The Giant Lafree and Twist Story of Confusion
At the start of the third millennium, Giant Bicycles of China belatedly ventured into the electric assist bike world, and to do this they teamed up with the Dutch to design the Lafree model. As the story below shows, this was soon replaced, with the new model named the Lafree Twist. Since then they've continued to use the Lafree and Twist names on various models across the years, and this page is here to sort that out the resulting confusion, showing what's good and bad and helping with model identification.
Here's the original Lafree which came in various versions known as E-Trans, E-Race, and E-World. The motor was at the bottom bracket driving through the chain and a derailleur gearset, it had a huge lead acid battery and built in charger, these weighing almost 11 kilos, pushing the bike's weight to about 39 kilos, almost at the legal limit. Despite the huge battery, range was poor at around 12 miles, the bike was poorly received and just
could not compete with the lighter Yamaha which reigned supreme as best at that time.
As a result, Giant went back to the drawing board and teamed up with Panasonic to produce a similar concept but much improved bike, the Lafree Twist Lite at the left. This had much improved software, an NiMh battery and only weighed just over half the original model. There's a widespread concensus that this was the best electric bike ever produced, not just as an electric but for the fact
that it rode just like a good ordinary bike, indistinguishable from one without the battery. Equipped as seen with mudguards, front wheel dynamo and lights, it had a Shimano Nexus 3 speed hub, giving it hill climbing to at least 12% and the legal 15 mph top speed. It also came as a gents version with a curved crossbar as seen in other versions below.
To capitalise on the huge success of the Lite model, Giant followed with the Comfort seen at the left. This had suspension forks, hub brakes and a hub dynamo, together with the rather poor 4 speed Nexus hub which had no more range than the three speed, so offering similar peformance but for the slightly greater weight. During the life of this model, Shimano discontinued the 4 speed Nexus and Giant were forced to go to the SRAM
5 speed P5 hub, which was very much better, though dearer. To distinguish this model, it was called the Lafree Comfort GTS. With the gear range increased from the 184% of the Nexus to the 252% of the P5, to maintain the legal 15 mph top speed the first gear was extremely low at 32". This made the bike easily capable of very steep hills, with balance being the limiting factor due to maximum power assist at 3.6 mph in that low gear. That gave the option of changing the standard 19 tooth rear sprocket, a 17 tooth instead giving a sensible 37" low gear and upping the maximum assisted speed to over 17 mph.
All of the Lafree Twist models were getting increasingly expensive to produce. The higher price of the Comfort had helped, though introducing the SRAM had partly cancelled that, so Giant went upmarket again with the model at the left, the Comfort ST. This had all the features of the GTS, plus a full chaincase, and also had a larger diameter main frame tube, since one slight criticism of the previous step-through models had been
the slight flexing of the frame when pedalling hard, a common problem with step-through. Of course, the full chaincase makes rear wheel removal a less than pleasant experience, but chain and sprockets should have a very long life, almost as good as an oilbath case.
Ultimately Giant found themselves unable to continue the chain drive range and it was discontinued in 2006. The Lafree name disappeared completely at that point, and the Twist name also seemed to, since Giant then introduced the much cheaper Suede model, a front hub motor bike, not illustrated here as it's not part of the Lafree/Twist saga. The Suede had some faults which required attention, so Giant introduced an intermediate replacement called the Argue (!) which never made it to the UK. The Argue underwent further revisions and is due shortly in the UK, now to be known throughout Europe including the UK as the Twist, shown below, so that name story is set to continue.
Ultimately Giant found themselves unable to continue the chain drive range and it was discontinued in 2006. The Lafree name disappeared completely at that point, and the Twist name also seemed to, since Giant then introduced the much cheaper Suede model, a front hub motor bike, not illustrated here as it's not part of the Lafree/Twist saga. The Suede had some faults which required attention, so Giant introduced an intermediate replacement called the Argue (!) which never made it to the UK. The Argue underwent further revisions and is due shortly in the UK, now to be known throughout Europe including the UK as the Twist, shown below, so that name story is set to continue.
