TyrannosaurusTreks
Formerly known as Giantbadge
- Location
- Somerset
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
proton666
Active Member
- Location
- The California Abyss
Pro hasn't dropped in the USA yet. Glad to see they have gone all Ultegra. Got real excited when I heard "composite" but just the fork *sigh*. And they filled the silly little gap between the top tube and the down tube. It bugs me so much I'm trying to fill it in. Going to a buddies house next weekend to use his 3D printer to run out a couple of prototypes. If that works I will run it on a CNC mill for the final. Also liked that they removed all the blue and yellow decals.
Last edited:
Thanks for your comments guys. Generally speaking I am a drop bar cyclist. I do have a hardtail mountain bike (Rocky Mountain) that I love, but my road bikes (Look, Specialized Roubaix and Trek) get most action. Having said that, drops or flat doesn't really bother me. One day a week I commute on my mountain bike and really enjoy it - a good bike is a good bike whatever shape the bars and however wide the tyres.
Obviously I've had no luck so far in terms of finding a dealer with my size, which is frustrating. I'm very concerned about getting the correct fit. The deals available on the E+2 2017 do look interesting, but I am worried about the forks issues and also it is a smaller battery (plus the colour scheme isn't great in my opinion).
Primarily I would use the bike as part of my commuting arsenal. I would still ride normal bikes some days, but it would give my knees a rest on others. If I ride for two hours on or off road with no stopping they are completely fine, but the battering from a commute really hurts them. I would also use the bike for other trips, so it would get plenty of use. Mudguards would be needed for year-round riding and it is possible I would go with a rack for carrying some of my heavy camera equipment.
Has anyone ridden a 2017 and a 2018 and if so have they noticed any specific differences? Obviously the ability to pick up a 2017 E+2 for less than £1,600 versus a 2018 E+2 Pro for £3,200 is compelling.
Obviously I've had no luck so far in terms of finding a dealer with my size, which is frustrating. I'm very concerned about getting the correct fit. The deals available on the E+2 2017 do look interesting, but I am worried about the forks issues and also it is a smaller battery (plus the colour scheme isn't great in my opinion).
Primarily I would use the bike as part of my commuting arsenal. I would still ride normal bikes some days, but it would give my knees a rest on others. If I ride for two hours on or off road with no stopping they are completely fine, but the battering from a commute really hurts them. I would also use the bike for other trips, so it would get plenty of use. Mudguards would be needed for year-round riding and it is possible I would go with a rack for carrying some of my heavy camera equipment.
Has anyone ridden a 2017 and a 2018 and if so have they noticed any specific differences? Obviously the ability to pick up a 2017 E+2 for less than £1,600 versus a 2018 E+2 Pro for £3,200 is compelling.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
I've not ridden either, but the difference in the ride will be marginal - they are both good quality, Yamaha crank assist ebikes.
Range is heavily dependent on rider weight/fitness/hills/assist level used and so on, so is hard to advise on.
A couple of the regulars on here can get 100 miles from 500wh, that's a good effort - literally - on their part.
Someone relatively unfit, such as me, gets half that range - you may be somewhere in between.
You probably grasp the 500wh battery will take you about 25 per cent further than the 400wh one.
Moving on to service life of the battery pack, replacements are famously expensive at about £700.
However, the Yamaha - and Bosch - crank drive motor is relatively weedy (legal) which means it doesn't thrash the battery by drawing lots of current.
I have a Bosch battery from 2012 which is still holding as much charge as it ever did.
At some point it will start to decline, it must, but five years and counting isn't too bad .
There's every reason to think Yamaha batteries will perform just as well.
Battery technology is improving, but very, very, slowly.
