I own what could possibly be the coolest folding bike ever made: the Bike Friday Tikit Hyperfold. It has a folding mechanism with an extremely high nerd quotient. It has a reputation as the fastest bike to fold and unfold, requiring no latches, safeties, or adjustment at all. But more importantly, unlike many other exotic folders (ahem Brompton) it largely uses standard parts. You can fit it with whatever drivetrain, brake system, handlebars, pedals, and seat you want. Though it has the same 349 wheel size as a Brompton, it rides much, much better. It was designed by in conjunction with Bike Friday by Rob English, a mechanical engineer who long was (maybe is?) the British speed record holder.
But Bike Friday no longer manufactures it: the frame design is so exotic and weird that they had a number of frame issues and failures they had to overcome in the field, and Bike Friday has a lifetime frame warranty. It was a very popular bike, but by the time they had worked out all the kinks the value of them continuing to sell the bike had probably gone negative. The Tikit was just too bleeding edge for its time.
The Tikit relies on a special part in order to be ridden: its hyperfold cable. This cable is no longer being manufactured for Bike Friday and cannot be obtained anywhere. When my cable gives out, and it'll happen sometime soon, my Tikit will probably wind up on the display wall of a bike store. And I'll be searching for something to replace it. But there is no folder even close to the Tikit in sheer engineering prowess, which depresses me to no end as a tech guy. Bike Friday itself replaced the model with the Pakit, a decidedly inferior bike. I'm not sure what to do.
I've had a regular Tikit (there's a single knob to lock the steer tube in place, adds 10 seconds to the fold/unfold time) for over 15 years. Picked Bike Friday because I wanted a foldable to be able to take it onto public transit, and the Bromptons were pricier than I wanted. I did have a frame failure early on (repaired thanks to that lifetime warranty), but it's been reliable ever since. If your hyperfold cable does break, I hope at the least you'll be able to retrofit the regular locking knob onto it.
Hi fellow tikit owner! When they did the early upgrade of the cable, I thought it was just some gauge of airplane wire, threaded through the front nut and clamped or welded in place (I don't rude mine very often, it's a very early model and has a lot of the weaknesses like chain offs, and it comes unfolded too easily when I roll it). But I haven't been able to bring myself to sell it, it's still such a nice little device.
Even if you ride it a full 2 hours every day, storage still accounts for more than 90% of what you do with your bike.
Where do I keep it is the problem Brompton’s solve really really really well. And incidentally, if you don’t ride a Brompton, the tires don’t get flat spots because when folded the tires don’t touch the ground.
Piling on with the Brompton love here. Apartment friendly. Car trunk friendly. Motorcycle sidecar friendly. Their hardcase makes it airplane friendly. Theft-resistant, since it's carried and stored next to you more often than most bikes.
The Brompton luggage system (its mount and low, forward position) is amazing. Bags can be massive and carry a lot of weight and the bike still feels great to ride.
For pedals, I use MKS EZY Superior Lambda pedals with street shoes. Long but not wide metal platform. And they're quick release. The stock Brompton pedals are clever, but not awesome for long distance or hammering. I've spun SPD clipless pedals on for spirited riding and those are, of course, a joy.
The Brompton design is genius but if I could improve one thing, it would be to allow slightly wider tires into the frame.
I'm 15 years into owning a Brompton and I know I'll never get rid of it. and I'm still finding useful and/or hilarious new places to take that might otherwise not allow for a bike. e.g. I had to ride a cargo bike across town for service last week and taking the Brommy in the box so I could ride something home was just so nice
I ride a Reise & Mueller Birdy Mk3 mostly because I think folding bikes are neat and the Birdy has my favorite fold. The other rationale was that I wanted a nice bike I'd never have to lock up outside in NYC. The intention was to use it as a commuter since not spending on the subway would pay for it pretty quickly but shortly after I got it I started working remote so I've only done commutes on it for a couple weeks of gig jobs and it's mostly a recreational bike.
