Giant Halfway

Owned and run by Tim Pestridge, sold Feb 2003

Introduction

I bought my Halfway from my local Giant dealer, Richards Bikes of Exeter, Devon (whom I would not recommend for buying a folding bike - see more below). It's called the Halfway as it is intended to bridge the gap between a full folding bike (Brompton) and a full-sized bicycle. The Halfway features 20 inch wheels, aluminium frame, single sided front and rear fork arms, as well as 6 speed Shimano gears.

The retail price is currently £475.00, which puts it firmly in price competition with Brompton. It doesn't fold anywhere near as well as my old Brompton, but is directly comparable with the Dahon Boardwalk 20 inch I own, and it will fit fairly comfortably on one side of the back seat of a car. Also note the beautiful hinge mechanism, a lovely piece of engineering, seen here as the oval on the main frame.

How does it fold?

It comes with a bag, which seems huge after using Jane Henshaw's smart little Brompton bags, but there is quite a lot of excess in it. I put the bike next to a small car so you could see the scale of the folded package.

From the back you can clearly see the single sided fork and rear arm, which do allow the wheels to tuck in closely.

January 2001

Now I've fitted SMART rechargeable twin headlight kit, with the battery nestling nicely in the rear frame triangle, cost £50UKP. The lights are fantastic, and I would certainly recommend them. After many hours use I have not had to charge them once so far having used mainly the low wattage setting (1 light) as opposed to the full twin light setting.

This photo angle on the bike shows the absence of front or rear forks on this side of the bike, which saves time cleaning, and is just as stiff (if not stiffer) to ride than a Brompton or Dahon.

Also fitted now is the higher ratio Sachs hub, which means you can keep up a steady 15mph without pedalling like crazy in 6th gear (top). Bottom gear (1st) is also now improved, adding 2 teeth gives the bike very good climbing ability thanks to the low weight and more forward canted riding position than my old 'sit-up-and-beg' Brompton.

Mileage stands at a total of a rather low 55 miles, but they have been cycled pretty fast and pretty hard. I need the ability to jump off the odd kerb in the short 3-5 mile stints I do across Exeter, and the Halfway seems totally up to the job.

February 2001

Mileage now up to over 70 miles (ooh!), and some more things to comment on. The short wheelbase is more fun than the longer wheelbase on the Dahon, but does mean it feels slightly less surefooted and more 'flighty' to ride. It has an eagerness about it, compounded by the low gearing which means you can accelerate sharply, and loft the front wheel easily.

The new Sachs hub isn't quite lining up perfectly with the front sprocket, causing the chain to misalign at the front and try to run on the wheel chainguard rather than the sprocket.

December 2001

Mileage has shot up to 245 miles. I am using the bike every day to commute a 7.4 mile round trip - it's so much more enjoyable than driving to work and keeps you fit. So far the problems are:

1. If the chain loses lubrication it still tends to try and jump off the front sprocket - an annoying and potentially dangerous tendancy.

2. Saddle lost all ability to support, turning overly soft and unsupportive. Replaced with harder, thinner saddle from Selle Royale.

3. Tires have not improved with age, and remain uninspiring in the wet and give harsh feedback.

Maximum assisted top speed on the flat is 22mph peddaling like crazy. The low gearing means that anything over 16mph is freewheel territory, so if you like to cruise at anything above that (and believe me, this bike would do it thanks to it's low weight and high pressure tires - it eats mountain bikes on road) you'll have a problem to solve.

Otherwise I love it. Easy to clean, simple to own, ideal for carrying through the house if you don't have a garage, like what we don't.

March 2002

Mileage is now over 500 miles. The bike has returned after a lay-off of some weeks whilst the chainring was ordered and replaced, and to my joy has been renewed with Giant's later chainring, adding 2 teeth to the front ring and improving the dreadful gearing. I have yet to try it, but will report back shortly.

