LBS did it automatically as part of their pre-delivery service. All I had to do was get on it and ride.

 

Sweet. Hope they get mine done too. Thanks.

 

Hi All. Read this thread 2x already as i just became interested in a e-mtb. I used to do light mtb riding while i was in the service but an amputation in 2010 put every riding to a halt. Well, at least until 3weeks ago when i was at a LBS. I hopped on a trainer and wondered if i could pedal with a prosthetic (left). A little hard but think i can manage. I’ll try to pedal my grandson 26” mtb today and see how it goes., balance is what concerns me most.

The review was really insightful and got me quite interested as i did look at Haibike but have yet to try any. Thanks for writing things up.


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Hi All. Read this thread 2x already as i just became interested in a e-mtb. I used to do light mtb riding while i was in the service but an amputation in 2010 put every riding to a halt. Well, at least until 3weeks ago when i was at a LBS. I hopped on a trainer and wondered if i could pedal with a prosthetic (left). A little hard but think i can manage. I'll try to pedal my grandson 26" mtb today and see how it goes., balance is what concerns me most.

The review was really insightful and got me quite interested as i did look at Haibike but have yet to try any. Thanks for writing things up.

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I had a one legged cyclist pass me on a ride years ago. You can do it and I bet it will be even easier on an ebike. Good luck.

 

Just ordered a Reign E+ Pro 1 from Giant's website. Thanks to all who chimed in on their experience with Giant E-bikes on this thread. It helped me make a decision on which bike and size to buy.

Went to the dealer I'm getting it shipped to and they said since I ordered it through them I get a lifetime warranty on the bike (assuming just the frame), year's worth of free adjustments, and a store discount.

Can't wait until the bike gets here and the local trails dry up!!!!

 

Congratulations!

That Reign will probably ruin all other bikes for you. I went from not being able to ride my local trails (too steep) to trucking my bike to them, to riding to them from my house and now I am adding loops to them to increase my mileage. Just did 25 miles today as a matter of fact and at the start of the year I was happy to do 12.

 

It just might, but I’m keeping my timberjack anyways. It’s light and don’t need a battery.

I got the reign for more enjoyable rides. Here in NC, it gets really hot and muggy, and a 3 hour ride can really make me suffer sometimes on a regular bike. I’m also almost 40 years old, have three denegrated discs in my lower back, and one of them is ruptured pretty bad. Some days I just want to ride and have fun without suffering or killing myself. Hopefully I can put in half day rides on this reign in July with enough energy left over to mow the yard or enjoy time with my girls afterwards.

 

It just might, but I'm keeping my timberjack anyways. It's light and don't need a battery.

I got the reign for more enjoyable rides. Here in NC, it gets really hot and muggy, and a 3 hour ride can really make me suffer sometimes on a regular bike. I'm also almost 40 years old, have three denegrated discs in my lower back, and one of them is ruptured pretty bad. Some days I just want to ride and have fun without suffering or killing myself. Hopefully I can put in half day rides on this reign in July with enough energy left over to mow the yard or enjoy time with my girls afterwards.

I have a Timberjack as well. Never ride it now. LOL. I'm 56 with a whole list of medical problems and six doctors, two attorneys and one judge have decided I am disabled. But the ebike is keeping me on the trail. I rode for over 3 hours today in some warm weather and up multiple nasty hills. Came home completely fatigued but in a good way.

You will love the Reign.

 

Man I hope so. I got a tracking number for it today, so with any luck, I’ll be able to hit some trails on it next weekend. Hope it stays dry enough for the trails to be open next Saturday.

 

The naysayers just don't get it. 63 with 8 back injuries, sworn off motorbikes, barely walking, but still kickin' it. Let me ride my f'ing ebike.

 

At 62 i have no clue how to read minds.
Here is what i think about that new E chapter.
Multi billionnaiires are just extracting more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
In Quebec people get big $$ in subventions from provincial and federal governements to buy the dummest thing. Ecars.
They just add to the traffic problems and parking problems.
Ecars are not clean they run on electricity mostly coming from pollution they are BS on 4 wheels and the huge price tag just concentrate $$$$ in a few pockets.

Ebikes are the solution, we can pedal to work,
to the trails
to have some fun.