I went through an extended project to make it faster and wound up with a loop handlebar for body position, replaced the wheelset to move from 355 to 406 for tire selection and did the drivetrain at the same time to accommodate a 9-32 cassette. Between the wheels and the sub-11 tooth sprockets I can pedal up to ~26mph instead of ~20mph on the stock setup (good enough) and the low end is about the same. It doesn't perform like a race bike but it's pretty close to an endurance road bike. I do 20 mile rides a couple times a week on it and I've done a couple centuries.
The Birdy is my main bike but I'm a folding and recumbent enthusiast in general. The addition of the fold or moving the cranks in front of the rider means the obvious solution diamond frame doesn't work and I like seeing the creativity of the solutions. I've also owned a Xootr Swift that I gave away to my nephews, a Bike Friday Sat-R-Day folding recumbent for riding slowly in the parks, and a Baron Optima lowracer recumbent that I prefer for rides over 90 minutes.
I don't fault OP for this, but it's pretty frustrating to me as someone who's quite attached to his non-folding bike that the main benefit of folding bikes is that, unlike regular bikes, they aren't banned from pretty much all public transport
Thankfully uncommon in North America. Growing up in Los Angeles where every bus has racks and every train car has bike spots, I was shocked the first time I visited SF and found I couldn't bring it on Muni trains.
I know DC bans them and Boston/NYC/Toronto have limited hours, but every other city with a metro seems to welcome them.
Granted I live in a smaller town, but I see a lot of bikes on the bus. Given that we don't have a super dense transit system, bike + bus is a practical way for a lot of people to make buses work. The bike solves the "last mile problem."
Both of my kids have jobs that let out after the last buses run at night, so they take the bus to work and ride their bikes home.
I remember one time on the bus a commuter had his full sized bike in the bus. This was a full sized with plenty of space bus, so it wasn't really in the way at all. The bike rack was full and it was a summer day. So probably the guy figured he may as well just try bringing it on instead of waiting another hour for a bus and hoping there's space.
Anyway one busybody got all uppity. But the driver and rest of the passengers didn't care. So it was fine.
Yeah, this definitely wouldn't fly in any country where a lot of people bike and use transit. Tokyo metro would be hell if full sized bikes would be allowed.
I understand the frustration but also bikes take up a lot of space. When someone brings one on the NYC subway at rush hour it’s definitely an inconvenience.
I feel like the failure here is that it gets so packed that there isn't space for a bike. Because it's not just bikes impacted here. If you can't fit a bike, you can't fit a wheelchair, you can't fit a pram, you don't have space for someone who needs to sit down, or someone who can't handle being pressed in at all sides by other passengers.
It's a wrong allocation of resources where we decide everyone can have 4 empty seats to drive to work but we can't fit 1 person and a bike on PT.
The thing is, everyone can't have 4 empty seats to drive to work in New York City. There's only so much space on the streets and in the bridges and tunnels, and now there's a congestion charge on top of that.
Pretty much any decent mass transit system in the world is packed at rush hour. The whole advantage over private vehicles comes from the fact that people take up less space.
I agree it's a fairly common issue but I feel like it's not an impossible issue to solve. A person and a bike is still massively smaller than a person in an SUV. The system is basically designed with just enough capacity to barely work. But I feel like if we really wanted PT to be the obvious best choice it should be provisioned a bit over the least possible capacity.
The article touched on it, and I agree, the biggest benefits for me are the portability and storability.
I can easily fit my folding bike into my car trunk, and very easily fit another one in the back seat. This enables you to drive to the start of a distant cycling route without having to deal with bike racks behind or on top of your car. So much less friction to you just going somewhere and cycling around.
And the small size means I can skip the common bike storage in my complex and store it in my apartment and it doesn't take up as much space as a full-sized bike. In my city, like most major cities, bike thievery is rampant. And if they can't steal your bike, they strip it of parts.
There are some drawbacks though. You can't really use them for hauling heavy loads, so forget bicycle touring or pulling a little trailer for kids or other things. They are also quite slow. And maybe some models have lots of gears, but the ones I checked out (in my admittedly limited search) did not, so they are not suited for very hilly routes.
