suspect that I am one of many who have a soft spot in the heart for Giant ebikes.
 
Thanks all the comments. I did not take pictures that included the Bike. I will do a photo shoot of the bike this weekend and post. I wanted to post this story to provide actual statistics to help others to understand the potential range of this particular Bike motor/ battery combo.
I will do a couple more rides of similar range and post the results here. I'm anxious to see the difference in range between the Level 1 and level 2. I suspect Level 2 will be about 60%. That is; it will provide about 60 miles per charge.
 
So awesome!

Yamaga systems have Eco+ and Eco modes and it is really possible to get 100 miles in the Eco mode. Of course, the rider has to most of the work but the system is perfect for riders who enjoy pedaling.
Great stuff Michael.
 
Great post -- it's really helpful and interesting to hear about what's possible with an ebike. We had a thread on some topics like this over in the Specialized forum of EBR that you might find interesting: https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/maximize-battery-spin-or-mash.13898/

To me, the ebike is great if I want to go as quickly as possible (e.g., commuting or errands) -- I will still ride hard but I'll go maybe 25% faster. But the higher speeds really kill your battery life because the wind resistance above 20 and especially as you approach the 28 mph cutoff.

I think you've come up with a great use to get the best of both worlds!

Out of curiosity, how many feet did you climb on your 100-mile ride?
 
Michael, sounds like a fantastic ride and certainly an accomplishment. Especially considering it's a 500wa battery.

Were you cognizant during your ride of your average drain on the battery? Not being familiar with that bike I don't know what display options you have available to you. But from your description, it was "seem" that you would be using around 50-60 watts average while riding. My gut would say that you probably put in about 65-75% of the effort with the bike picking up the rest. Does that jive with how you felt, or with your experience?
 
Eric, The Giant display option does not show watts. It does show battery use in percents. Starts with 100%, then decreases to 99%, 98 etc .
This display feature is very useful and accurate. In level 1 (Eco mode) I ride 1.25 miles and use 1% of the battery. The rider is putting in 70-80% of the work and the motor is putting in remainder. In level 2 (normal mode) I get 1/2 mile per 1% of the battery. I paid close attention to this display during the first 100 miles. My goal was to tract at 1% of battery per mile.
 
Michael, thank you for that information. My bike only displays a batter indicator with 4 bars, and it's meaningless as it has no correlation with what the actual battery has (it still shows 4 bars when I know the battery is at around 30%). The battery itself has a 4 bar indicator which is way more accurate, but again not granular enough.

I have to generally know how many watts I'm using and how long the motor has been running (when extending use) and keep track in my mind. It's interesting to learn what other bikes display and how other riders manage their expenditure.
 
  1. Its been a week since the original 125 mile trip and the first post. On a fresh 100% charged battery I achieved 116 miles on a charge. This time, I did not carry the extra 30 pounds of extra battery and supplies. The terrain was mostly flat, most of it along Pacific coast from Laguna Beach to Long Beach and back.
Same tactic as before, use assistance level 1 (Eco) for 85% of time, switch to level 2 to cover small hills. Motor shut off at 116 miles, road the last 4 miles to home with no assist. Average 15 mph for the day. My goal with the EBike is to provide a little extra (20%) mph. This bike/motor combo is meeting that goal.
 
michael mcvey said:
Giant 2018 Road-E+ - Range 100 mile
Yes, I just rode 100 miles on one battery charge.

The Bike - 2018 Road-E+. Yamaha 500WH. Set up with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. 700*38C.
Great tire last set road 10,000 miles with no flats.

Bike set up for touring and comfort. Cain Creek Thudbuster seat post, Brooks B17 saddle. Rear rack. Arkel Handlebar bag, Arkel Tailrider trunk bag and 2 Arkel rear panniers.
Myself - I’m 68, 140 pounds, been riding normal bike my whole like, enjoy riding the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Orange County Ca. Now ride about 5,000 miles yearly.

Goal with E-Bike. Take the pain out of touring. Ride 100+ miles per day and not feel dead at the end of each day. Would like the E-Bike to provide small amount of assistance and have power to help get over the hills. Increase MPH average by 20%. Range at least 150 miles per day.

I have been looking and reading about E-Bikes for 2 years and not encouraged by post that state the ranges are 20-50 miles. But the LBS owner assured me she is getting 80+ miles from a battery and offered to let me use her Giant E-bike for a couple days. I did and riding 60+ miles with ease on 50% battery, I decided to purchase one. I’m so happy I did.