Here's the new Twist due in 2007. Front hub motor so no gearing for that, making it very different from the very successful Twist series above, and much less capable for hill climbing and towing. The NiMh battery has been replaced with Li-ion, unusually as two units mounted pannier fashion either side of the carrier. This helps it to look like a normal bike at a glance, but could restrict the choice of additional panniers. Time will tell.
Further Lafree Twist Information
The US market had the Lafree Twist marketed just as the Twist, and in keeping with the American inclination to treat electric bikes as playthings rather than serious transport, these were minimal with no mudguards and lighting as the photographs below illustrate.
They must have been good performers though, since in addition to their lighter weight they were fitted with the 252% range SRAM P5, geared high for the 20 mph US market.
With the US market being very different from ours, it's unusual to find a totally shared opinion of a bike both sides of the pond. The opinion of the Lafree Twist Lite was as high there as here though, and a read through this US dealer blurb reveals just how highly they thought of it too:
A few years ago we had the privilege of introducing a new pedal-activated or hybrid (as in human-electric) bike to the American cyclist. It is still as cutting edge as anything we have seen since. If you have been waiting for an electric bike that is light, intuitive and feels and handles like a regular bicycle-while still providing plenty of power for hills-then the Giant Lite would be for you. This nothing short of amazing Panasonic-powered model can claim a just about 100% owner satisfaction rate among our Customers.
However, it turns out that the Lite is too accomplished to sell at only $1,300 on the still very small European and U.S. markets and it has been discontinued for corporate bottom line reasons. While one may generally be apprehensive about buying a discontinued model we suggest that it shall prove to be better supported for years to come than most makes/models yet to be discontinued.
A small number of Lites are still available in our Seattle, WA and Oceanside, CA stores as well as for shipping throughout the U.S. It is the ideal electric bike to own also where there is no electric bike dealer or service as it is exceptionally reliable, ships and assembles just like any quality pedal-only bicycle (requires zero assembly and no checking of the electric drive system).
This underlines the fact that a Twist Lite or it's variants can be a very good second hand buy. The 24 volt batteries from Giant are on the dear side at around £250, but the one with the bike can be re-celled for around £100, at the same time increasing it's capacity, extending the range from 20 miles typically to about 24 miles.
With the US market being very different from ours, it's unusual to find a totally shared opinion of a bike both sides of the pond. The opinion of the Lafree Twist Lite was as high there as here though, and a read through this US dealer blurb reveals just how highly they thought of it too:
A few years ago we had the privilege of introducing a new pedal-activated or hybrid (as in human-electric) bike to the American cyclist. It is still as cutting edge as anything we have seen since. If you have been waiting for an electric bike that is light, intuitive and feels and handles like a regular bicycle-while still providing plenty of power for hills-then the Giant Lite would be for you. This nothing short of amazing Panasonic-powered model can claim a just about 100% owner satisfaction rate among our Customers.
However, it turns out that the Lite is too accomplished to sell at only $1,300 on the still very small European and U.S. markets and it has been discontinued for corporate bottom line reasons. While one may generally be apprehensive about buying a discontinued model we suggest that it shall prove to be better supported for years to come than most makes/models yet to be discontinued.
A small number of Lites are still available in our Seattle, WA and Oceanside, CA stores as well as for shipping throughout the U.S. It is the ideal electric bike to own also where there is no electric bike dealer or service as it is exceptionally reliable, ships and assembles just like any quality pedal-only bicycle (requires zero assembly and no checking of the electric drive system).
This underlines the fact that a Twist Lite or it's variants can be a very good second hand buy. The 24 volt batteries from Giant are on the dear side at around £250, but the one with the bike can be re-celled for around £100, at the same time increasing it's capacity, extending the range from 20 miles typically to about 24 miles.
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