I got mine used for $200 off FB Marketplace, it was in great condition and ready to ride. It is some generic brand that was sold in Walmarts a few years ago and I could not find any other information on it. I don't really care though. It got me out and cycling again!
I know it's not for everyone, but it is also a reasonable touring bike if done within its constraints. I've probably done closer to 40 days on my 16" Brompton, longest was a two-week 1000km ride. On the topic of leaving the bike out-of-sight: In those 40 days I've left it locked a total of 20 minutes, otherwise it comes with me into restaurants, supermarkets, public restrooms, hotel rooms..
The biggest downsides are speed and climbing ability. 80k or so has been a reasonable max distance on tour (I've done one 100k day, it was long) and I wouldn't take it to the Alps.
Like the OP, I run Schwalbe Marathon Plus which has been good. But I have had one catastrophic puncture after riding over a particularly nasty piece of glass that cut straight through the tire. After that I bring a folding backup tire.
This is a high quality video of a guy reviewing his own Brompton, but generally showing around it, the features, the fold, the kickstand mode with the rear wheel folded under, the rolling wheels to wheel it around when folded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6bmuJ98Zc8
It's his bike, he loves it, it's not an unbiased independent review.
I had a Brompton in Boston. It makes absolutely everyone happy. It's been a conversation starter with everyone from 15 year old kids dressed to give a don't start anything vibe to 75 year old retirees.
As TFA notes, they're allowed on trains even during rush hour when full-size bikes are not. They fold effortlessly; folding and unfolding a couple times a day at the station is no hassle at all. They ride much like a full size bike, with the exception of the fact that if you pedal through a turn, you're much more likely to strike a pedal into the ground.
The only downside is that the 16" tires are murder on bumpy roads, of which Boston has many.
The 16" tires killed all the joy I normally get from riding a bike tbh. I tried better seats, shock absorber posts, different gear ratios, everything. Just sucked the joy out of the ride for me. Hiding "throw away" bikes around the city and far off bus stops etc ended up being my solution and it worked better for me at least.
My other option was leaving my all-weather beater bike down at the station near work. I ended up not doing that just because I didn't want to have to haul it back and forth a couple times a year for maintenance. But yeah, valid solution for sure.
I went with the simplest possible design for mine: fixed gear, v breaks sealed bearing wheels. Was basically zero maintenance as I only ever used the brakes for emergencies and used foot power for planned stopping etc. had gater tires, worked fine in the snow in Boston round all year.
Admittedly, I’ve never ridden a 16” wheeled bike. My 20” is rough enough that I’ve never bothered considering the smaller wheeled models. Maybe if I bike/train commuted every day rather than a few times a month.
For general use, they are in theory thief-proof because you can take them everywhere with you. The downside is they're expensive so you HAVE to take them everywhere with you. Leave them out and they'll get stolen. For that reason I think the happiest I've been is with a dirt cheap bike in Japan. Didn't even lock it properly (just a key built into the frame) and could park it outside any old shop or restaurant for hours. Super convenient.
For me, just having a $7,000 bike parked on the street would be too stressful even if it didn't get stolen. I've had bikes stolen in Australia and there is basically nothing you can do about it. The thieves have hoodies, masks, and battery powered grinders that will cut any lock.
The only defense is storing your bike inside. And then you get karens on the owners corp whinging that you aren't allowed to take bikes inside. Who also don't give two shits when your bike gets stolen from the basement bike storage.
I felt this way until I bought full coverage bike insurance.
For my $250 deductible I basically just get a nice upgrade to the latest version / a brand new ebike for ~$200 / year.
The peace of mind alone with insurance (and a really nice lock) have fully mitigated this for me. I've been leaving my ~$2k ebike locked up all over San Francisco for ~3 years without it being stolen. (My first beater bike was a POS locked up in my apartments secure bike storage and it was stolen after I owned it for ~9 days so I figured I couldn't double down on the bad luck).