Special thanks to Kristen (LBS owner) at Pure Ride Cycles in Lake Forrest Ca.

The trip- One Day from Port Hueneme Ca to Mission Viejo. 125 miles. It was really a two day trip. I road the train from MV to Santa Barbara, road the first day from Santa Barbara to PH and spent night in hotel. I’m not counting that first day mileage in this story. I carry two days of clothing, an extra Battery ( yes, I plan to carry a second battery on long trips), food, water, tools, etc. The total extra weight is about 30 pounds.

So the goal was to cover 125 miles along the coast in 1 day and, achieve 100 miles from 1 battery, increase average MPH by 20% and reduce overall time by 2 hours. I do this trip 2-3 times a year on normal bike. My average on normal bike is 12 mph at the end of the day and 13 hours elapsed time. To average 12 mph you spend a lot of time at 16 mph, you lose MPH with the rolling hills and stop and go areas along the route.

The route- Yesterday was strong headwinds from Redondo Beach to Laguna Beach. Usually these are tailwinds. Huntington Beach was hosting the Airshow with Blue Angels and about a million people show up for this, slow going thru this area. The rest of the route was perfect.

Well I did it, battery down to 2% at 100 mile mark. Average speed up to 14.5 (2 mph increase). Change batteries at 100 miles and flew the last 25 miles. Total trip was 11 hours 15 minutes.

How- The Giant Road-E has 3 power settings Eco, Normal and power. I’ll refer to them as level 1,2 and 3. My plan was to stay in level 1 for 85% of the time, using level 2 for hills and headwinds and never use level 3.

And that is how I achieved the 100 miles on 1 battery. So the Road-E meets my goal for multi day touring. I plan to Tour the Pacific Coast this summer. Hopefully CalTrans is able to repair and reopen Coast Highway in California by then. 100 miles on a battery is achievable!
Click to expand...


Michael,

Didn't know it at the time, but I walked into Pure Ride while you were being set up with your bike. I bought one to become the 4th rider in one of my riding groups to now have one. It's a real game changer for we in the senior set. Like you, I've been asked MANY times about the speed and distance of my Road-E.

With over 700 miles of experience on it I now have some real-world numbers to answer some of those questions. I will post a more complete list of my recent rides on my E-Velo4Senors play list shortly but here's what I did yesterday: Local ride here in south O.C. Entire ride on NORM, 500w batt fully charged, 60 miles, 2690 ft of climb, 24% batt left, 18 miles estimated remaining, 14.5mph average.

As you know, the supported "assist" distance is very dependent on the settings and how much human effort is applied. On one ride I took the batt down to 6% after only 40 miles on NORM but I was hammering every hill (17.5mph av.) as hard as I could manage (and we have a lot of those around here) So my answer to the inquiry of speed and distance is always "it depends....."
 
michael mcvey said:
Giant 2018 Road-E+ - Range 100 mile
Yes, I just rode 100 miles on one battery charge.

The Bike - 2018 Road-E+. Yamaha 500WH. Set up with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. 700*38C.
Great tire last set road 10,000 miles with no flats.

Bike set up for touring and comfort. Cain Creek Thudbuster seat post, Brooks B17 saddle. Rear rack. Arkel Handlebar bag, Arkel Tailrider trunk bag and 2 Arkel rear panniers.
Myself - I’m 68, 140 pounds, been riding normal bike my whole like, enjoy riding the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Orange County Ca. Now ride about 5,000 miles yearly.

Goal with E-Bike. Take the pain out of touring. Ride 100+ miles per day and not feel dead at the end of each day. Would like the E-Bike to provide small amount of assistance and have power to help get over the hills. Increase MPH average by 20%. Range at least 150 miles per day.

I have been looking and reading about E-Bikes for 2 years and not encouraged by post that state the ranges are 20-50 miles. But the LBS owner assured me she is getting 80+ miles from a battery and offered to let me use her Giant E-bike for a couple days. I did and riding 60+ miles with ease on 50% battery, I decided to purchase one. I’m so happy I did.

Special thanks to Kristen (LBS owner) at Pure Ride Cycles in Lake Forrest Ca.

The trip- One Day from Port Hueneme Ca to Mission Viejo. 125 miles. It was really a two day trip. I road the train from MV to Santa Barbara, road the first day from Santa Barbara to PH and spent night in hotel. I’m not counting that first day mileage in this story. I carry two days of clothing, an extra Battery ( yes, I plan to carry a second battery on long trips), food, water, tools, etc. The total extra weight is about 30 pounds.

