Reviews

Vielen Dank für die Möglichkeit eines Feedbacks. Um ehrlich zu sein habe ich etwas anderes erwartet. Das Halfbike lässt sich auch nach fast einem halben Jahr nicht fahren, was ich nicht Halfbike vorwerfen möchte. Aber es ist extrem schwer zu handeln und ich würde es nur auf gesicherten Gelände ohne Verkehr benutzen. Ich kann es nicht fahren und möchte es am liebsten wieder verkaufen! Haben Sie eine Idee?

It's still not put together so really this review is about the horrible customer service. Maybe the bike is great and one-day I will get to use it.

J'ai essayé le halfbike d'un ami sur un parking avant de passer une commande, très enthousiaste ! Les premières sorties étaient vraiment amusantes, le temps de maîtriser la machine... mais voilà, une fois qu'on dépasse ce stade et qu'on se confronte à la vie réelle cet engin manque de polyvalence : dès que ça monte un peu, la roue avant (motrice) se met à patiner, même en avançant son poids au maximum, on se crispe sur le guidon trop étroit pour vraiment pédaler relâché en danseuse... J'avais pourtant choisi l'option avec le plus grand pignon ! Sinon quelques détails qui fâchent : les attaches de gaines (frein & vitesses) se décollent, et le frein n'arrête pas de couiner... Je l'ai revendu et je reste sur mon VTT et mon vélo de route, bien plus polyvalents ! Je mets quand même 2 étoiles parce que l'idée est sympa !

I’m still having difficulty riding this bike

It’s a cool concept and you really need to be fit and coordinated to learn this. I was able to get it on day three after spending about 90 minutes on it. But on fourth day, I had a bad fall and suffered a badly bruised arm and ego. I sold it immediately. My wife is also super fit just couldn’t get used to it. Good concept nonetheless.

The halfbike arrived on time. All the parts were present and it and was easy to assemble. The craftsmanship was impeccable. It's a pleasure to look at. I had ridden a halfbike once before, so it was no surprise to me when I hit the learning curve. I practiced steadily for a number of days and was soon able to mount, dismount, start, stop and turn. Because it has three wheels, two of which are small, it has more road friction and takes more energy to move along the road - more than I initially anticipated. But that wasn't really a surprise as other users had commented on this. After a few days things were humming along in terms of my being able to ride the halfbike. What I hadn't anticipated was the lateral pressure that the knees experience while riding the halfbike. I have been a biker for years and have good knees, but after three days of riding my knees were quite sore. Both the lateral and medial collateral ligaments were being stressed. This occurs I think because the knee (unlike on a conventional bike) is constantly changing alignment through the down stroke as the rear of the unit sways slightly from side to side. After a week I had to stop riding. I gave my knees two weeks to recover, but after a day of riding the pain had returned. I tried longer periods of rest and shorter intervals on the halfbike, but after almost three months of trying to make this work I'm about to give it up. Is the halfbike fun? Yes, well, mostly. It can handle only limited terrain - mostly flat, smooth surfaces. A long uphill is still simply laborious. Cobblestones and roots can send the rear of the unit into a tizzy. Even small amounts of sand and this thing just stops. This narrows the range of enjoyment. I can have way more fun on a good road or trail bike. And in terms of commuting - I still prefer a city bike any day because the halfbike isn't good at carrying loads. So overall, I'm a little disappointed. It looked so promising in the videos. Would I recommend it to others? If they understand and can live with the limitations then, yes. But they need to understand that this device isn't for everyone - and maybe only for a pretty severe subset of the population. It is somewhat ironically true to its name. It is half a bike...in terms of where it can go, how fast it can go, how far it can go and what it can do. But I always appreciate people trying to think out of the box and this is definitely out of the traditional design box. So thank you for the experience, and I wish you luck in your enterprise.

I was SO excited to give this Half Bike to my 14 year old son for Xmas. Sadly the bike sits un-used as it is just too hard to ride... all the neighbors have tried, I have tried and it's just too much of a risk to learn to ride. I think that the videos make it seem so easy to ride, and it is not. There is HUGE learning curve to learn to ride it without feeling like you are in danger. I wish I could give a positive review as I hate to be negative, but we are very disappointed in it... we'd gladly sell it to anyone wanting a new/barely used bike. I think that the back wheels should be wider so balancing is easier... something to make it not feel like you will faceplant the moment you get on the bike. Cool concept, just way too hard to ride... and I'm really sad about that.

I received my HB3 about 6 weeks ago. It looks great and moves well. I spent 4 days trying to ride it, without much success. I was exhausted each time I tried it. My wife decided she'd give it a try and fell hard on her second attempt. I've been too afraid to try again. Not sure what to do now.

The product is amazing. You really need to learn how to use it and it was cool for me to learn something new. After a couple of weeks I managed to ride it for a 2 hours trip of 30 km. Terrific experience. What really let me down is that the bike arrived with the front wheel crooked and the problem is getting worse.

I like halfbike but at first for me it is difficult to learn to manage balance and to learn to turn. I don’t have a lot of time to exercise so it is taking me a lot to start riding around with halfbike. It would take an online tutorial. I hope to improve early to be able to go around having fun.

I liked the idea of the half-bike and have owned and ride elliptigo arc and street striders, but this half-bike is just too small and requires more balance than I had expected. I have issues with my feet being too long and hitting the back fenders unless I ride with pedals near back half of my feet. Also it is very difficult to keep it going straight in bike lanes on roads that have a grade towards the side or/even normal width sidewalks. Riding on a wide bike lane is ok, but I was hoping to use this to commute to work. It is also difficult to make sharp turns if you are going at a slow speed. I think if it was a little longer and slightly wider it would have been much better for me. It is fun to ride for short distance on wide bike paths, but not as useful as I had hoped.

So far it has been really tough to ride the bike consistently. When I have tried to ride it, the brakes seem to squeak a lot when trying to slow down on a little hill. Also, when it is free standing, it leans a little to one side. I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen or if it makes no difference. I have not had a chance to give it a lot of time, but am planning to do so over this next week or 2. Thanks

Unfortunately did not offer the stability of a three wheeler that we had anticipated.

Found it more difficult than expected and never felt confident enough to ride in an urban area. When you do build up some speed it does feel wonderful but I would not risk going down a hill. I think this bike would be enjoyed more by experienced bikers and to be fair my age of 55 was probably against me! Sold the bike.

It's a beautiful artwork, although I still can't stay on it more than 30 secs, pretty hard to learn. Hope to have more time to practice.

If I had experience riding a skateboard or scooter as a youth, I have no doubt I could have instinctively operated my Halfbike. Halfbike requires a unique sense of balance. The autonomous sense of balance, in my case, is obviously limited to riding a bicycle dependent on a steerable front wheel. I have family members as young as 10 and as old as 40 who successfully rode my Halfbike the very first time they tried. I've tried to learn many many times, and all that happens is a crashing hard fall. This is very frustrating and disappointing. Nothing wrong with the design or manufacturing, both of which I admire greatly. I just can't ride the Halfbike.

It is difficult to learn, but once it is learned, it is not too difficult to ride. The bike is very portable, fit nicely in the back seat of my sedan. I can take it to go places. There are a few problems with this design: 1. My model does not have a gear box. It is with much efforts to go up hill, even just slightly slanted.. 2. There is no seat so the rider has to stand all the time. It could be tiring. 3. The brake is not too effective, especially when going down hill.