Winter riding is tough on bikes, and this has shown up mainly on the running gear, finding my gears and chain grinding winter road grime into the chain. This compounded the chain jumping-off problem, and necessitated almost daily cleaning of the chain to avoid nasty jump-offs. Whilst riding home from work the other day I went through the bikes good and bad points, and have jotted them down here for anyone considering a Halfway. Please remember this is my personal opinion!

Good points

1. Light weight - aluminium frame
2. Good looking bike - not a dull folder like some
3. Sporty ride - much more responsive to ride than Brompton or Dahon Boardwalk
4. Easy to fold
5. 20 inch wheels mean lots of tire choice, along with improved road holding when compared to 16 inch wheels
6. Very easy to clean, one fork and one rear arm make it particularly easy
7. Robust finish - overall a well finished frame & chassis
8. An excellent compromise between full sized frame and folding bike

Bad points

1. Handlebar stem too short for anyone over six foot
2. Gearing may be still too low for some
3. Standard tires are awful - throw them away and fit Continentals
4. Rear mudguard come with ridiculous holes drilled in it, mud & water sprays through
5. Standard seat looks cool but is painfully soft for this 12 stone male, changed for Selle Royale
6. Rear rack is not very useful, wierd shape again looks cool but stops you strapping stuff to it
7. Folded size is not in the Brompton league
8. Pedals are not that inspiring and a bit 'bendy' in use at times
9. Some items better finished than others - rust is showing up on fasteners on the brake calipers

Sadly the bike proved almost unuseable on it's return. The chain was grinding on the rear traingle, and the chain would still try to hop off every mile or so on changing gear, leaving me in some rather dangerous situations on main road junctions and roundabouts. So it has returned to Giant UK for inspection. Gearing is definitely this bikes flaw. More soon!

April 2002

Richards Bikes, my local Giant dealer have proved thorougly unhelpful, and have been consistently useless at keeping me in touch with what they are doing by way of fixing the problem. Giant UK have offered to replace the rear sprocket and chain, which is more helpful. I would wholeheartedly not recommend Richards Bikes of Exeter to anyone, unless you like taking a bike in for a service only to for you and the bike to be completely ignored for 2 weeks. Very poor.
The long and short of the story is that if you want one of these bikes, pick who you buy off carefully. In my case I got the distinct feeling that they did want to deal with any servicing or repairs of this 'strangle little folder,' and in actual fact when I asked one of the younger members of staff from Richard's Bikes if they sold Continental tires for my Giant Halfway he actually burst out laughing. I can take a joke, but this isn't the way to show a customer that they're valued in my opinion, and proves that not all dealers are set up for serving the needs of a folding bike owner.

More Opinions

I am publishing an email correspondance recieved from a Mr.Bill Szymanski, to give a more rounded review of the Halfway. See what you think of his opinion:

I'm 55 years old and in pretty good shape.
I appreciate the Halfway's low gearing for the hills in my area.
I agree the top 74 gear-inches top gear could be higher.
For me 84 inches even would be sufficient and quite good.
I don't see the 74" top gear as a fatal flaw.
( I did get to take a Diamond Halfway for a few spins around the outside of a local bike shop
and I was favorably impressed with the overall design including the gear range).

I'd rather have the Halfway low gear capability, than more taller, high gears,
but I guess more accurately, best of all world's would be to
keep two of the lower gears, but increase the gear "range" or "spread"
so we could get 84" to 90" on the top.

Note the the middle front crank gear "only" of my road bike produces
33" to 85" gear inches with the full range of the rear cassette gears.
I've biked with that only, and I can be pretty happy with that only.
Best for me would be a range of 30" to say 94"

He adds:

I have researched the gear thing further, and i have come to realize it is much more complex
than i had anticipated. The manufacturer's of the transmission: SRAM etc do the research and CAD/CAM design, and the manufacturers of bikes buy the combinations the Suppliers provide. That is, the bike manufacturers do not have a lot of choice as to the gear combinations- ( front crank-rear cassette-shifter-chain). I think if you change a gear in the cassette (or front crank Number of teeth) to change the range, you must possibly change the length of the chain; And maybe even machining of the cassette or the throw of the shifter so the shifter will still work.

