Trance E Freehub issues

[Evolution Stu]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I have been in touch with the shop and they know about the issue with the old controller and have ordered me a new controller and cables to be fitted as soon as they arrive. I have agreed it can all be done on my 6 week check as I will need a new rear tyre then as well so might as well leave it there a while and get it all sorted. Could need pads too. LOL.

However, they are pretty sure mine is already running the V2 controller as my bike was shipped after the new ones were installed.

They are speaking with Giant about it to determine how we tell the difference between V1 and V2 and i have fired across frame numbers and an image of the controller numbers.

 

[Evolution Stu]

For transparency by way of update...
GIANT and the LBS changed my controller and its been fine ever since.

The regreased rear hub has done around 400miles since.
Again, no issues.

 

[Browna41]

For transparency by way of update...
GIANT and the LBS changed my controller and its been fine ever since.

The regreased rear hub has done around 400miles since.
Again, no issues.

Yep mine had new controllers etc it was just my LBS wasn't that local so had to ship it back everytime and could be without the bike for months whilst it was trying to be fixed.. Giant did offer another bike in the end as they couldn't fix the fault but I personally couldn't go through that again. They did suspect a main cable could be damaged but the bike was only 4 months old since I bought it but only used it a handful of times. Of those times was cycling back without any assistance for 10-15 miles and it had an odd rattle. Anyway when the bike worked it was phenomenonal in the way it performed. I did get something not quite so pretty a bergamont e trailster now owned by Scott which has had no problems at all ? I hope you continue to have a trouble free bike. I believe Giant have a great backing so I am sure you will be OK with that even if the warranty runs out I am sure a brand like that wouldn't let you down cheers for now. Pete
??

 

[Evolution Stu]

Thats crazy mate, I couldn't wait days, let alone months!
The first warranty issue, my hub was done while I waited, and the second issue, the controller was done while it was in for its 8-week check over so was back to me in 24hrs.

I hope there isnt a third issue... LOL

Hope your new one continues to be trouble-free pal.

 

[Pukmeister]

My Giant store manager recently told me over a chat during collecton/handover that my new Trance E2 has the improved V4 controller which is their latest version and fault free after the previous water ingress and power shutdown issues. Only a month and about 250 miles in so far, but it has been faultless (touch wood).

Loving the bike and glad the local Giant/LiV shop are very supportive of their products, faultless aftersales replacement service from them so far regarding a slow puncture on my new front Michelin tyre. Glad I didn't risk buying a "direct to consumer" product instead and being left out in the wilderness (pun intended).

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

My E+ 2 has made knocking noises from the very first ride. I found out the derailer clutch was not engaged and once I engaged it the noise seemed to mostly go away but I am still hearing popping/knocking noise on every ride. It is mostly when I apply a fair amount of torque to pedals, especially after stopping pedaling and then restarting. I wasn't sure what the noise was but now I am almost certain it is the freehub. I will be taking bike to LBS. Here is link to my video of the noise.

I realise this post and video was made at the beginning of this year, but I'd just like to point out that our bikes have two ratchets. One inside the motor, and one inside the hub. (I tried to see if it had already been mentioned but this thread is very long and I gave up after page 3 ).

On a bike stand, if you backpedal while holding the rear wheel stationary - you will hear the motor ratchet. Then if you spin the rear wheel forward on its own, you will hear the hub ratchet.

That "knock" noise we hear on occasion is when the pawls of either ratchet (or both) but I would guess more likely the motor - happen to be mid-step when pedalling starts. Sometimes we don't hear the knock because the pawls happen to be smack on-point when we start to pedal.

I can't find or remember where I heard it from to give a reference, but I believe that the new 2020 Yamaha SyncDrive Pro motor may have increased the number of teeth on the motor ratchet to engage quicker and minimise the knock.

 

[DavidRSS]

I have a giant reign E+ Pro 2. 5 days since purchase. 2nd ride. Total freehub failure. Was going up a short punchy climb when I though my chain had snapped. (First ride the dropper post stuck in the down position so not great luck so far). I never had this issue once with my previous e-mtb, and 2017 Specialized Levo.


Bike shop did repair and told me this could happen if hub is over torqued. This worries me. I really don’t want to walk back 4 miles again. Does anyone have any suggestions here? Is there a more reliable and robust hub mechanism that will fit inside this giant branded hub? Or if I have to replace the hub altogether, what is the most robust , ebike appropriate hub?

 

[Alcove]

Looking at Giant Canada site looks like your Reign is spec'd the same hub as my '19 e-Trance.

I went through 3 hubs before they finally replaced it with a DT350 and believe this is Giant's go to solution as I've seen others here getting the same replacement.

I was forced to get a backup wheelset that I found a great deal on Pink Bike....

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

I have a giant reign E+ Pro 2. 5 days since purchase. 2nd ride. Total freehub failure. Was going up a short punchy climb when I though my chain had snapped. (First ride the dropper post stuck in the down position so not great luck so far). I never had this issue once with my previous e-mtb, and 2017 Specialized Levo.


Bike shop did repair and told me this could happen if hub is over torqued. This worries me. I really don’t want to walk back 4 miles again. Does anyone have any suggestions here? Is there a more reliable and robust hub mechanism that will fit inside this giant branded hub? Or if I have to replace the hub altogether, what is the most robust , ebike appropriate hub?

I was aware of the Giant rear hub being prone to failure and I mentioned my concern about this to my LBS when I picked up my bike (2019 Trance-e) September last year. They said that they know about this and have assured me that if mine failed that they would replace it no questions asked. Although from their sales history they did say that some fail and some don't. Mine was one of those that didn't. The fault as I understand it, has something to do with the type of grease used during some of the production runs but not all. The bad grease would harden and prevent the pawls from dropping back in fully into the ratchet valleys. Then the pawls would self destruct due to e-power applied with only partial engagement. I intended to open mine up straight away to clean and re-grease the ratchet area, but I forgot all about it - until I read this post! Yours should be a straight warranty replacement, but if the replacement is another Giant stock hub, get your LBS to re-grease the ratchet with good stuff before you accept it. I would have to disagree with their explanation that the hub was over torqued, but I could be wrong. If by chance you get a second hub failure... that should still be under warranty - I would then insist that the shop re-lace your wheel with an after-market hub, like a DTS Swiss or similar.

The dropper post has it's cable hook-up point at the bottom end of the post sleeve. You will notice that the Maestro suspension linkage has its main pivot going through the middle of the Seat Tube. If you happen to insert the dropper post all the way in, the dropper cable actuation can get partially pinched or get a kink in it. Either immediately or later on, once the inner cable seizes - your post won't be able to return. If this happens again, just raise the dropper sleeve a little to free up the kink.
There is another cause... don't over tighten the Seat Clamp. If you do, the dropper post sleeve will get choked at that point which could seize the inner piston of the dropper post stanchion. However, if you don't tighten the Seat Clamp enough, the unit will slowly slip back down and eventually hit the suspension pivot... then you'll kink the inner cable. Make sure there's no grease inside your Seat Tube so it will hold the post in place without requiring excessive clamping.

 

[Yielar]

My friend and I both have 2019 Trance Pro +1 bikes and the LBS replaced 3 of his rear hubs before the local Giant Rep approving replacements to a strong aftermarket hub. We were both approved for DT Swiss 350 Hybrids (e-bike specific) which comes with beefier spokes but my friend didn't want to wait the 2 months so he just went with the regular DT Swiss 350. Both rear hubs have held up great with no issues this year. My suggestion is do not let your LBS replace with the stock Giant rear hub. There is a known issue and they simply aren't built to strong enough specs required for the e-bike torque.

 

[DavidRSS]

My friend and I both have 2019 Trance Pro +1 bikes and the LBS replaced 3 of his rear hubs before the local Giant Rep approving replacements to a strong aftermarket hub. We were both approved for DT Swiss 350 Hybrids (e-bike specific) which comes with beefier spokes but my friend didn't want to wait the 2 months so he just went with the regular DT Swiss 350. Both rear hubs have held up great with no issues this year. My suggestion is do not let your LBS replace with the stock Giant rear hub. There is a known issue and they simply aren't built to strong enough specs required for the e-bike torque.

Thanks for this advice. If it fails again, I’ll just purchase the hybrid hub and relace the wheel.

 

[Nemesis]

Just wanted to share some pics of my sheared freehub for those that were curious. I'm only 12 charge cycles in, and the freehub on my 2020 reign e+2 gave out on me on a steep uphill last week. Within a few rides leading up to the failure, there were a couple instances on full stride pedal strokes where the chains felt like it skipped a tooth and made loud "conk" sound. From the reading i've done in this thread, i'm assuming that was the pawls skipping teeth and catching again potentially due to the thicker grease mistakenly applied at the factory.

My local LBS reached out to Giant to warranty the freehub, but the wait time is an interesting "2-6 weeks". While I wait, I just want to get back out riding. Does anyone know a replacement freehub that would work? Maybe replacement pawls? The part number on this Giant proprietary hub yields no results.

I've circled the parts in red that show how much material used to be on the pawls. The rest have seemingly slowly sheared away. The ratchet splines on the inner hub still look to be in good condition, since it's cast from hardened steel.

 

[Rob C]

Hi All. Just had my free hub die yesterday. My bike is about 18mths old and done about 4-5000 km. It slipped and crunched for about 30 seconds then started free spinning as I pedal. I had no idea what was going on. Are these freehubs From giant any good? A lot of what I read about quality Freehubs talks about aluminum and steel but from the giant spares website they look like plastic and not much info about specs.

 

[Yetibos]

there are 2 main problems with these rear hubs:

pawls system: very poor quality, not strong enough. Hub come with so much grease and the spring is not so strong, so grease + dirty/dust make it doesn't work and sometimes just 1 o 2 teeth are supporting all the power due this reason. Result broken pawl system & broken ratchet ring.

Hub ring thread: due so much power sometime the ratchet ring thread form the hub body gets gone.

Both problem have solution: complete new hub

Is covered under warranty and there is a totally new hub, very similar as dt swiss 350 hubs. It has much more quality, is quite better hub and it doesn't report any problem.

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

Both problem have solution: complete new hub

Is covered under warranty and there is a totally new hub, very similar as dt swiss 350 hubs. It has much more quality, is quite better hub and it doesn't report any problem.

View attachment 43430

Thanks for the info. The visual difference between the two (wasn’t initially obvious to me) is that the right hand flange of the new/better rear hub has a stout inner surround. I immediately checked what type is on my Trance e+pro... it’s still doing well so far - but it’s the old version.

 

[DariuszHoryd]

there are 2 main problems with these rear hubs:

pawls system: very poor quality, not strong enough. Hub come with so much grease and the spring is not so strong, so grease + dirty/dust make it doesn't work and sometimes just 1 o 2 teeth are supporting all the power due this reason. Result broken pawl system & broken ratchet ring.

Hub ring thread: due so much power sometime the ratchet ring thread form the hub body gets gone.

Both problem have solution: complete new hub

Is covered under warranty and there is a totally new hub, very similar as dt swiss 350 hubs. It has much more quality, is quite better hub and it doesn't report any problem.

View attachment 43430

Reading all posts about Formula hubs, and be aware of poor quality, first after buy a Trance E+ 2019, I was remove the rear wheel, unscrew endcaps, and put chain oil inside all bearings, and check all pawls, and for now everthing works fine, but evenso I think this Formula hubs, will not reach even close to DT quality. But maybe they will reach 2 yrs warranty and as far as I remember, one side of hub has factory grease (red color) and the other side was complete dry... so no comment more.

 

[Yetibos]

Reading all posts about Formula hubs, and be aware of poor quality, first after buy a Trance E+ 2019, I was remove the rear wheel, unscrew endcaps, and put chain oil inside all bearings, and check all pawls, and for now everthing works fine, but evenso I think this Formula hubs, will not reach even close to DT quality. But maybe they will reach 2 yrs warranty and as far as I remember, one side of hub has factory grease (red color) and the other side was complete dry... so no comment more.

yes, that's totally true, this red greasse is shit for the pawls.

 

[GrandPaBrogan]

yes, that's totally true, this red greasse is shit for the pawls.

Makes me want to open my rear hub now and re-grease the pawls.

 

[Yetibos]

Makes me want to open my rear hub now and re-grease the pawls.

I don't recommend to put grease in the freehub. Much better to use just oil and take care more often, to clean and lubricate it.

 

[DariuszHoryd]

I don't recommend to put grease in the freehub. Much better to use just oil and take care more often, to clean and lubricate it.

Yes, mate! clean factory grease, put some small amount of oil on bearings, and pawls.

 

[Mesa]

I have been mountain biking switchbacks almost daily with my Orange 2019 Trance E pro +1. I have had no repairs.

A great bike for me and I weigh 230 lbs. I punish it on part of the trails here near my 400' hill. Had it for 1 year 11 months.

I have been looking to upgrade but I am so stable on this I don't use a helmet and have never come close to falling on my 200 acre hill.

Thanks for the hub alert.

 

[Potato]

I just want to say this was the best purchase I made in 2020, I got a Trance SX E+pro1 in grey, just before covid happened. It was on sale year end clearance. It has been so fun, and I can ride like I am 20 again. I have been riding for over 25years, and the extra boost has made riding just a bit more awesome.

My only problem was the rear hub. After about 1500km I heard a loud bang just like people have described, a bit of grinding and then my freehub locked, which was different than I had heard of, better failure. I was able to ride out, because the chainring was doing all the coasting, my chain would bunch up a bit if I was coasting too fast, and I would just pedal a bit more and downshift. The bike shop replaced the hub, and it did seem to have the waxy build up inside.

The bike was in the shop for 1.5weeks, Giant sent a replacement pretty quick and I was riding again.
The new hub was louder, that was about it.

Unfortuneatly after 150km it broke again. A loud bang and the buzzing became very quiet, I tried to ride out, but another bang about 5mins later and I had no drive at all. This failure was similar to the ones I had heard of. I started hiking out and was not happy. I remembered I had zip ties and I tied the cassette to the spokes and rode out as gently as I could on the side roads.

