Is this a bargain?

[John Fleet]

One for FLECC really as I get very confused as to the various incarnations of Giant Lafrees. It's certainly cheap enough but it is one of their better models?
see here on eBay....

 

[flecc]

As so often on ebay John, not an honest advert.

The new list price for this model was never £1095 as claimed. It's the basic Lafree Twist Lite, originally £860 but later at £890 before discontinuation.

Although it looks new, it doesn't actually say so, so we don't know it's provenance.

The range quoted of 45 miles is utter nonsense, it's typically 20 miles. The best A to B or I got was around 22 miles in favourable conditions with a new battery.

I think £595 with carriage is high for an £890 bike that was discontinued two years ago, with a battery already two years old at least and which may no longer be any good, especially if it hasn't been charged from time to time. Also there's hardly any availability of spares.

If it hadn't been for the dishonest bits of information, it could have been worth trying for, but as it stands it will be difficult to trust anything the seller says about it.
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[John Fleet]

Thanks Tony

wasn't thinking of it for myself, but hopefully your sage advice might save someone else's fingers from getting burnt!

 

[Ninelives]

I sent a question to the seller asking if the bike was new, battery maintanance etc.

answer back from the seller.

"bike is approx 2.5 yrs old.we had ladies and gents but didnt use much so have decided to sell, battery and charger and bike has been serviced and is in full working order, as you can see i sell bikes for al iving and choose the giant because of quality and reliability.at full money will put 12 months guarantee on bike and electrics."

 

[flecc]

I sent a question to the seller asking if the bike was new, battery maintanance etc.

answer back from the seller.

"bike is approx 2.5 yrs old.we had ladies and gents but didnt use much so have decided to sell, battery and charger and bike has been serviced and is in full working order, as you can see i sell bikes for a living and choose the giant because of quality and reliability.at full money will put 12 months guarantee on bike and electrics."

In which case the seller must know that he paid £890 for the bike and not £1095, and would also know the range to be typically 20 miles, (less at 2.5 years old) and nowhere near 45 miles. It's impossible to "service" the charger as it's entirely sealed by encapsulation.

£1095 was the price of the upmarket "Comfort" model, with the following additions and changes:

Sprung forks, Hub brakes, Hubdyno, SRAM P5 hub gear.

As these bikes are normally quite reliable, it's likely to run for a further year without trouble, hence the guarantee, but the battery would be at end of life by then with replacement currently at £300 and the supply and spares position even worse than it is now. See here.
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