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 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 if you are looking to purchase a second-hand model, this article will help clear up the confusion, showing what's good and bad and helping with model identification.
The original Lafree (shown above) 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.
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