Some 10-12 years old boys are pretending to be man and say/write
stuff like never for me or only when it becomes a must.
Their fragile egos probably feel threatens.
Here up north there is a lot of bashing that they damage trails in the winter.
I ride early 6 days a week, i see the damages, many comes from braking
by regular fatbikes. Ask trails groomers they know that to be a fact.

They are just racists who pretend to be great by putting some people down.
They are just showing how much unhappy they are.
Frankly they look quite ***not so smart*** attacking strangers on the web.
I never get attacked in person but on the web people unload their frustrations or something.

That is just my guess.

 

Thanks Shane.
Got the call yesterday that the bike was ready. Unfortunately I was out of town when they called, so I’ll go get it tomorrow. I ordered the bike on Thursday and it was delivered to my local shop and assembled by Saturday. That was a lot faster than I thought it would be.

 

Well, I picked up my Reign yesterday and took it out on the trail at my house last night with a headlamp on. Man, the bike is super fast in power mode 5. hahahaha. I had to try it out to see what it was like. Seemed like it was probably a little too powerful for anything other than a big, steep climb. EMTB mode seemed pretty smooth and plenty powerful.

The bike did seem rather long and lower than what I'm used to. The seat also seemed obnoxiously high with the post lowered all the way down into the seat tube. I'm starting to wonder if I should've got the large instead of the extra large.

I'll get it out on some proper trails this weekend and make a decision. With the 14 day return period on the bike, hopefully if I decide I want a large frame size I can work out a deal for a trade.

Overall, the bike looks sweet and seems well put together. I'm spoiled by bike yoke droppers, so of course the Giant dropper post felt like it was filled with crunchy peanut butter to me, but other than that I don't have any complaints. The front brake felt a bit down on power, but I'm sure once the pads wear in or I do a quick bleed it'll be fine.

Overall, I'm pretty stoked on the bike. This coming saturday afternoon should be interesting. I'd post a picture of it here but this site won't let post my pictures for some odd reason.

 

Well, I picked up my Reign yesterday and took it out on the trail at my house last night with a headlamp on. Man, the bike is super fast in power mode 5. hahahaha. I had to try it out to see what it was like. Seemed like it was probably a little too powerful for anything other than a big, steep climb. EMTB mode seemed pretty smooth and plenty powerful.

The bike did seem rather long and lower than what I'm used to. The seat also seemed obnoxiously high with the post lowered all the way down into the seat tube. I'm starting to wonder if I should've got the large instead of the extra large.

I'll get it out on some proper trails this weekend and make a decision. With the 14 day return period on the bike, hopefully if I decide I want a large frame size I can work out a deal for a trade.

Overall, the bike looks sweet and seems well put together. I'm spoiled by bike yoke droppers, so of course the Giant dropper post felt like it was filled with crunchy peanut butter to me, but other than that I don't have any complaints. The front brake felt a bit down on power, but I'm sure once the pads wear in or I do a quick bleed it'll be fine.

Overall, I'm pretty stoked on the bike. This coming saturday afternoon should be interesting. I'd post a picture of it here but this site won't let post my pictures for some odd reason.

Same issue different bike, I put 4" rise bars so I wouldn't be so low, still I'm centered but comfortable.

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@MX9799

That sounds about right. I use Auto Mode exclusively and it gets me up some very steep hills. Any more power and I would lose traction.

My brakes work great. They may have been a bit soft to begin with but I honestly can't remember. I am very happy with them right now.

Sizing is a difficult one for those of us in-between. I am tweet a small and a medium. Dealer talked me into a medium. Dropper was too long so he swapped it out for a 100mm dropper. It is pretty much perfect all the way up for me. But all the way down....seat still feels too high and we have the post pushed down as far as it will go. BUT, and this is a big but, it does not feel as high now as when I first got it a couple of months ago. Maybe I am getting used to it or maybe the suspension is starting to sag a bit. But I have checked the shock and it is holding air so I am probably just getting used to it.

I know when climbing or descending I want a longer lower slacker medium. When I am goofing around I want a small.

Even so, there is a pretty good chance that next time I will go with the small.

 

@ rkwfxd,

From what little time I got on the bike at my house, it seems like the Auto Mode is the way to go unless you have a very long, very steep climb up a very tall mountain or something. I don't have any of that where I live.