Have a foldable bike as well, but in Japan, generally you have to put the folded bike in a bag as well. So it’s always just a little bit of extra friction.
Then again, taking the front wheel of my road bike takes an extra minute. Then i can put it on the train as well. That’s when I start questioning my decisions no matter whether I took the foldable one or non foldable one.
Can confirm, they're great! I will sometimes take a day trip from London to a different town, and it's nice to take the bike with me on the train, disembark, and be able to cycle around without worrying about which bus to take, how to pay, etc. But I can still take the bike on the bus if needed!
Brompton is probably the #1 brand bike thieves will target though, everyone I know who has one never leaves it out of their sight. That's way too stressful for me, I don't want to take it with me in the supermarket or watch over it at the pub. I just got a cheap Decathlon with very low thief appeal.
a bit nitty, but "never get punctures" is just an attribute of the tires, not the bike. if you stick Gatorskins on a Tarmac SL8, you'll also never get punctures. but that's like putting tractor tires on a sports car, and you'll be slower and have a less comfortable ride than you would with GP5Ks.
I have a Tern Eclipse P18 24" folding bike which I like a lot. Tern and Dahon are related. Wasn't cheap and is hard to find. I literally drove to Vegas and met an IT sysadmin in a casino parking lot at 2am. He was coming off shift. It was legit (found it on EBay and he had the manuals) but it looked+felt like a drug deal.
I have upgraded the Tern. The original FSA crank would come loose and so I replaced it with a Shimano 105 part which required a Wheels Mfg 386 EVO Adaptor. I've never had a problem with it since. I also replaced the front derailleur with an SRAM Yaw which is just perfection.
It's great out to about 20 miles and you can't go up anything really steep because the shorter wheelbase just pops a wheelie. Tires and tubes are hard to find. But it's an awesome bike to have around.
I used to own a dahon that I got from a guy on craigslist back in like 2011/2012. Incredible bike. After moving further out of the city for cheaper rent I sold it to help pay rent. Really wish I could have kept it.
I dunno about elsewhere but in Ontario the legality of a bike being on a sidewalk is based on wheel diameter to permit kids bicycles. So there ends up being kinds of adult bikes with intentionally tiny wheels, and it creates a real menace to pedestrians. Some municipalities also have age restrictions to combat this.
What are the more legitimate reasons for little wheels on bikes? I guess the goal like with this one is to have the least amount of bike as necessary?
> I dunno about elsewhere but in Ontario the legality of a bike being on a sidewalk is based on wheel diameter to permit kids bicycles.
There is no Ontario-wide law, per the Highway Traffic Act, §185(2):
> (2) The council of a municipality may by by-law prohibit pedestrians or the use of motor assisted bicycles, bicycles, wheelchairs or animals on any highway or portion of a highway under its jurisdiction. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 185 (2).
> 2.12 Motor vehicle - bicycle - on sidewalk - exceptions No person shall, without lawful authority, either by himself or by permitting others, operate a motor vehicle or bicycle along a sidewalk. This section shall not apply to a person who, […] or (d) being under the age of 14, operates a bicycle along a sidewalk.
I love my Brompton. I've had mine for 12 years that I bought back in LA and brought it with me when I moved to Tokyo. It's such a great commuter for getting around the city and easily fits in my trunk when I want to take it with me for a trip.
Tokyo also has a couple of great Brompton shops for maintenance and parts.
One of the fun things about these bikes is you’ll get many curious onlookers in the US and delight them by showing them how it folds up. Kids seem to love the demonstration and it’s cool explaining how bikes work, especially the hub gear.
As someone who rode a folding bike for several years as their primary mode of transportation, I personally found no joy in it. It was simply the only option for being allowed on the commuter rail into the city during "rush" hours. I eventually got fed up with it and gave it away and chained up a full sized beater bike at the city limits and rode that the last few miles after getting off the rail. I'd prefer to never ride one ever again tbh
I cycle 60 mins per day along the tow path in London on my Brompton, put it under my desk in the office, and then get the train back in the evening. No issues handling that distance.