Still, the Halfway could have chosen a transmission combination that would provide a wider range. The Dahon 8 speeds, provide a gear range of 34" to 94" (like my road bike on the single middle front crank).

That's my opinion.
Again thanks for the review and all the terrific pictures.

Bill Szymanski

Another owners opinion

Tim, I bought my Halfway this week from MSG cycles in Lancing, West Sussex. They were exceptionally helpful and allowed me a ride on both single and 6 speed before I made my mind up.I wanted a folder that was stiff enough to substitute my road bike for bombing around Brighton, where I live, and to take on holiday with my partner, Melanie and after much research, (including looking at your very informative site) I decided on the Halfway. I'd have liked a Moulton but £475 was my absolute limit. I tried a Brompton but they are very old-fashioned looking and seemed archaic compared to the Halfway. First impressions are good apart from some minor niggles. I agree with your comments about the gearing. It's very low but considering what I need it for it's adequate and nothing that I can't live with. It would be very easy to solve with a new cluster.

The stem extension is too low for anyone over 6ft but I'm only 5' 11'' so that's OK too. The rack is not the best of designs either but with the aid of the velcro tie holds my d-lock really well. One observation about the rack is that the bracket from the rack to the rear mudguard seems, because of its design, to twist the rear mud guard to the left. I also noticed that this appears to be the case on your model from the pictures on the site.

I have also noticed that to ensure that the seat post doesn't slip I need to clamp the Q/R down really tight. There are a couple of things I really think are a bit cheap and although I understand that what you are paying for is the R&D on the frame, I feel that Giant have been a bit mean with the spec. For instance, the pedals are awful and I'll be replacing them ASAP. The (what appears to be) pressed steel front chain ring is a bit nasty and the Shimano 6 speed rear mech is about as basic as it gets. I've only had the chain fall off whilst folding and unfolding the bike so far but given your experience I'll be eager to see how it fares after a few more miles.MSG told me that to change this set up I could install a double chain ring set minus the inner ring.

I think that perhaps some of the above may have been resolved on the 7 speed version such as a Shimano Sora mech and, to be fair, that's the model I really wanted. However, Giant UK told me that they had none in stock and were not likely to have any until at least the end of September 2002. The woman I spoke to in customer services told me that if I could find any of the multi-speed models in my area to buy it as she wasn't even sure that Giant were going to reproduce them next season. They did, however have lots of the single speed, which are a nicer colour in my opinion.

One other bike shop near to me told me that they could convert a single in to a 7 speed for me but that it's cost because of the need to rebuild the rear wheel and install cluster, shifters etc. This put it out of my price range. Anyway, I got the 2001/2002 model and despite the above moans I love it. The design is fantastic and Mr Burrows should be congratulated. It rides like a nippy MTB and I imagine someone like a courier would really be able to benefit from the agility.

I rode the bike around the lanes of Sussex on Saturday for about 25 miles. This time I had changed the (terribly uncomfortable) saddle for the Vetta from my touring bike. This left my posterior in a much happier state! I've also had some time for the bike to 'bed in'. I've experienced ongoing problems with the seat post slipping slightly unless you do the Q/R up really tight. This is a worry as I'm concerned that, unlike steel, the alu collar may not flex to accommodate the tightening so well. Something else that has happened, but I seem to have resolved myself is that the central hinge lock came loose, meaning that it began to come open over bumps. There is a simple nut and spring mechanism inside which I adjusted up by about half a turn which, so far, has solved the problem. I am also going to add some stubby bar ends as I find that the one hand position is tiring on the forearms, but that may just be me. Otherwise I am still very happy with the bike and have had much interest from onlookers while riding it.

Gary Penalver

Anyone else got an opinion on their Halfway?