However, in five/six years it may be available recharge cycles will have been pushed from the hundreds into the thousands.
sheltiedoulos
Regular
Took the Road e+1 for an extended ride last weekend which included some small local hills. It was a blast. After reading you guys' posts, it looks like I should wait for the pro version to be available in US. Apparently, road e+1 pro is available in Canada and for some reason the price is much better than US (can $4499).
kcflyer1957
Regular
I was thankful I had a Road E today. I set out on a 40 mile pleasure ride...speed wasn't the issue, just getting out. I live in the US and our speed restrictions are higher (28 mph). I was on a bike trail and two pit bulls came running for me - no owner in sight. Thankfully the trail was flat and straight. I put my legs in "panic mode" and was peddling pretty fiercely but the dogs were nipping at my heels. Then I flipped it up to "power" mode. And at my panicked pace, went straight up to 28 mph - leaving the dogs behind.
Nice one. With the speed restrictions we have in the UK, I'd of been a tasty morsel for them in that scenario.
OP
OP
Foghat
Freight-train-groove-rider
Tyre update - hopefully a timely one for other owners preparing for a tough winter.....
Unhappy with the fact that Continental's '37mm' Top Contact Winter Premium tyres actually measure a ridiculously undersized 32mm, I recently made enquiries on other forums about the real-world size of the '42mm' version. With no data coming back in response, I took a risk and bought a pair of '42mm' tyres on the assumption that, since Continental can't be trusted to state correct tyre widths, there was a fighting chance they would also come in undersize (as I would prefer for my Road E+1 due to clearance limitations).
It turns out that Continental as ever remains inconsistent with its inconsistency, and in this instance the '42mm' is much closer to its nominal width, and actually measures 40.5mm on an 18mm internal width rim.
So they do fit the bike. There is plenty of room at the front. The rear, though, has about 5mm clearance to the mudguard edges at the closest points, and the rubber fronds that protrude from the tread brush the mudguard over a lot of its length. The fronds rubbing doesn't concern me - they will eventually wear away anyway and the resistance is negligible; however, a broken spoke could cause some difficulties if the wheel goes much out of true.
I'm using 45mm SKS Longboards - they are wide enough to cover the main tyre ok, but about 1-2mm of the fronds extends outside the mudguard coverage, which doesn't bother me. Comfort on appallingly surfaced/maintained (ungritted) roads, and winter grip (frost, ice, snow), for my 200-mile-per-week-year-round commuting workload are the overriding concerns with this bike. If 55mm Longboards existed, I would buy them for the Road E+1, though.
See photos below for the clearances I'm working with. The 40.5mm certainly make for a noticeable improvement in comfort over the stock 32mm Duranos that Giant fits to these bikes, although note I only use these tyres for ice, frost and light snow conditions - when the roads are slippery due to mud/leaves etc, I choose the regular '37mm' Top Contacts (almost true-sized at an actual 36mm), and for severe ice or deeper snow, out come the Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tyres.
These are such good winter tyres that Continental really ought to sell them in 42mm, 37mm and 32mm real widths, not just 40.5mm and 32mm. A nice 28mm version wouldn't go amiss either.
Unhappy with the fact that Continental's '37mm' Top Contact Winter Premium tyres actually measure a ridiculously undersized 32mm, I recently made enquiries on other forums about the real-world size of the '42mm' version. With no data coming back in response, I took a risk and bought a pair of '42mm' tyres on the assumption that, since Continental can't be trusted to state correct tyre widths, there was a fighting chance they would also come in undersize (as I would prefer for my Road E+1 due to clearance limitations).
It turns out that Continental as ever remains inconsistent with its inconsistency, and in this instance the '42mm' is much closer to its nominal width, and actually measures 40.5mm on an 18mm internal width rim.
So they do fit the bike. There is plenty of room at the front. The rear, though, has about 5mm clearance to the mudguard edges at the closest points, and the rubber fronds that protrude from the tread brush the mudguard over a lot of its length. The fronds rubbing doesn't concern me - they will eventually wear away anyway and the resistance is negligible; however, a broken spoke could cause some difficulties if the wheel goes much out of true.
