Giant Lafree Snapped!

[tangent]

On my way in to work this morning my beloved Giant Lafree Twist Lite snapped in two. It is the step-through model and the frame broke at the bottom. I was late for work as usual, going up hill at about 13-14mph, on the south side of Southwark Bridge. Naturally I hit the road quite hard. Fortunately I got away with just grazed knees and ankles and was lucky that there was nothing on the road behind me. It was also lucky that this happened on the approach to the Bridge as I regularly do 17-20 mph on the other side.
My brief inspection of the wreckage, currently chained to a lamppost, is that this was metal fatigue. Foolishly I have not carried out any maintenance since the summer. I was waiting for the Christmas break. So a warning to others out there – check your frames regularly for cracks.

The bike was new in 2004 and has done about 22,000 miles so was definitely near the end of its life. How long should an aluminium frame last?

Fortuitously, I bought IzzyB’s Giant Lafree on Sunday! Thank you Izzy.

 

[flecc]

I'm glad you weren't badly hurt. The step through Lafree through it's light design always had too flexible a frame, not only flexing sideways but also the headstock to seat stem distance fluctuating by up to a quarter inch on bumps. I remarked on this in my Agattu test in 2007. Giant corrected this on the ST version with it's 4 x 6 cm oval main tube replacing the 4 x 4 cm diameter round one. It's always been likely that metal fatigue could result eventually, but surprisingly this is the first frame failure I've heard of on these, despite worldwide contact through my Lafree website over the years.

On my one I fitted a crossbar to brace against fore and aft flexing (click to enlarge):


.

 

[tillson]

My friend had a Lafree cross-bar model and his frame snapped at 5 years old and 8000 miles. They have a 10 year frame guarantee, so he took it back to a Giant dealer (the one he purchased it from had shut down) and they replaced the frame, swapping all the bits over for him.

It's at times like this when you are pleased that you paid a premium for the dealership / manufacturer's backup. I would say that its time to take it back to a Giant dealer, there is still over two years of frame warranty left.

 

[tangent]

Hi Tony, I am not sure the size, but the main tube on my Lafree is definitely oval and without measuring it I think that 6 x 4 cm seems about right.

Thanks for the information on the frame Tillson. I had not thought that there still might be a guarantee and the dealer I bought through is long gone. Are there cop-outs though, e.g. regular servicing by Giant approved dealers? I have fallen off the bike a few times as well, so could they wriggle out by saying that the frame was damaged?

 

[Scottyf]

I think the frame is one of those no quibble items on bikes that get replaced. As its quite a large structral piece to the complete bike.

As listed above its also very rare for those things to really fail even with known weaker builds.

 

[Synthman]

Bike snapping in half is my biggest fear (apart from getting doored) so I check the frame regularly.

 

[flecc]

Regardless of the frame version, I think this may well be a metal or manufacturing fault. It seems to be a very rare event on these and a number of both the step through and crossbar models are used without problems despite being fitted with the Xtracycle extension which increases the bending stresses. Here's one that also has an SRAM DualDrive fitted for it's commutes into Los Angeles.

Some even have the Stokemonkey high powered motor added as well, including one I know of in the UK.

So I think it's worth pursuing a replacement, Giant's support is usually very customer friendly and their Netherlands HQ holds huge spares stocks. Here's the dealer locator page, select the Hybrid (electric) option preferably, though any Giant dealer can help.

 

[tillson]

Hi Tony, I am not sure the size, but the main tube on my Lafree is definitely oval and without measuring it I think that 6 x 4 cm seems about right.

Thanks for the information on the frame Tillson. I had not thought that there still might be a guarantee and the dealer I bought through is long gone. Are there cop-outs though, e.g. regular servicing by Giant approved dealers? I have fallen off the bike a few times as well, so could they wriggle out by saying that the frame was damaged?

My friend never had his bike serviced by a dealer during the time that he owned it. As mentioned, the dealer he purchased it from no longer existed by the time the frame snapped, so he went to another Giant dealer and they helped him out. The new frame was supplied to the Giant dealer and they transferred the wheels, motor and other bits over. I expect the dealer was motivated to help by the warranty work they picked up doing the transfer. Everything was covered under the 10 year frame guarantee.

It was a great bike and prompted me to buy my Kalkhoff.

 

[Mussels]

Bike snapping in half is my biggest fear (apart from getting doored) so I check the frame regularly.

It was my biggest fear once upon a time, until my seat post snapped near the top. That could have been a life changing experience.

 

[tangent]

Thanks to all re advice on the frame guarantee. I will contact a Giant dealer next week about this. Hopefully I still have the original invoice somewhere!

I have not collected the bike yet, but could see that it was still where I left it this morning. I sorted out IzzyB's bike last night, adjusting the saddle height, etc. and connecting up my external Li-ion battery. This has the original 3 speed internal hub. I upgraded mine to an 8 speed Nexus-8 and the difference is substantial - top gear is about the same as gear 6 on my old bike. Energy efficiency is much improved though. My journey in took only 1.95Ah, compared with in excess of 2.3Ah on the old bike, even with the wind behind me.

I have a undished 15T sprocket somewhere. I might attempt to fit this to give me a bit more speed. The hub is small so it might work. It did not work on the Nexus-8 because there was insufficient space for the chain.

 

[flecc]

The 3 speed was always the most economical, possibly due to it being the original and the software designed for that. Where I typically got 20 miles range on the 3 speed, changing that to the 5 speed SRAM hub dropped the range to around 17 miles.