Giant LAFree Sport

Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
15
Location
Long Island, New York
I bought a used Giant Lafree Sport in October, 2004.
I only paid $250.00. Some rich kid lost interest and his mother sold it in a clasified ad in the local paper.

I couldn't restist taking the motor cover off to look at the mechanism. While I had it off, I painted it with OSHA yellow spray paint.
Last Sunday (one week ago) , I bought a disposable digital camera and took some pictures.
Here are the photos:
photo013.jpg

The first thing I bought was the rear rack, which cost $40.00 at the local bike shop (LBS). Then I bought a front basket, which is wire mesh. The holes are small on this basket, which keeps small objects from falling through. Then I made a set of small pannier boxes, just big enough to hold a 12 volt 12 amp/hour battery each. I figured I could double the range of the bike this way. Right now, I have a 12v 7ah in the right box, which provides power to the lights.
Then I topped it off with a fiberglass seat with two inches of foam padding and brown Naugahyde. Then a friend of mine gave me an eighteen inch "Farm Triangle", or slow-moving-vehicle sign.
Here's another photograph:
photo012.jpg

Rear view, showing the "Farm Triangle":
photo011.jpg

There is a 20 watt halogen bulb wired to the inside of the front basket, visible in this front view:
photo010.jpg

Just one more photograph:
photo009.jpg

Right now, the Lafree needs a new battery, it only goes about a mile and dies. I think I overcharged it.
 
So how fast have you gotten within that one mile?
That farm-triangle must act like an anti-fairing.
Any plans to go beyond the stock power level? :twisted:
I think there needs to be a term or phrase that describes an ebike configuration like this where the battery module sits behind the seat tube on a stretched frame. A lot of the chinese makes seem to favour this layout.


Just one question about the rack, did it come with the long front stays like that or did you have to fab them? I've been looking for something like that which would accomodate the reduced-angle triangle of most newer bikes.
 
I think there needs to be a term or phrase that describes an ebike configuration like this where the battery module sits behind the seat tube on a stretched frame.

You're describing a "FEW BATTS" bike, only good for carrying a few batts.

FEWBATTS: Frame Extended With Batteries Attached To Telescoping Seatpost


:D
 
Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh said:
So how fast have you gotten within that one mile?
That farm-triangle must act like an anti-fairing.
Any plans to go beyond the stock power level? :twisted:
I think there needs to be a term or phrase that describes an ebike configuration like this where the battery module sits behind the seat tube on a stretched frame. A lot of the chinese makes seem to favour this layout.


Just one question about the rack, did it come with the long front stays like that or did you have to fab them? I've been looking for something like that which would accomodate the reduced-angle triangle of most newer bikes.

The Lafree still has it's original 24 volt batteries and controller. The motor cuts out at 18 MPH.

I had a loose wire (connection). The LBS looked at it and tightned the connection, now it's running better.

The rack was made by Giant, specifically to fit the Lafree Sport frame. The stays were on it when it came out of the box.

I am thinking about upgrading to 36 volts, but it's not a priority of mine.

As for speed, there are plenty of steep hills to ride down around here.
 
Man, how do you come up with them so fast!?
It even has the benefit of sounding like it might be chinese.
Mark this day on the calender.
I think your acronym may even make it's way to Wiki & become official.

72 volt cybernetic brain implants, neuronal connections wrapped with superconductive bio-wires :D
 
there now that type of design along the lines of zvo machine x etc just makes more sense to me - to have gears! i would like to see other ev bike makers get into designing more like hybrid motorbikes. when they started it was all about adapting motors to regular bike frames - i would like to see more bike frames designed around drive systems and motors
- cvt and automatic gearing.

it shouldn't cost much more to desing a good ev frame and then allow the user to customize it with their budget and allow for engine upgrades etc

can the engine be changed to a 600 to 1000 watt ? watt kind of modifications would it require?


even this type of moped seems more practical
http://cgi.ebay.com/X-Treme-Electric-Bicycle-Scooter-Moped-XB-500-500-WATT_W0QQitemZ250118650774QQihZ015QQcategoryZ64678QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
than a 12-$1500 ebike. seems like you could put a morpowerful motor on it too.
 
could you show us some inside pics of the motor mounting and drive - i'm wondering how the motor might be upgraded?

thanks
 
Hello, my grandfather has a bicycle like this and he was wondering if you had any information regarding this bike. If so please contact me at ajk85@frontier.com
 
I had one for years - the Sport Slope version. It was defective out of the box - the motor would shut down under a high load like crossing a busy street - and NYCEWheels kept insisting it was just a bad battery. After they sent me two new batteries, with no effect on the problem, they ignored me. It was an underpowered $1200 piece of junk, but it did sort of get me into e-biking, when it worked. I sold it years later for $100. The EZIPs I later rode would mop the floor with it.
 
The thing that flabbergasted me was,
I was simply doing a search for “lafree sport rack” to see about getting a rack for the other bike...
It’s almost like a longtail cargo bike, it had a special rack...
And I don’t even scroll down too far
And I’m looking at my own post from fourteen years ago!
Funny how the Internet works
 
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