AFT mid drive giant glory 2013

This is one of the best kit builds I have seen on the sphere, awesome bike, battery and mid drive kit. I think this bike deserves a writeup on electricbike.com. Also I haven't seen, has there been any reviews of the AFT kit on there? I have seen the EGO kit has a review...

+1 very good bike with low weight set up very cool love to see more videos heres my latest build it will tie me over till I have enough $ saved up for an aft setup Its the latest GNG mid 450 ,better than the earlier GNG but still no comparison An aft

Hi Kmob1,
Thanks a lot, glad you liked my bike. I am Extremely happy with it.
I originally found the AFT kit on a 'top 10' list on electricbike.com, but I dont think they've been featured on there.

Hey Wormsman,
Looking good! The glory will still be a beast
Just be wary of that underhang! Mine has just 2inches ground clearance with the suspension travel compressed, that gng will be real close to the ground on hard landings, rocks etc. Could end painfully, be careful.
I'd like to get more vids, but dont hold your breath, its dark by the time i finish work now, and raining every other day. As soon as i get a chance though I'll get some more vids of it.

Cheers,
Jesse

Before I bought my hasa (because it was the most suspension I could get with vertical dropouts under $2k) I had saliva running out of my mouth like a rabid dog over these $2k giant bikes.

Now your saying its not the ideal one for an aft.

After installing yours what fs bike is the idea for mounting the aft (and if possible the with the greatest ground clearance)

cheers, I'll keep dreaming...

Hi John Bozi,
Dont get me wrong, the glory has as good ground clearance as possible for an 8" travel bike. The AFT kit hangs no lower than the stock bashplate. But landing onto rocks and roots, and hopping over logs etc, it gets smacked into stuff (not regularly, but because of that, it can catch you unaware).
A 6" travel AM bike would maintain higher ground clearance but not give you the awesome ride or solid build and brakes, of the glory.
My concern for wormsman was just that the angle and height of the GNG looks like it would potentially bring the bike to a sudden stop if it hit something solid or dug in on a landing or ledge.
It will be no problem at all hopefully. Just a tip to be careful. I hit my pedals good a few times until i got used to taking the big suspension into account.
Pedal to floor clearance is 5 1/2" roughly (crank pointed straight down) which is 2" higher/more than my roadie, but once the suspension is compressed...
I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong and hear it's awesome and clearance is fine. It just looks like a potential danger to me, and it seemed the right thing to comment, just in case wormsman hadnt taken into account it will drop 8" closer to the ground during hard riding.

The pedal clearance just takes a slight bit of getting used to. Its a catch 22, the suspension is so good you can pedal through the rough stuff, but that same suspension sometimes drops the pedals to potential ground hitting height when you do. And that's where the motor comes in

For me the glory seemed the best choice. For reasons i wont go into, but basically, handling, strength, brakes, comfort. This is the best i've ridden. I'd see if you can test ride one somehow and see what you think (then imagine it with a motor).

Cheers,
Jesse

Yeah, you have to be careful when hitting on bottom. I've gone over a few logs and it caused my motor bracket to move and then things got out of alignment. I have a bashguard that I'm going to put on and see if that works.

I remember magnets also mentioning that if you have an s-bend in downtube, it causes the motor to angle down more so less clearance. Not sure?

I had the bike and motor sitting around its fun to ride but im very cautious of ground clearance these setups are just to bulky for and heavy to maneuver

not looking too positive then for a 5k bike, I was hoping this was the flawless design, that you paid for but got the off road experience with no more compromises.

John Bozi said:

not looking too positive then for a 5k bike, I was hoping this was the flawless design, that you paid for but got the off road experience with no more compromises.

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Hey John, i think you might have gotten the wrong idea from my comment to wormsman. The clearance with the AFT kit on the glory is sweet, and the angle means if it does clip a rock or something, it just skids off the same as the standard DH bashplate does. It has no effect on the ride in comparison to the stock bashplate.

I commented on the clearance only because, if you compare the pics of my glory aft kit with the GNG on wormsmans, you'll notice that it (the GNG) hangs lower and at an angle that may cause it to dig in, in an extreme scenario where you might normally just bounce off with the bashplate/aft.
If long travel sounds like a compromise on ground clearance, just watch some downhill, it's not an issue.

If not being able to pedal occasionally, where you might have been able to on a hardtail 29er, also sounds like a drawback, remember; it's got a motor now, and a twist throttle, pedalling is optional.

My comment related only to the GNG fit on the glory, it didnt look safe, that the only reason I brought it up.

Cheers,
Jesse

I was responding more to wormsman's last comment. (but that is not aft...)

I don't really see them as bulky or could imagine them hard to manoeuvre, but I've never tried a mid drive.

All I know is that weight is sprung, which is essential to off road riding.

I want to put one of these kits on my 2011 Giant Reign although the guys at AFT say that it will not be compatable with the bb92 bottom bracket on the Reign. What type BB does the 2013 glory have??

The giant reign would be awesome with a motor. My giant glory BB width/specs is 83mm english threaded and it had an sram howitzer BB stock.

is that a 2013 glory?

Yes my aft kit is on the 2013 glory 2

Thanks for the build log, this looks like a great combination frame/kit.