I extracted a lot of utility out of a folding bike during university in Korea. The smaller wheels are indeed a tradeoff for space vs. comfort but all in all it was a useful purchase.
There are a couple of companies doing full-size, or nearly full-size wheels on folding bikes --- very glad of my Montague Swissbike X50, and considered a Change Bike, and still want a Helix.
Many HNers will enjoy this book about the company’s maturation from a hardware startup founded by one difficult genius to an institution that had to be rebuilt as it scaled: https://bookpeople.com/book/9781615199563
I'd like to try a folding bike but (1) bromptons around here are filthy expensive and cheaper options (that can be found around 1/20th the price of a brompton) are really low quality, and (2) none of them come with big gears that I'd need to get home, with sections that can reach 22%
If you don't know if you need a folding bike, you probably don't need a folding bike. It's kind of compromised as a bike, and if the (admittedly huge) utility of it folding isn't painfully necessary, it'd be hard to justify owning one.
Once you get to the point where a folder is unavoidable, you may as well get a good one, be it Bromptom, Dahon, or whoever. At that point it's definitely a buy-once-cry-once kind of purchase. As much as I love mine, I wouldn't recommend anyone buying one who isn't already really into cycling for transportation rather than sport and doesn't really need a folding bike.
And yeah, the low end of the market is pretty crap, much as it is for regular bikes.
I live in NYC and I was tempted to buy a Brompton but ended up not doing so in the end. A friend of mine that always lives in the city said he regretted his because it's surprisingly heavy and bulky even when folded.
My ‘low stakes conspiracy theory’ is that adults enjoy the Brompton more than you’d think, because it’s too small for them, so it feels more like a BMX for sensible professional adults who would never think to ride a BMX or want to be seen on one.
I’ve been eyeing up Bromptons for years, especially the new G (gravel) line which has 20” wheels up from 16” and chunkier tires (for ride comfort on potholes and rough asphalt, and being able to ride down a trail). But I have no need for one, and they’re not cheap to buy on a whim.
I’d really like to try a Kwiggle folding bike, too, just for fun. The standing-riding position might feel less like riding a bike and more like ‘accelerated walking’. And it folds smaller than a Brompton tri-fold.
12" wheels would be sheer hell on anything less than perfect pavement. Source: I own a Brompton with 16" wheels, and wouldn't ride it more than about a block without cycling gloves. It's absolutely punishing on the wrists. The elastomeric block for the rear triangle makes it pretty tolerable on your ass, but the front end is rough.
- The steering column is made of austenitic stainless steel. This .. even provides a pleasant suspension.
- Of course everyone prefers to ride on smooth asphalt. With the Kwiggle you can also easily drive on paved trails. Even cobblestones are relatively comfortable to ride due to the wide tires.
- Is the Kwiggle suitable for longer distances? The physiologically optimal upright posture and the swinging saddle bring each of your muscles in motion, especially in the hip and lower back area. That's why you can ride even better than with any other bike, without tension, pain or signs of fatigue symptoms. We already rode 200 and 300 km (124 and 186 miles) in one day.
I've used a Dahon Speed P8 extensively in Asia. In China you can just put a folding bike inside a large tarp bag and just get on any high speed train and then bike away when you reach your destination. It's awesome.
The only "gotcha" is how you deal with luggage. I've used a seatpost rack, but I've also had a seatpost rack fail on me one time.
Recently I tried out Brompton Bike Hire in London for a week. Can recommend the bike, and the price is reasonable. The bikes are hired from automatic storage lockers, which makes sense as a concept. The app is atrocious though, and I had a lot of trouble returning the bike at the end of the week.
What I've always thought was interesting about folding bikes is that it doesn't seem like it's possible for it to be done elegantly. It's been 150 years since the "safety bicycle" was invented, yet folding bikes are the exception and not the norm - even though it would be really handy if every bike could be easily shrunk down and packed up as easily as a baby stroller or a wheel chair.