As far as sizing goes, I think a 35mm stem, 40mm riser bars, and a shorter dropper post will get me where I want to be. I measured my new and old bike seat heights last night and the Reign's seat only sits 1.25" taller than my TJ's seat, so I think when I get around to switching out seat posts, I'll get a 150mm dropper. That should put me where I want to be.

I think the bike has me kind of fooled. I think the front wheel being so much farther out in front of me than any other bike I've ridden is making the bike "feel" much longer than it really is.

 

I use a short stem and 80mm rise bars on all my bikes. When I picked mine up, we swapped out the dropper and I set the seat to where I thought it should be. Got home and actually measured and it was exactly the same height as by TJ. When it's right it's right and you will know it. Tayloring the the cockpit to you is a must oh any bike.

Please give us another update(s) as you put miles on it.

Ride Safe

 

Well, I took the new Reign E+ out for a ride on Saturday afternoon. It was the most fun I've ever had on a mountain bike. The trails I rode on were very XC oriented with a lot of pedaling, some decent rock gardens, and several fast, sweeping descents. It was mostly just some relatively flat, flowy single track though.

The bike handled great. It handled much better than I was expecting it to for a bike that long and heavy. At speed, the extra weight and length of the bike seemed to fade away, and it handled great. I gotta say I had the fork and shock set to fox's recommended settings, and they felt great as well.

For the motor, holy smokes this thing is fast. I rode with the bike in Auto mode, and rode WAY faster than I ever have on these trails. Didn't have to shift much either. I think I rode the whole ride somewhere around the middle 3 or 4 cogs. Shifting was flawless and quiet as well.

Complaints? I have two. The first is the brakes. I've always like XT brakes, but these seem down on power than all my other XT's, and have mushiness feel at the lever as well. The stopped me fine, but they have less power than I'm used to. It could be that they are the same, but I'm riding a bike that's 25 pounds heavier than I normally ride. IF they don't improve after a good bleed, I'll be replacing them with Saints.

Second complaint, the range. It was not good. To be fair, I started the ride without charging the battery all the way up, but I still had five lights showing. I also rode pretty hard and fast as well, and I imagined I worked the motor pretty hard with how fast I tried to go, especially up the hills. Still though, I only had 16.5 miles showing on my MTB project app when the bottom battery level light turned orange. I would've hoped to get at least 20 miles on a charge riding in Auto mode. We'll see if that improves as I get more used to the bike.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my purchase. The bike ride was an absolute blast. I'm planning on getting a shorter stem and taller bars to make it a little more comfy. Eventually I'll get a better, slightly shorter dropper as well.

 

Complaints? I have two. The first is the brakes. I've always like XT brakes, but these seem down on power than all my other XT's, and have mushiness feel at the lever as well. The stopped me fine, but they have less power than I'm used to. It could be that they are the same, but I'm riding a bike that's 25 pounds heavier than I normally ride. IF they don't improve after a good bleed, I'll be replacing them with Saints.

Second complaint, the range. It was not good. To be fair, I started the ride without charging the battery all the way up, but I still had five lights showing. I also rode pretty hard and fast as well, and I imagined I worked the motor pretty hard with how fast I tried to go, especially up the hills. Still though, I only had 16.5 miles showing on my MTB project app when the bottom battery level light turned orange. I would've hoped to get at least 20 miles on a charge riding in Auto mode. We'll see if that improves as I get more used to the bike.

Maybe the brakes just need a better bleed?

My range has varied a bit where lights started to go out sooner than usual or stay on longer than normal. Haven't quite figured out why other than sometimes the bike sits for several days before I ride it which reduces the range a bit. I've hit 30+ miles several times with charge to spare and 20-25 miles on a regular basis with two lights still showing. I always charge mine as soon as I get home from a ride.

Enjoy.

 

Yeah, I'm going to get them bled proper when I get a chance. It's no big deal though. The brakes on the bike are plenty adequate, I'd say. I never blew out corner or lost it because the brakes weren't strong enough. I'm just used to, and prefer, a hard bite without much lever pull, and these brakes don't have that right now. No big deal. If the brakes don't improve with a full bleed, I can live with them for a while until I save up some spare coin to get the saints.

The range issue was a little disappointing, but I still had a blast. The LBS said it had a full charge when I picked it up from them at the beginning of the week, and I probably put a few miles on it riding it at the house on my trails during the week before I took it to the trails, but there were still five lights showing when I started the ride. I figure with a legit full charge, and riding a tick mellower, I could possibly get 20+ miles.