I'm using 45mm SKS Longboards - they are wide enough to cover the main tyre ok, but about 1-2mm of the fronds extends outside the mudguard coverage, which doesn't bother me. Comfort on appallingly surfaced/maintained (ungritted) roads, and winter grip (frost, ice, snow), for my 200-mile-per-week-year-round commuting workload are the overriding concerns with this bike. If 55mm Longboards existed, I would buy them for the Road E+1, though.
See photos below for the clearances I'm working with. The 40.5mm certainly make for a noticeable improvement in comfort over the stock 32mm Duranos that Giant fits to these bikes, although note I only use these tyres for ice, frost and light snow conditions - when the roads are slippery due to mud/leaves etc, I choose the regular '37mm' Top Contacts (almost true-sized at an actual 36mm), and for severe ice or deeper snow, out come the Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tyres.
These are such good winter tyres that Continental really ought to sell them in 42mm, 37mm and 32mm real widths, not just 40.5mm and 32mm. A nice 28mm version wouldn't go amiss either.
Last edited:
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
.
Looks like an acceptable amount of clearance on the front, and those frond-things look extra long to me so them rubbing isn't worth worrying about.
Ebikes are heavy beasts, and I've always thought dead metal weight counts for a bit more than rider weight, which at least shifts around a bit and is suspended by the rider's legs.
Which is my long-winded way of saying I think you are wise to go for plenty of rubber on the ebike.
My experience also accords with yours on marked tyre widths, seems to me actual widths often vary.
While I'm on, is your bike always cleaner than when it left the shop, or is it just for when you want to take photos of it?
Looks like an acceptable amount of clearance on the front, and those frond-things look extra long to me so them rubbing isn't worth worrying about.
Ebikes are heavy beasts, and I've always thought dead metal weight counts for a bit more than rider weight, which at least shifts around a bit and is suspended by the rider's legs.
Which is my long-winded way of saying I think you are wise to go for plenty of rubber on the ebike.
My experience also accords with yours on marked tyre widths, seems to me actual widths often vary.
While I'm on, is your bike always cleaner than when it left the shop, or is it just for when you want to take photos of it?
OP
OP
Foghat
Freight-train-groove-rider
Despite the evidence of the photos, my commuting bikes spend most of their life covered in mud, as I don't have time during the week to do any cleaning. I do a full bike clean once the chain gets to the point it needs degreasing - i.e. about every two to three weeks in rainy periods (so that's most of the year, then!). I have a well-honed cleaning regime, but even so it still takes a fair bit of time to do the job properly.
But most of my commute is on filthy lanes, so whenever the bikes do get cleaned, their gleamingness is invariably ruined by getting caked in mud again the very next ride. Brasses me off, but what can a cyclist do in cold-wet-and-grey-all-year-round Britain?!
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
I wash, or at least wipe down, my bike after every ride.
But that's easy, because i'm only out once or twice a week.
I know if I commuted the bike would get filthy, I'd lose cleaning motivation, and the bike would stay dirty for weeks on end.
But that's easy, because i'm only out once or twice a week.
I know if I commuted the bike would get filthy, I'd lose cleaning motivation, and the bike would stay dirty for weeks on end.
TyrannosaurusTreks
Formerly known as Giantbadge
- Location
- Somerset
Hi foghat,
For the mudguard fitment, what length m4 bolts did you have to use front & back.?
OP
OP
Foghat
Freight-train-groove-rider
I've only used M5 bolts for the mudguards, lengths as follows:
Front
Front
- Left dropout 35mm (with 4 x SKS spacers)
- Right dropout 12mm
- Fork crown 70mm
- Left and right dropouts 8mm or 10mm (can't remember which - probably 8mm as there is not much room in the frame)
- Seatstay bridge 8mm (shallower pan-head for greater tyre clearance)
- Seat tube 10mm (shallower pan-head for greater tyre clearance)
Last edited:
