PB’S GIANT REIGN E+ 1
MONTH 8: PB gets to grips with Giant’s 250Wh Energypak Plus range extender
£6,299 • 29/27.5in • giant-bicycles.com
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Is increased speed and more range better? It’s a question I see a lot in Facebook e-bike groups. To get the former you’re going to need a thirdparty device that lets you derestrict the bike, so the motor doesn’t cut out at 15mph. Obviously, if your dealer finds out you’ve been using one of these devices it can affect your warranty. Also, getting assistance above the 15mph limit eats into your battery life and range. If you buy a range extender, however, you can have your cake and eat it.
I’ve not chipped the Giant, but I do have the Energypak Plus range extender fitted. It’s essentially a 250Wh battery pack that costs £430 and comes in a nice carry case. There’s a pretty sophisticated mounting plate that attaches to two holes in the down tube and there’s a short cable that plugs into the charging port just above the BB.
It’s a neat and secure system but I’ve had a couple of little issues – the cable is too short, making it hard to get the socket connected. It’s also pretty heavy, adding nearly 3kg to the already hefty bike weight.
But the thing that seems most odd, is it drains the main battery first, whereas most other systems work the opposite way by draining the range extender first. This allows you to remove the battery when it’s done and ride for the longest period of time on a substantially lighter bike. Giant even includes an adapter with the battery onto which you can attach a bottle cage, So when you remove the Energypak
Plus range extender, you can fit the bottle cage. Everything points to this working in a conventional manner, but unfortunately it doesn’t.
Depending on the power mode, I could get a good 80 minutes out of a full charge of the Energypak Plus. But I found the extra 3kg really punishing on mellow trails, especially where I had to pedal over the top of the motor. With its slack head angle and long front centre, the Reign E+ 1 isn’t the most agile or playful of e-bikes, and that extra weight just feels like a tipping point. At nearly 60lb, with the range extender fitted, the Giant loses a lot of its sparkle and I think it is just too heavy.
If you want to extend the range on the Reign E+ 1 you have a second choice – a spare 625Wh battery. This does mean you’ll have to split your ride, I can’t imagine anyone is going to be carrying one of these around in a backpack, but at £650 for double the run-time, I think it’s the better option.
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