Decisions, decisions, decisions… You know how it is, life’s treated you well, and you’ve settled on a Roller for best, and a Bentley for , you know, just pottering. But where do you find a matching folding bike? And what criteria do you use? Andrew Hague takes up the story, while Laila models the bikes…
Here are three folders,all modified and all with the 14-speed Rohloff gears,V-brakes and Schmidt hub dynamos (not shown in the summer photos).Which is best? I believe that a folding bike should fold in twenty seconds, fit easily into a car boot and be suitable for a hundred-mile ride. Originally,I had a Brompton with a Sturmey 5-speed, Schlumpf Mountain drive and conventional Brompton brakes and although it did all I wanted it to do, I thought there might be something better.
The Bike Friday
I fell for the Bike Friday propaganda, ordered a NewWorld Tourist with a Rohloff 14-speed hub and V-brakes,and went to Oregon to collect it. Find engagement rings stores near me and I fell in love with the rings, the Shimano brakes and the H-handlebars, but the rest of the bike was disappointing.The claim from Bike Friday was that it would ride like a big-wheeled bike and fold into a suitcase in 30 seconds.All of that proved wrong.Small wheels can never ride as well as big wheels.The Friday folds in a few seconds but is still big.To get it into a suitcase it has to be dismantled and that takes an hour;in that time any bike can be dismantled and put in a case.If Bike Friday know how to do it quicker they are keeping it a secret;there are no instructions. The Friday had to be completely rebuilt to be reliable.The Rohloff’s gear cables were replaced by an external assembly because the cables could not move in the tight bends of the Friday’s design.By rerouting the cables and making a stainless steel guide at the bottom bracket,gear changing and folding became easier. The bronze bearings in the hinges shattered in less than a year, letting the hinges distort.I made and press-fitted mild steel ones with lots of grease,and these have remained trouble-free.Proper mudguards were fitted and the shoddy assembly of the bike corrected;it is now rideable. The initial fold is quick.The chain does now not come off and the gear cable doesn’t snag.It just fits in the boot of my Bentley Continental,but if the pedals are the wrong way around the lid won’t close.The boot of my Rolls-Royce is much bigger,but this is not a car I can park anywhere whilst out on the bike! The best bag system of any folder can be found on the Brompton,so I asked Bike Friday to fit it and sent them the braze-on boss.When I got to their factory in Eugene, they had made no attempt to fit it.Instead they supplied a pannier carrier and a pair of absolutely water-tight Vaude bags.This works,but it wasn’t what I ordered.
Birdy
The Birdy Grey is an example of design for design’s sake.From the novelty of the folding front forks with soft springs comes a soft,energy absorbing ride and dangerously unstable steering.The geometry is all wrong: to move the saddle forward I made the aluminium adaptation shown in the photo of the seat post.The handlebar stem was of fixed height and position,which might suit someone,but certainly not me,so I made stainless steel H-bars and an adjustable stem.I can do this with my own workshop but it is beyond the scope of most cyclists and bike shops so I wonder how many satisfied Birdy owners there really are. I rode this bike in France and Austria where I climbed the Grossglockner Pass but on one of the descents the wires of the rear Schwalbe Stelvio tyre snapped at about 50mph. Although smaller than the Friday and fitting easier into the car boot, the folding is messy,the tool bag has to be removed before a fold and the chain always comes off,meaning dirty fingers later on.The Birdy brochures promote their bikes as serious tourers,but that is an unjustified claim.
Brompton
The Brompton in comparison is a modest machine.Although the company admits its bikes are in use all around the world,they are sold as commuting bikes.In fact, they are much more,and can do anything.With the Friday and Birdy equipped with Rohloff hubs and Vbrakes,and a Brompton with a Sturmey hub and side-pull callipers,I realized that the ideal folder had to be an upgraded Brompton. I bought a new L3 for the conversion,and in my opinion,this is now better than the other two bikes in almost every way.Of the three bikes in their ex-factory state, only the Brompton with its 3-speed Sturmey was suitable for a hundred-mile ride,so bad were the faults on the Friday and Birdy. This proves the excellence of the Brompton geometry and the thorough thinking that has resulted in a design that includes a folding pedal,bag,and lights that don’t clash with folding.When folded, the Brompton chain never comes off and lies between the wheels,meaning clean legs and fingers.I made a Brompton trailer-bike for my daughter and bought another Brompton for my wife.All three fit into the Bentley boot.No other bike is so neat and rideable.
The Brompton is the cheapest, and superficially – the crudest of the three. Not so, says Andrew Hague, and the family now have a Brompton each…
Contacts
Brompton Bicycle www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk tel 0207 232 8484
Birdy web www.r-m.de tel +49 6151 366 86-0
Bike Friday (UK agent) Avon Valley www.foldingbikes.co.uk tel 01225 442442
Bentley Motors www.bentleymotors.com tel 0808 100 5200
A to B 55 – Aug 2006