Maybe it's just my experience, but every folded bike I've seen in the wild looked more or less like a bundle of bike parts, with bits sticking out here and there. You'll never look at a folded bike and think, "Hey, what's that?", because it always looks exactly like what it is.
It seems like there's something about a bike's geometry and mechanism which doesn't lend itself to symmetry and easy compaction.
I own what could possibly be the coolest folding bike ever made: the Bike Friday Tikit Hyperfold. It has a folding mechanism with an extremely high nerd quotient. It has a reputation as the fastest bike to fold and unfold, requiring no latches, safeties, or adjustment at all. But more importantly, unlike many other exotic folders (ahem Brompton) it largely uses standard parts. You can fit it with whatever drivetrain, brake system, handlebars, pedals, and seat you want. Though it has the same 349 wheel size as a Brompton, it rides much, much better. It was designed by in conjunction with Bike Friday by Rob English, a mechanical engineer who long was (maybe is?) the British speed record holder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQscBxx7wLE
But Bike Friday no longer manufactures it: the frame design is so exotic and weird that they had a number of frame issues and failures they had to overcome in the field, and Bike Friday has a lifetime frame warranty. It was a very popular bike, but by the time they had worked out all the kinks the value of them continuing to sell the bike had probably gone negative. The Tikit was just too bleeding edge for its time.
The Tikit relies on a special part in order to be ridden: its hyperfold cable. This cable is no longer being manufactured for Bike Friday and cannot be obtained anywhere. When my cable gives out, and it'll happen sometime soon, my Tikit will probably wind up on the display wall of a bike store. And I'll be searching for something to replace it. But there is no folder even close to the Tikit in sheer engineering prowess, which depresses me to no end as a tech guy. Bike Friday itself replaced the model with the Pakit, a decidedly inferior bike. I'm not sure what to do.
I've had a regular Tikit (there's a single knob to lock the steer tube in place, adds 10 seconds to the fold/unfold time) for over 15 years. Picked Bike Friday because I wanted a foldable to be able to take it onto public transit, and the Bromptons were pricier than I wanted. I did have a frame failure early on (repaired thanks to that lifetime warranty), but it's been reliable ever since. If your hyperfold cable does break, I hope at the least you'll be able to retrofit the regular locking knob onto it.
Hi fellow tikit owner! When they did the early upgrade of the cable, I thought it was just some gauge of airplane wire, threaded through the front nut and clamped or welded in place (I don't rude mine very often, it's a very early model and has a lot of the weaknesses like chain offs, and it comes unfolded too easily when I roll it). But I haven't been able to bring myself to sell it, it's still such a nice little device.
> an extremely high nerd quotient
stealing this. you will be paid 0 in royalties/licensing
Even if you ride it a full 2 hours every day, storage still accounts for more than 90% of what you do with your bike.
Where do I keep it is the problem Brompton’s solve really really really well. And incidentally, if you don’t ride a Brompton, the tires don’t get flat spots because when folded the tires don’t touch the ground.
They are amazing pieces of engineering.
Piling on with the Brompton love here. Apartment friendly. Car trunk friendly. Motorcycle sidecar friendly. Their hardcase makes it airplane friendly. Theft-resistant, since it's carried and stored next to you more often than most bikes.
The Brompton luggage system (its mount and low, forward position) is amazing. Bags can be massive and carry a lot of weight and the bike still feels great to ride.
For pedals, I use MKS EZY Superior Lambda pedals with street shoes. Long but not wide metal platform. And they're quick release. The stock Brompton pedals are clever, but not awesome for long distance or hammering. I've spun SPD clipless pedals on for spirited riding and those are, of course, a joy.
The Brompton design is genius but if I could improve one thing, it would be to allow slightly wider tires into the frame.
