I had the most unsatisfying conversation with the Giant service rep today.

[malc101]

I called a contact given me for a second time. The person is a central support person. Just like when I called about the App not being suitable for use a month ago, and went through the details, I got the same dismissive denial about so many people having water ingress problems this time (which I have not had yet but every day someone else I know does). Both issues where supposedly new to the person. I asked if anyone ever looks at any of the forums and was told they don't. Always the same response, assuming that I am some dumb Fk'er, telling me that it could be a million things, could just be on bikes in other countries, etc. I explained that I've heard that the dealers are mostly doing a great job trying to keep up with the issues, but someone from corp should put a public face on owning this issue that has people tearing apart their bikes themselves, repeatedly. All I can say is when I spend $6500 on something I expect better. This is the same support I'd expect when calling Huffy Bikes about the $79 bike from KMart. I hope that others are raising a fuss through their channels as well.

 

[jerry]

They cannot afford to spend time on people moaning about hearsay problems they haven't even experienced themselves.

 

[malc101]

They cannot afford to spend time on people moaning about hearsay problems they haven't even experienced themselves.

First contact was about the App. That was not hearsay problems. I usually keep up with the hearsay problems so I don’t have those 25 miles away from my start, and so that my bike vacations don’t get cut short. A friend had the water problem happen to her last week during a rain storm after a few months of bliss. It was the first time that bike got wet. . Oh wait, the guy is at my door with his $1500 Ebike delivering my food in the rain. Let me go see if my 20 year old Yamaha snowmobile will start after all day riding in slushy snow.

 

[Dale_Calgary]

What's wrong with the app?

 

[malc101]

What's wrong with the app?

The fact it has to be online to work when you are In the outback, the incorrect values, forced bike firmware updates as you are setting off for a ride, , lack of reporting on the Plus battery level. I forget the other things. It’s all documented here and in the app stores.

 

[Kingerz]

The fact it has to be online to work when you are In the outback, the incorrect values, forced bike firmware updates as you are setting off for a ride, , lack of reporting on the Plus battery level. I forget the other things. It’s all documented here and in the app stores.

Just leave it offline it works for batter %. No need to use it otherwise.

 

[Gary]

 

[jeanmarc]

Just leave it offline it works for batter %. No need to use it otherwise.

Nope
When your phone is without internet connexion the app doesn’t work. No battery % nothing, just a login screen and that is a flaw of this app. It should connect to the bike using Bluetooth but the developers have decided that you can’t connect to your Bike if you’re not on the internet. You’ll never see this problem if you only ride bike parks, heck, the local Giant rep didn’t even know about this issue. We have to revert to something like LightBlue app (or is there anything else?) to get battery % when riding off the grid.

 

[malc101]

Nope
When your phone is without internet connexion the app doesn’t work. No battery % nothing, just a login screen and that is a flaw of this app. It should connect to the bike using Bluetooth but the developers have decided that you can’t connect to your Bike if you’re not on the internet. You’ll never see this problem if you only ride bike parks, heck, the local Giant rep didn’t even know about this issue. We have to revert to something like LightBlue app (or is there anything else?) to get battery % when riding off the grid.

And since the app must be online while you ride, what kind of information is being collected? The reason why the app matters is so that you can learn to get the most range out of the battery. My reason for wanting the app to work is because i have the 625wh battery and the 240wh Plus battery, yet I seem to get about the same range as I get out of my Haibike with its 500wh battery and similar Yamaha motor. I specifically bought this bike for range on back area rides. The watt ratings that the app reports back are like 50w avg. That is off by around four times. 50w is a what a small fan motor draws. I suspect some of the shorter battery life has to do with the much bigger front sprocket on this bike, which encourages a lower and more comfortable cadence, which is less efficient. My other reason I want this to work is that I paid $6500 to get a properly manufactured item. That $6500 would get me a Suzuki DRZ-400 that would operate without a miss for 30 years, covered in mud.

 

[malc101]

Nope
When your phone is without internet connexion the app doesn’t work. No battery % nothing, just a login screen and that is a flaw of this app. It should connect to the bike using Bluetooth but the developers have decided that you can’t connect to your Bike if you’re not on the internet. You’ll never see this problem if you only ride bike parks, heck, the local Giant rep didn’t even know about this issue. We have to revert to something like LightBlue app (or is there anything else?) to get battery % when riding off the grid.

I've got to wonder if you spoke to the same rep. I got exactly the same response, "first I am hearing of this app issue, and why would you not be connected to the internet on a ride", then told me to place complaints on the App Store where the developers look (where there are 100's of same complaint.)

 

[jeanmarc]

I've got to wonder if you spoke to the same rep. I got exactly the same response, "first I am hearing of this app issue, and why would you not be connected to the internet on a ride", then told me to place complaints on the App Store where the developers look (where there are 100's of same complaint.)