So the goal was to cover 125 miles along the coast in 1 day and, achieve 100 miles from 1 battery, increase average MPH by 20% and reduce overall time by 2 hours. I do this trip 2-3 times a year on normal bike. My average on normal bike is 12 mph at the end of the day and 13 hours elapsed time. To average 12 mph you spend a lot of time at 16 mph, you lose MPH with the rolling hills and stop and go areas along the route.

The route- Yesterday was strong headwinds from Redondo Beach to Laguna Beach. Usually these are tailwinds. Huntington Beach was hosting the Airshow with Blue Angels and about a million people show up for this, slow going thru this area. The rest of the route was perfect.

Well I did it, battery down to 2% at 100 mile mark. Average speed up to 14.5 (2 mph increase). Change batteries at 100 miles and flew the last 25 miles. Total trip was 11 hours 15 minutes.

How- The Giant Road-E has 3 power settings Eco, Normal and power. I’ll refer to them as level 1,2 and 3. My plan was to stay in level 1 for 85% of the time, using level 2 for hills and headwinds and never use level 3.

And that is how I achieved the 100 miles on 1 battery. So the Road-E meets my goal for multi day touring. I plan to Tour the Pacific Coast this summer. Hopefully CalTrans is able to repair and reopen Coast Highway in California by then. 100 miles on a battery is achievable!
Click to expand...
Average 14.5 mph (23 kph) is about right. That's about as fast as a seasoned cyclist on a century ride. One hundred miles was achieved using 500wh battery at the average speed of 14.5 mph or ride time of 6.9 hours. The battery consumption was a very very impressive 5 wh/mile. The average battery's output was 72.5 watts (500/6.9). Factoring in the actual motor efficiency of about 80% (electrical energy conversion to mechanical energy), that's about 58 watts to the wheels..Comparing the calculated value to the existing plotted value, it appears to be in the ball park. As you can see, the motor's power (at low setting) is barely enough to overcome the aerodynamic resistance but you still have to overcome the rolling resistance. And that's where rider's effort comes into play to achieve the speed and mileage.
power curve.jpg


https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/ima...unter-aerodynamic-drag-and-rolling-resistance
That is the advantage of having a small motor (250 watt nominal) since it can still operate at optimum efficiency even at the low end of the power band (72 watts).
 
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Another data point here for people who are considering Giant Road E+...

Maiden ride - did 46 miles with 5000 ft of climb - all in ECO mode except for less than 10 minutes in NORMAL mode on the last hill. (averaging 13.4 mph)
Finished with 30% of battery left and an estimated range of 27 miles left.

Since I foolishly got an extra spare battery, I need to go on some seriously epic rides.
 
Primarily based on the comments and videos on this site, I ordered a Giant Road E and expect delivery tomorrow. I am a 64-year old who has been cycling since the 70's and experienced a quad bypass 10 years ago with resulting heart failure which impacts my riding. My intent with this bike is to have a go-to platform that will allow me to ride the 40-100 mile rides I enjoy and keep the motor (heart) running within a reasonable operating range.

It is my belief that there will be more and more of us riding these, although I have been underwhelmed so far by the marketing efforts by the companies that make them and the people (LBS) selling them. After visiting a few Giant shops, I found the only place I could ride one was at a Giant demo tent event across town where I met the local Giant rep who has proven to be understanding, open and very much a reason for my purchase. Also, my grasp of the concepts and specs of ebikes in general tended to exceed that of the person in the shop who I was talking to. I highly recommend this approach, whichever bike you are buying. The rep can offer a tent event discount through the shop you are buying from and you will come away with a closer relationship to the companies who will support the bike. These are integrated hardware,firmware, and software systems that a lot of LBshops are not good with--and I don't want to spend time doing systems integration (still working).

Anyway, I will go with 38mm tires to smooth the ride a bit, and maybe a shock absorbing seatpost. Any thoughts on modifications are appreciated.

More as the wheels start to turn.
 
Definitely should consider a shock absorbing seat post. The bike goes pretty fast and you definitely will feel all the road bumps. I also wish they have the composite fork (I believe the Road E+ Pro has it) - the current alum fork is pretty unforgiving.
Did 70 miles and 7500 feet climb last Sunday - was a very good ride. Used up 1 and 1/2 batteries.
 
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