Specialized Turbo X vs Giant Quick E+ 25

[Jaco]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and looking for some advice. I can get either a Specialized Turbo X or a Giant Quick E+ for around the same price (our options are quite limited here in South Africa). Both are from well supported dealers locally so spares and support should not be an issue. Warranty is the same across both bikes. My question relates to the differences between the hub motor and the crank motor. My commute is a 55km round trip with 700m vertical ascent in total. I am quite fit (doing the commute on a road bike currently), but it's just a bit too much to do every day, which is what I want to do.
I rode both bikes and it seemed as though the Giant cuts out more abruptly at the limit whereas the Spez felt like it carried more speed and felt less pronounced when the limited cut in. I see Spez is also moving to crank based motors so worried about the hub motors not being supported in the future. Any advice would be welcome as to which would be more suitable...

 

[Trevormonty]

Crank drives are hard on drive train so you will be replacing chains and cassettes on regular basis. For commuting a hub drive be lot cheaper maintain.

 

[Croxden]

Y

Crank drives are hard on drive train so you will be replacing chains and cassettes on regular basis. For commuting a hub drive be lot cheaper maintain.

Yes, I only managed 8200 miles on mine and I needed a new chain.

 

[Jaco]

Thanks for the info. Why do you think Specialized is moving away from hub drive?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I don't know if your old enough, but it's a bit like when we had video tape recorders: Betamax was miles better than VHS, but for whatever reason VHS took over as the standard.

One important thing you might want to think about is the speed restriction on each bike and how easy it is to change. I don't know what the rules are where you are, but 25km/h is a bit of a pain for long commutes. If you can get it up to about 32km/h, it's a lot better. Do your research before buying.

If you're already a cyclist, motor power shouldn't be an issue. Even the low powered e-bikes can assist you with 400 - 500 watts of power for climbing hills, which is probably double what you can sustain on your own.

 

[Jaco]

I don't know if your old enough, but it's a bit like when we had video tape recorders: Betamax was miles better than VHS, but for whatever reason VHS took over as the standard.

One important thing you might want to think about is the speed restriction on each bike and how easy it is to change. I don't know what the rules are where you are, but 25km/h is a bit of a pain for long commutes. If you can get it up to about 32km/h, it's a lot better. Do your research before buying.

If you're already a cyclist, motor power shouldn't be an issue. Even the low powered e-bikes can assist you with 400 - 500 watts of power for climbing hills, which is probably double what you can sustain on your own.

Yes, remember growing up with VHS and parents talking about how great Betamax was

Have looked at the Giant and seen it uses a magnet to measure speed. Was thinking if moving the magnet closer to the rim increasing the circumference - would that make the bike think it's going slower than it is? Not sure that the Spez can easily be un-restricted

 

[anotherkiwi]

No the magnet counts rotations not the time taken to go around so moving it changes nothing. You need a dongle to de-restrict the Yamaha motor on the Giant. The specialized requires reprogramming by someone with a cable and the service software.

 

[Jaco]

No the magnet counts rotations not the time taken to go around so moving it changes nothing. You need a dongle to de-restrict the Yamaha motor on the Giant. The specialized requires reprogramming by someone with a cable and the service software.

Thanks, but even if it counts rotations wont it technically be doing fewer as it takes longer to complete a rotation?

 

[Retyred1]

Thanks, but even if it counts rotations wont it technically be doing fewer as it takes longer to complete a rotation?

No - that's an easy mistake to make - the rotations are still the same where ever the magnet is on the spoke.

 

[Jaco]

No - that's an easy mistake to make - the rotations are still the same where ever the magnet is on the spoke.

Ah yes, makes sense. Bummer

Have seen some hacks where the magnet is moved to the crank arm, that could maybe work?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If it uses a magnet and sensor to measure speed, all you need to do is send less pulses to the controller. There's 4 methods that I i now:

1: Remove the magnet. This works on cheap systems, but more sophisticated software will default to 25 km or less if it doesn't get a speed signal, or worse still, cut the motor.
2. Put a magnet on the inside of the pedal and move the sensor to the chain-stay near the pedal. that gives a varying speed signal that used to work on Bosch systems until they changed the software. It'll probably work on other systems.
3. Interrupt the speed signal and send it at a lower frequency. If you know about electronics, that's fairly easy to do with a dual flipflop, or a small micro-processor like a Picaxe or Arduino.
4. Fit a proprietary dongle - about £130.

I guess it could also be done with an escapement-type mechanism with say 4 legs, 2 with and two without magnets and a peg on a spoke, so that each time the wheel goes round it knocks the mechanism around 90 deg to the next leg. You then position the sensor halfway between the legs, so one leg passes each rotation alternatively with and without magnets. I'm surprised that nobody has come up with something like that. it should be easy to make on a 3D printer.