I read on another thread that Giant was working on a bigger battery to fit the bikes. If it comes down to it, I'll get that one and use it, plus keep the one that came on it in the truck and just switch it out in the parking lot for more miles. I definitely had enough energy left after the battery go low to ride for another couple hours.

 

I doubt it was fully charged. LBS told me the same thing. I brought it home and threw it on the charger. Yes the controller showed 5 lights but the charger did not go solid green for FOUR hours. That's longer than it takes to get a full charge after a 25 mile ride now.

I bet your next ride, after a true full charge, will result in better range.

 

That's good to know. I had a feeling it might get better once I read the manual and learned that it had been stored in the warehouse in a "hibernation" state and that the dealer had to "wake" up the battery. It didn't seem like my charger had been opened when I got it, so I think the dealer did the "wake up" deal on the battery, saw that it had five lights, and just told me that it was fullly charged.

Hoping to go for another big ride this weekend so we'll see how it goes. I'd be happy to get 25-30 miles off a full charge.

 

Don't charge fully for storage = bad for pack cells.
Use the button on the charger for 'storage charge' to 60%. Takes less than an hour.
Charge fully to ride for best range - also balances all the cells best as possible.

 

Browneye - I get the whole 60% charge for storage deal that I read in the manual, but if I charge the battery up one day, and then ride two or three days later, is the that really going to make much of a difference in range. FWIW, the manual says to charge it to 60% if it's going to be stored a month or more.

In other words, if I'm a weekend warrior (and I am; not much if any time to ride on weekdays), should I charge the battery to 60% when I'm done with a weekend ride, and wait until the next Saturday or Sunday to put in a full charge right before I head to the trails?

 

That's exactly what I do. 60% charge after riding, then full up the night before.

And store your battery at room temp - if the garage is going to be under 55F or over 75F then bring it indoors. They hate heat worse than they suffer in sub-zero. Hi-temps will really kill them.

Lithium-ion batteries are pretty durable, and not nearly as unstable as say, Lithium-Polymer, but they definitely benefit from proper care in number of full charges they'll take before degrading.

Storing at full charge is one of those no-no's. I dunno, a lot of other simple cordless appliances dock on a charging station and stay full always. But then, they don't generally have a $900 battery either. LOL

The biggest issue with a full charge is that temperature and unbalanced cells can send some to overcharge state, and that is really bad for them. This is where you find it won't get to to full capacity. Your RideControl app will show your max battery capacity, just like your smartphone. Over time you see them drop a few percentage points. My other bike is at 97% after a dozen cycles. The Trance is still 100. My 4-year old iPhone 6 is at 88%.

 

Gotcha. I'd guess my basement, which is where I keep my bikes, never gets under or much over about 60 degrees. I'll start charging to 60% after a ride from now on and top it off right before a ride. Hopefully, that can get my range up quite a bit, or else I'm going to have to get a spare battery to keep in the truck.

 

Update on my Reign E+1. Went for a ride on Wednesday afternoon at my house. My aim was to start with the battery at 100% power, confirmed by the giant app, and ride until the battery went dead to see how many miles I could get. I have a loop I built in the woods on my property around my house that is over a mile long according to project mtb, and I just ride laps usually, but I sometimes session the jump line in front of the house.

My ride started off with 100% battery, but my daughter wanted me to ride some with her before I really got going on the trails. I didn't keep up with the mileage while I was riding with her on the easy parts of the trail, but I'd guess I got about a half a mile of distance riding with her. When she was finished riding, I turned on the giant app, started recording the ride, and checked the battery level. It had 97% power when I started recording the ride. I turned what I thought was 14 laps on the trail, with some more easy riding with my daughter on the easier parts of the trail between laps a couple of times. Maybe I lost count of the laps I did, but when the bottom battery level light turned orange, I did one more lap and stopped riding. Upon ending my route on the app, I found out I had 4% battery left, and I had rode 39.5 km, or 24.54 miles. I don't know if my app is wrong, I lost count of laps and did quite a bit more than 14 laps, or if I rode a lot more with my daughter between laps than I realized, but I didn't think I had put that many miles on the bike in this ride. I rode the whole ride in auto mode. I'll do a full battery ride again my next ride and see if I get the same mileage to confirm things. The app did say my ride time was 1 hour and 56 minutes, which I know is right.

