Giant Stance E+ and Trance E+

[smoothmoose]

Seems to be launched with little fanfare especially here state side. For the Stance E+2 starting at $3500 - seems to be a pretty good entry point for decent trail e-bike.

How does it compare to similar offerings from Haibike and others? The only other e-bikes in this price range is the Motobecane Hal-e I think. With Giant you'll get LBS support which is probably more important for an ebike.

Thoughts? Anybody put a leg over one of these yet?

 

[honkinunit]

I hadn't seen the new Giant eMTBs. The Trance E+ 2 looks like the sweet spot to me, with Shimano components (not the motor though) and the new XT 4-piston brakes, and a Fox fork, for $4600.

Giant uses Yamaha motors but they customize and re-brand the system. I don't know how proprietary they are. It is worth thinking about. Bosch, Shimano, and standard Yamaha parts and batteries should be easy to find ten years from now. The Specialized/Brose system scares me a little because it is very custom to Specialized, and if the Giant/Yamaha system has enough unique parts, it might also be an issue.

Giant makes some great bikes and I suspect the new models will be popular. There are lots of options out there now.

Haibike also makes a great full suspension models, but their Bosch-powered ones have a weird idler wheel to take up chain slack since the Bosch chainrings are so small. Their Yamaha models don't need the idler wheel, and they get great reviews. Haibike dealers are harder to find and their bikes are a little more expensive than the Giants though. It would all come down to how much dealer support you need and which bikes felt best to you on a test ride. Take a real test ride if possible, not a parking lot spin. Haibike is also going proprietary soon, with their own motor/battery system, but up to 2018 they were pretty vanilla Bosch or Yamaha.

I do worry about how obsolete all of this electronic stuff will be in the future.

 

[smoothmoose]

I agree, and have had the same concerns with electric and hybrid cars.

Though I have no concerns that Giant or Specialized will be around in 10 years. They or their motor partners may choose to discountinue parts and batteries for their drive systems, especially for proprietary designs.

The e-bike will be for my wife - she test rode a Levo and liked it - but she wasn't pushing it as she still a beginner. But it gave her a lot of confidence on technical stuff. Only issue is the standover is still pretty high on the Levo.

 

[Zinfan]

I met a rider on a Trance E+ about a month ago, ironically I was out on my non-ebike for that ride lol. He seemed to really enjoy the bike and I thought it was a great looking item.

Sometimes I think about the emerging tech making older stuff obsolete but then I think back on how dang much fun I'm having right now riding what I have. Support may be an issue of course.

 

[Barryboy]

I agree that the small chainring is a stupid idea, it's guaranteed to equal more chainrings and probably more chains over time for one thing. The idler is also to reduce pedal kickback under braking when using a high pivot and a small chainring. It's usually only seen on single pivot bikes, but I think the space the motor takes up encourages a higher pivot, because other makers using the same motor do the same thing.

Scroll down to #7 for related reading.

https://www.bikeradar.com/us/mtb/gea...systems-50849/

 

[scottxpc]

I just ordered the Trance E+2 so I will let you know what I think of it when I get it scheduled for November delivery