RideControl App

The bike apparently updated correctly as the app indicated as such. However, when you go into one of the screens to update the settings it keeps timing out - your options are retry or cancel. Forget even trying to contact the manufacturer for help. Crickets. This is just like when I emailed them a few weeks ago and asked for a manual for my bike that actually pertained to it, and they provided me with a link to the manual that I just complained about. It’s like a cross between Monty Python and Seinfeld, but without the humor. Hey - let’s have someone spend four figures - a lot of money - for a bike - and then provide them with a manual that literally has nothing to do with the bike you just purchased. Or, hey let’s have an app update and then it loses functionality and doesn’t work correctly. Who does that? Welcome to amateur hour.

I’ve had a few problems with the app. My biggest is forgetting to log in while I have cell service and before I arrive at my trailhead because I usually don’t have cell service where I ride. Otherwise, it won’t open, I can’t see my battery status, speed, etc. It’s a big issue. I hate it but it’s all we’ve got. I’m trying to learn to live with it—by trying to remember to log in while I have cell service and not before I lose it, which can be tricky. However, since the big update, every time the app resets to metric. My profile still says Imperial but my bike control shows me kilometers to empty or kilometers per hour, which doesn’t help me to monitor my speed on public roads. It’s become an issue that when we pause our bike for too long and try to reconnect (like stopping to eat), it again resets my app to metric. My profile still shows Imperial but I can’t get to that while on a ride without closing the ride. In fact, in order to get it to reconnect, I have to close the app and pray it recognizes that I want to continue my ride when I reopen it, which has become the only way to reconnect. However, when I am able to reconnect, it reverts back to metric until I save my ride, go into settings, and then when I back out of settings, everything goes back to Imperial. Until I close and reopen my app again….Prior to the big change a couple months ago, I loved everything about the app except that I need to log in while I have cell service or I can’t track my ride. The reconnect was a little funny because the “reconnect” would stay lit the rest of the ride even though we’d reconnected. That’s no longer an issue because the reconnect icon isn’t working for me anymore.

I would give zero stars if it would be possible. Remember, this is a MOUNTAIN bike. I am on the top of the mountain and want to check the exact charge of the battery to make sure I can reach home. After using it for two months without the need to log in, suddenly, the app asks for my email address and password. There is no cell phone coverage. The controller does not have an LCD display, so I have to use this app. My password does not work. The app is useless if you cannot log in. Why do I need to log into the app if anyone can connect to my bike standing in the vicinity using the Giant app with their account. The security should be on the bike, not on the app. It is not fair to restrict MY access to MY bike, just because you are collecting email addresses.