I think app store is the right channel for this. Is it poor s/w development or a request from corporate, who knows?
Have you found any other apps that can read the battery %

 

[malc101]

I think app store is the right channel for this. Is it poor s/w development or a request from corporate, who knows?
Have you found any other apps that can read the battery %

Garmin, LightBlue. However, when using the aux Plus battery the percent is just weird using any monitor. It shows percent of total, so if fully charged you will see 100 with or without the plus battery connected, and just the fictitious range will change. That range is not an adaptive reading, so it will show like you have 70 miles left at half charge, when you got 20 out of the first half. In addition, you can't see the burn rate of the Plus battery, which I suspect is much faster than the main pack because it operates the pack alone putting the same load on it that it places on the main battery, operating the cells at a much higher C rate. All of this seems to be done without anyone who knows electromechanical stuff. Have a look at the aux battery configuration parameters on the Specialized Levo SL and you will see what options should be there, including configure parallel, burn first (rather than burn end), and a few other settings. For battery life, the Plus battery should burn first. Otherwise you end up with a 100 percent charged battery for weeks or months at a time unless you dip your main battery below 90 percent and kick in the Plus battery, which will burn until rundown, then flip back to the main battery.

 

[cappuccino34]

Giant should never have decided to try to develop their own firmware and software because they just aren't capable of delivering.

I've had my bike for nearly two years now and gave up hoping for a solution ages ago. My solution has been to buy a different bike, and I'll never buy a Giant product ever again. They're just a joke.

I'm in the UK, so nothing will be done here, but if enough people get together in the US maybe something can be done there to force Giant to get their act together?

 

[malc101]

Giant should never have decided to try to develop their own firmware and software because they just aren't capable of delivering.

I've had my bike for nearly two years now and gave up hoping for a solution ages ago. My solution has been to buy a different bike, and I'll never buy a Giant product ever again. They're just a joke.

I'm in the UK, so nothing will be done here, but if enough people get together in the US maybe something can be done there to force Giant to get their act together?

The US rep seemed to have no interest. I’ve been in software development all of my life, often interfacing with custom hardware. I was treated like a complaining dummy and he did not take any follow up contact info from me. It seemed like his only goal was to get me off the phone and send me back to the dealer. This occurred on two calls a month apart, first asking about the app, then asking about water ingress.

 

[lharpel1]

I dont think this is just a Giant thing. Most of my mates have Levos. All of them have had at least 2 motors and one brought a Levo Gen 3 for £9k and had to have a new motor with in 2 months ! Another mate brought a Cube. One day just stop with an error for no reason and had to go back tot he dealers for a firmware upgrade as you cant do it via the app. Also the Cube/Bosch app does not let you tweak the power settings. So he no where near the controllability we do over power levels, make him very mad!. No ebike is perfect by a long long way. But other brands have a lot bigger issues !

Though it does not make it right. Bad customer server !

 

[Kingerz]

Nope
When your phone is without internet connexion the app doesn’t work. No battery % nothing,

I am looking at it now with internet off and it works fine. You might get one or even more prompts to connect to the internet; just close them and it delivers the data shown in the pics. Mine always has anyway and I've read about this as typical (2021 Trance e+). Since i got a garmin Edge, I never even think about the app and it might as well not exist. Hope that helps, it is used to frustrate me before.

 

[cappuccino34]

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Agreed, all bikes seem to have issues, but none of the others seem to be nearly as bad as Giant. I wouldn't allow a product out of the door with so many problems, that's what prototypes are for.

Re the app, you shouldn't have to update the bike before you can see any information, that's plain stupid.
'a firmware update is available, update at your earliest opportunity' would be far more useful than 'get out'.

 

[jeanmarc]

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Hey Kingerz,
Did some more tests after reading your post, turns out if you start the app when you have internet connexion and login then you can lose internet and app keeps talking bluetooth to the Bike… And as long as you keep the app running in background, it connects to the bike. As soon as you kill and restart the app without internet it’s game over. The login screen appears and you can’t get around it. Mine is iPhone app yours seems to be Android, it is very possible that there is a different behaviour between platforms.
Anyway, thanks for your post, at least now I have a way to keep it connected.
On the positive side, all bike settings that I had modified previously stayed configured and the bike did not return to factory settings.
I think we should move this conversation to the GIANT RIDECONTROL APP ISSUES:

Giant RideControl App Issues

Hi, ever since I purchased my bike I've never been able to access ebike settings within app. My bike is synced otherwise. I've got the latest update. I've tried removing battery, reinstalling app and I continue to get the 'Please Try Again' notice on that setting. I have this expensive bike and...

www.emtbforums.com

Cheers!