As far as the bike goes, I'm getting more accustomed to it and like it even more now. This bike truly handles great. The trails at my house are far from anything I would consider tough, but the bike really does corner, pivot, and jump way better than I could've imagined. Even though I need some taller bars and a slightly shorter stem to get a little more comfy, I'm still enjoying the ride.

The stock dropper post and saddle have to go as soon as I can get the money for a bike yoke dropper and WTB volt saddle though. The stock seat isn't as comfortable as the WTB volt I have on my TJ, and the giant dropper just feels terrible compared to the bike yoke 160 dropper I have on that same bike.

Upgrade list:
40 or 50 mm riser bars - havent decided on rise or bar clamp diameter
35 mm stem - which ever bar clamp diameter handlebar I decide on
Bike Yoke Revive 160 dropper
WTB Volt Saddle
Spare battery from Giant for longer days at the trail or bike park

 

I'm sure you got at least 24 miles out of your battery. I know I can get a solid 30 out of mine in the hills. But I do run my tires at a higher (30-35psi) pressure.

 

Went riding at Brumley Forest Nature preserve yesterday. I started the ride with a confirmed 100% battery level according to the app. Unfortunately, my tracking app messed up sometime during the ride, and I didn't get a recorded distance. However, according to the trail maps of the park, I got 6.8 miles farther than I did last weekend (16.5 miles), which would put me at 23.3 miles. I planned it out just perfect, as the battery went dead enough to stop pedal assistance when I was about 100 yards from where my truck sat in the parking lot. Hahahahahaha.

I'd like to get a spare battery for this thing to keep in the truck for some longer rides. I feel like a 25 mile ride is a pretty good ride right now, but once I get my fitness back up from not riding all winter, I got a feeling I'll be looking for more miles.

 

Hmmm, I don't know what I am doing differently but I believe I can consistently get 30+ miles out of a charge in auto mode. I've ridden 30+ a couple of times with one light left and only completely drained the battery once at 35 miles.

The first three and the last three miles of my usual 24 mile ride are on pavement but they also include hills and when I am done I always have two lights left. Was just getting ready to up it to 30 miles when I crashed and hurt myself and then the virus came.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty happy with the range I'm getting right now. On this bike, I pretty much go all out whenever I'm riding it, so I could probably eek out another mile or two if I slowed down a bit and took it a little easier on the hills and on the flats, but that's not as fun, so I pedal hard whenever I'm pedaling. I hit the speed / assist limiter on this thing a lot more than I thought I would.

I'd imagine those six miles of pavement you have on your ride helps your mileage a little too. Even if you have some hills on those pavement miles, I think pavement riding requires a less from the motor.

I don't mind having to buy another battery for longer rides either. I had thought I might need one before I bought the bike, but since I'd never ridden an ebike in the woods before I got this bike, I didn't buy one right away. I really wasn't sure if I'd need one. I thought a two hour ride might be all I could do, even on an ebike. I know now by the time the summer rolls around I'll still have some energy left for more miles after going through one battery charge.

 

On this bike, I pretty much go all out whenever I'm riding it,

There's the difference right there. I am confident I am riding more conservatively than you and that is giving me the added range.

The best part is, it sounds like we are both having a blast.

Stay Healthy.

 

I'm getting a little better range, ride mostly in level 3, with 4 or 5 for hills.
Last loop was 23 miles, 7 on road to and from trails, app said 24% charge left or 13 more miles. 3500ft elevation gain.
I'm surely happy with that!

 

That's great mileage there. I'd be thrilled with that too!!!

 

@Browneye, Chris it sounds like we are local. After this virus is knocked out we will need to get together for a ride.

 

You got it. :thumbsup:

I've done the loop about eight times now - it's way fun.

I did crash hard a couple of weeks ago - pedestrian stepped right in front of me at the last moment - I had a choice of clipping or a fire-hydrant. Clipped the ped and it instantly knocked me down. I even called out to them, but apparently she didn't know her right from her left. Is that common???? LOL

Bike is okay, I have a cracked rib, back knocked out, and hamburger-knuckles. A couple of visits to the PT and I'm feeling better, knuckles mostly healed, just hurts to sneeze or cough. If I get the virus I'm dead. :lol:

I learned my lesson - peds get a WIDE berth. Like dodging a deer on the highway.