Being in Melbourne makes the AFT kit pretty attractive.

I'm interested in doing something similar (ripping off shamelessly!), especially with the kind of performance and range figures you've quoted.

A couple of questions: what size glory frame is it? (What height are you and how do you find it?)
Did you consider alternate battery placement locations? I'm interested in frame mounting the batteries in contrast to backpacking them but unsure as to how/where they would fit. Could the battery you custom ordered be mounted in the triangle for instance? Or behind the seat post? Under the handlebars on the front forks? Under the down tube in front of the motor? Anywhere else I'm missing?

Cheers.

Hi Rev,

My glory is the medium size frame, im 5'9ish and i find it very comfortable for my size.

Note that my range quotes were based on an incorrect assumption. I looked again at the aft site and based on the battery indicator lights its getting pretty close to empty at around the 70-80km mark on moderate trail use, 100-120km cruisy road use, or 30-40km intense offroad use.

You would have to custom build a battery around the frame if you wanted to frame mount it with the glory i think. The triangle is too small for a decent capacity, a rear rack would likely get hit by the wheel at full suspension travel, likewise for under the front downtube. It would also upset the balance and probably be quite noticable when riding.
It probably depends what sort of riding you prefer. A 5-6" travel AM bike with a normal triangle frame might be a good option for frame mounting a battery to. That would keep the weight central and balanced for offroading.

I like the backpack for the way the bike still feels like a normal bike to ride, and doesnt look too suspect for the occasional road stretch, but frame mount would be more convenient for sure.

Cheers,
Jesse

based on the battery indicator lights

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What batteries do you use ? if they are lithium then most likely you cannot use voltage indicator Leds on any voltage display to get the correct range as voltage is not a good an indicator for lithium packs state of charge. The only way to get a true accurate reading is to look the A/h used with a cycle analyst and compare to the maximum amp hours of the battery. Does your battery have a LVC ? as that's another way to know you are at the end of the pack.

Hey Gab,
Yeah its an em3ev 20ah pack with bms and all that. And ive got the controller programmed for nice high low voltage cutoff. Ive never run out of juice yet but ive just been going off the throttle lights. Apparently though once it drops down into the red its down to about 20% left only. I thought three lights would each equal 1/3 of the battery.
Ive got a cycle analyst i just havent bothered putting it on. It will do more k's than my ass and legs can handle at the moment biggest ride has been about 95km of tracks, trails and road. It was in the red for the last 15km or so under load. Just cruising it goes back up to half, but i couldnt be bothered pedalling any more by that stage.

Ive got a cycle analyst i just haven't bothered putting it on. It will do more k's than my ass and legs can handle at the moment

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Wow that's super efficiency , 100km range on a 2kw capable bike ! that's a luxury you don't even need to use the Cycle analyst most people on the sphere are madly checking the wh/km and total a/h used to see how many last kms they can squeeze out of their packs since when have we ever had enough battery capacity ???

I find voltage the best state of charge for my lipos.

I don't rust the AH or the kms compared to knowing that my overall voltage is getting near the cliff. Currently 72v unloaded means shits going south really fast. I try to stop at about 76-75v unloaded.

Hi dypsomaniart,
can you tell me how much the battery cost, and how long did it take to get into Aus?

Nice build! Very jealous.

Hi Rolls,
I ordered the battery, charger, and cycle analyst at the same time from em3ev. The total with shipping was $1200au and it took about 3 or 4 weeks for them to build the battery and get it to my door.
If you take off the cycle analyst price it was probably a little over $1000 for the battery and charger, shipped.

You can see the specs of the battery back on page 1 of this thread. I had to get a 20ah one built specially so it would put out enough amps for the motor using the samsung high capacity cells.

Cheers,
Jesse

Can you explain why you chose AFT over the lightning rods kit? http://www.lightningrodev.com

I think I need two bikes so I can ride more agressively - but hate not having one working. I am happy with my radially laced hub motor for off road firetrails but until I have another bike I am scared to get the rear wheel off the ground.

Perhaps the long wait for lightningrod's kit?

For me, I decided I couldn't wait for several months and ended up going with AFT.

Hi John,
The LR kit was still in developmental stages when i purchased the AFT kit. I looked at the gng but considering how much mud accumulates on my downtube and legs after an offroad ride, the exposed belt copping all of that seemed like a recipe for trouble. It also looks nowhere near as tidy with the big pulley wheel hanging off the front, and there were no mounting brackets available to suit the S bend frame of the glory, so it wasnt an option anyway.

The only kits available that offered longer brackets to suit the glory frame were EGO kits. Then i found AFT, who used the same motor as the EGO, but with several improvements like oiled gearbox etc, and a mounting bracket to suit my bike. And it was a cheaper than the EGO.

Now that LR has some longer brackets so the kit could fit a glory frame, it would probably be a good option if its cheaper. But if its still belt drive, offroad in mud could be a problem, and a tight belt is not very efficient. And if its chain drive it will be quite noisy, and still exposed to the elements, where the AFT has chain guards lined with foam to protect your chain and keep the noise down.

The AFT just seems the smartest design out there to me, and it was one of the only ones available at the time that would fit my frame, thats why I chose it over the others.