A to B Magazine
Why choose a folding bike?
A to B Magazine
Why choose a folding bike?
Folding bikes used to be crude,
heavy, hard to ride, slow to fold, and once in a while they collapsed
in a heap. But in the early '90s that all changed as rail operators
and airlines began to tighten restrictions on bike carriage.
Fortunately, bikes that could be treated as hand luggage continued to
travel free, and so the concept of a super-compact folding bike
caught on. Today there are more than 50 folding bikes, and thanks to
developments in small tyre technology and frame materials, the
weight, ride quality and performance of the best is similar to that
of their rigid cousins. Folding bikes offer five primary advantages
over conventional machines:
Not all folders fit in a
suitcase, or fold in seconds, but they can be made significantly
smaller when you're not in the saddle. And they generally travel free
and without booking restrictions on rail, bus, underground, ferry or
air services. It's that freedom to travel anywhere with your bike
that gives folders a magic quality. A folding bike can open up
entirely new ways of travelling.
Choosing a
bike
The more you pay, the
lighter the machine. Expect to pay £200 or less for a 14kg
clunker, £450 for a mid-range 12kg machine, or £1,000+ for
something close to the exotic 10kg mark. That might sound expensive,
but folding bikes keep their value. A second-hand Brompton, Birdy or
Bike Friday will cost almost as much as a new machine, so it's
generally better to buy new if you can afford it.
Folded size is important too. If you are just carrying a couple of
bikes into the country at the weekend by car or train, almost
anything will fit the bill. But if you expect to commute by air,
rail, bus, or metro, you'll need a really compact machine that folds
quickly. And to keep ahead of bike thieves it needs to be light,
compact and quick to fold, or you'll soon give up and put it back in
the garage.
Small wheels usually give lighter steering and a harder ride, but
forget all the stories about wobbly handling, hard work and unusably
low gears. Folding bikes tend to be more manoeuverable than
traditional bikes; they're lighter; and most offer a low step-thru
frame. They also tend to come in one size suitable for all the
family, with a few quick adjustments.
Full-Size
Wheels
If you really can't
live with small wheels, there are now plenty of folding bikes with
conventional wheels, mainly from Dahon.
These 'full size' folders start at about £250. Other good
full-size bikes include the Montague,
and the Redlof
range. Not currently available in the UK, the Redlof is widely
distributed in the USA as the CariBike.
If you insist on a 'conventional' machine, why not make your own bike
separable? It's not as difficult (or as dangerous) as it sounds. US
engineering company S&S
Machine produces a
range of frame couplings that are claimed to be stronger than the
original tubes.
Grand Tourers:
20-inch wheels and above
The real 'compact'
folding bikes have wheels measuring 20-inches or less in diameter. As
a general rule, bikes with 20-inch wheels perform well, but fold
slowly, and produce a large (if lightweight) package. The best-known
20-inch bike is the Bike
Friday, made by Green
Gear in Oregon, USA. The company build custom-made MTBs, tourers,
racers, triathlon machines and a new recumbent, with prices starting
in the region of £700 or US$700.
A cheaper option is the Taiwanese-made Dahon
Boardwalk, currently
sold as a Phillips in the UK. It's heavier than the Bike Friday and
it doesn't fold or ride with the same finesse, but it costs only
£240, which gives some compensation.
It's also worth mentioning the Moulton
APB range of 3, 7 and
21 speed bikes. These machines aren't really folding bikes (they
actually unbolt into two halves), but they will fit into a car boot,
and have wonderful suspension, suitable for use off-road. Don't buy
one if you intend to commute regularly on the train, though. Most
experienced APB owners split their bikes only in an emergency - it
takes several minutes.
Super-compacts:
16 or 18-inch wheels
Bikes with 16 or
18-inch wheels have a more limited range, but with the right tyres
and components, the best are capable of 80 -160km rides. Generally,
these are amongst the most compact and fast-folding machines, zipping
down to suitcase dimensions in 20 seconds or much less.
Small wheels can give a harsh ride, so suspension is a must if you
are riding any distance. These bikes are sufficiently compact to be
wheeled around the supermarket, carried nonchalantly onto a bus, or
even kept under your desk.
The British-made Brompton
is king of the 16-inch bikes. It gives an excellent ride (thanks in
part to rear suspension), it's sturdy, and it folds very quickly to a
smaller package than any other bike on the market. They cost from
£367 and can be fitted with a neat range of quick-release
luggage. Any downside? It's a bit heavy at 11.2kg plus - if you want
a lighter bike with a better ride, the 18-inch German/Taiwanese
Birdy
has a light aluminium frame and full suspension, at the expense of a
larger folded package and a price tag from about £740. You can
even specify off-road tyres, turning this road bike into a great
little performer on tracks and trails.
A cheaper option is the Brilliant
Micro, a reworked
design that first saw the light of day in the 1970s. It's very light
and compact, but lacks suspension, and the handling is not to
everyone's taste. The single-speed Micro-lite is the second lightest
mass-produced folding bike on the market (the Panasonic 6500 is
lighter), and costs only £280 in the UK. Three gear versions
cost (and weigh) rather more.
Very small
wheels: sub 16-inch
Below the 16-inch bikes
are machines with 16x1.75 or 16x1.5 tyres. Confusingly, these measure
305mm across the rim, and little more than 15 inches overall. They
are generally less sprightly on the road than the true 16-inch tyres.
These bikes rarely offer suspension, and tend to get by with soft
squidgy tyres that can make pedalling hard work. Strangely, most of
them produce a larger folded package than the Brompton or Micro,
despite their smaller wheels.
The best bike in this category is probably the Tactic
Panache. Another
16x1.75 manufacturer with a good pedigree is Dahon
- these bikes are
widely available in Britain from about £300 and in the USA from
US$300. One machine in this category is quite unique - the
Strida
is a revamped version
of the 'stick' folder from the 1980s. It has only one gear, but it's
light and relatively cheap.
At the bottom of the heap are a whole range of good, bad or
indifferent, mostly Far-Eastern folders. These tend to be heavy, with
dodgy folding mechanisms, but they can be very cheap - from
£100.
Choose the right folding bike and you'll wonder how you ever lived
without one!
For contact details on the bikes mentioned here, please visit our
UK Price
Tag or
USA Price
Tag
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