This time it took 5weeks, I just got it back and missed the warm spell we had last week. I had asked for an aftermarket hub, requesting a Hope Pro4, but giant has refused. And they said they have a better hub now. From the pictures that Yetibos posted I have the ED hub now. Is the ED hub new? Just wondering why I didn't get it in July. And if it can be confirmed that this ED hub won't blow up.

Other than the freehub, no other issues.

 

[Yetibos]

I just want to say this was the best purchase I made in 2020, I got a Trance SX E+pro1 in grey, just before covid happened. It was on sale year end clearance. It has been so fun, and I can ride like I am 20 again. I have been riding for over 25years, and the extra boost has made riding just a bit more awesome.

My only problem was the rear hub. After about 1500km I heard a loud bang just like people have described, a bit of grinding and then my freehub locked, which was different than I had heard of, better failure. I was able to ride out, because the chainring was doing all the coasting, my chain would bunch up a bit if I was coasting too fast, and I would just pedal a bit more and downshift. The bike shop replaced the hub, and it did seem to have the waxy build up inside.

The bike was in the shop for 1.5weeks, Giant sent a replacement pretty quick and I was riding again.
The new hub was louder, that was about it.

Unfortuneatly after 150km it broke again. A loud bang and the buzzing became very quiet, I tried to ride out, but another bang about 5mins later and I had no drive at all. This failure was similar to the ones I had heard of. I started hiking out and was not happy. I remembered I had zip ties and I tied the cassette to the spokes and rode out as gently as I could on the side roads.

This time it took 5weeks, I just got it back and missed the warm spell we had last week. I had asked for an aftermarket hub, requesting a Hope Pro4, but giant has refused. And they said they have a better hub now. From the pictures that Yetibos posted I have the ED hub now. Is the ED hub new? Just wondering why I didn't get it in July. And if it can be confirmed that this ED hub won't blow up.

Other than the freehub, no other issues.

Yes, de ED reference is the new one. Is much better hub, as you can see is quite similar to DT Swiss 350 hybrid:

Maybe in July this new hub was not ready yet.

 

[orangeterror]

I purchased a 2020 Trance E+3 in November of 2020. I am now on my THIRD Hub (in less than four months and less than 800 km). Both failures happened shortly after a downshift to a lower gear (made a sound like a rough shift) just as I was moving from the flat to a slight climb and then the chain spun and the hub would not grab. The first time I happened to be close to my car, the second time necessitated 4 miles of pushing and coasting in the middle of humpy national forest single track. On the second hub, I really babied it during shifts to try and limit the wear/torque, but apparently to no avail. My LBS has supported me and replaced the wheels quickly each time, but I am super concerned about being stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Admittedly, I am not a small individual, but I am within the weight limits of the bike. I appreciated the "last ditch" advice provided by member "Potato" about using zip ties lashed to the spokes through the rear cogs as that may save me out in the middle of the wilderness in California. I'd appreciate any tips to convince Giant to support everyone with this problem in the form of a recall to get better hubs on the bike that can handle the extra torque. It is so frustrating, because I love the bike, but my confidence in it, especially after the warranty period expires is not high. Thank you!

 

[Pictomix]

I got fed up with the poor quality of the hub and after having to take my 2019 E+1 pro back 3 times for repair I bought some new fulcrum wheels and threw the old ones in the shed where they have lived for over a year now!
Not had a single issue with the new wheels!
The Giant store said the hub failed because it had been cleaned with a pressure washer! Er no it hasn't! My bike has never had a pressure washer near it, I don't even use a hose pipe on it!
I love the bike when it works but, I would never buy another giant ebike again!
Had loads of other issues too, new motor had to be fitted after just 18 months and less than 1500km(I am only 12 stone and the store and giant head office told me it was wear and tear! Had to fight for a replacement motor, which took 5 weeks to arrive and be fitted!)
Maybe I am just unlucky but again I wouldn't buy another bike from them!

 

[Just4Fun]

I just purchased a new 2021 Trance and I am going to guess that this hub failure problem has been addressed by now, or has it?

 

[DariuszHoryd]

Just in case, If You have a bit of time, just check and lube (put a fiew drops of chain lube) bearings in rear and front hub. I did it, before my first ride, and so fat I did not have any issues... why it is so important IMHO ? I have noticed, that my hubs were almost completely dry inside.

 

[orangeterror]

I just purchased a new 2021 Trance and I am going to guess that this hub failure problem has been addressed by now, or has it?

Yes...let us know if it is still a problem please.

 

[DariuszHoryd]

I just purchased a new 2021 Trance and I am going to guess that this hub failure problem has been addressed by now, or has it?

What model You have ordered ?

 

[Just4Fun]

I got the 2021 Trance E 1pro3. 29 inch tires.