I'm 15 years into owning a Brompton and I know I'll never get rid of it. and I'm still finding useful and/or hilarious new places to take that might otherwise not allow for a bike. e.g. I had to ride a cargo bike across town for service last week and taking the Brommy in the box so I could ride something home was just so nice
I ride a Reise & Mueller Birdy Mk3 mostly because I think folding bikes are neat and the Birdy has my favorite fold. The other rationale was that I wanted a nice bike I'd never have to lock up outside in NYC. The intention was to use it as a commuter since not spending on the subway would pay for it pretty quickly but shortly after I got it I started working remote so I've only done commutes on it for a couple weeks of gig jobs and it's mostly a recreational bike.
I went through an extended project to make it faster and wound up with a loop handlebar for body position, replaced the wheelset to move from 355 to 406 for tire selection and did the drivetrain at the same time to accommodate a 9-32 cassette. Between the wheels and the sub-11 tooth sprockets I can pedal up to ~26mph instead of ~20mph on the stock setup (good enough) and the low end is about the same. It doesn't perform like a race bike but it's pretty close to an endurance road bike. I do 20 mile rides a couple times a week on it and I've done a couple centuries.
The Birdy is my main bike but I'm a folding and recumbent enthusiast in general. The addition of the fold or moving the cranks in front of the rider means the obvious solution diamond frame doesn't work and I like seeing the creativity of the solutions. I've also owned a Xootr Swift that I gave away to my nephews, a Bike Friday Sat-R-Day folding recumbent for riding slowly in the parks, and a Baron Optima lowracer recumbent that I prefer for rides over 90 minutes.
I'm all for more submissions about manually-operated things on wheels.
Like "Rediscovering the Handcart"
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2026/04/rediscovering-the-...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47873192
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870694
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47862913
Don't miss the Low Tech piece on Chinese one-wheel wheelbarrows:
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/how-to-downsize-a-...
I don't fault OP for this, but it's pretty frustrating to me as someone who's quite attached to his non-folding bike that the main benefit of folding bikes is that, unlike regular bikes, they aren't banned from pretty much all public transport
Thankfully uncommon in North America. Growing up in Los Angeles where every bus has racks and every train car has bike spots, I was shocked the first time I visited SF and found I couldn't bring it on Muni trains.
I know DC bans them and Boston/NYC/Toronto have limited hours, but every other city with a metro seems to welcome them.
NYC subway allows bikes 24/7, only MNR and LIRR have time restrictions
Granted I live in a smaller town, but I see a lot of bikes on the bus. Given that we don't have a super dense transit system, bike + bus is a practical way for a lot of people to make buses work. The bike solves the "last mile problem."
Both of my kids have jobs that let out after the last buses run at night, so they take the bus to work and ride their bikes home.
I remember one time on the bus a commuter had his full sized bike in the bus. This was a full sized with plenty of space bus, so it wasn't really in the way at all. The bike rack was full and it was a summer day. So probably the guy figured he may as well just try bringing it on instead of waiting another hour for a bus and hoping there's space.
Anyway one busybody got all uppity. But the driver and rest of the passengers didn't care. So it was fine.
Yeah, this definitely wouldn't fly in any country where a lot of people bike and use transit. Tokyo metro would be hell if full sized bikes would be allowed.
I understand the frustration but also bikes take up a lot of space. When someone brings one on the NYC subway at rush hour it’s definitely an inconvenience.
I feel like the failure here is that it gets so packed that there isn't space for a bike. Because it's not just bikes impacted here. If you can't fit a bike, you can't fit a wheelchair, you can't fit a pram, you don't have space for someone who needs to sit down, or someone who can't handle being pressed in at all sides by other passengers.
It's a wrong allocation of resources where we decide everyone can have 4 empty seats to drive to work but we can't fit 1 person and a bike on PT.
The thing is, everyone can't have 4 empty seats to drive to work in New York City. There's only so much space on the streets and in the bridges and tunnels, and now there's a congestion charge on top of that.
Pretty much any decent mass transit system in the world is packed at rush hour. The whole advantage over private vehicles comes from the fact that people take up less space.
I agree it's a fairly common issue but I feel like it's not an impossible issue to solve. A person and a bike is still massively smaller than a person in an SUV. The system is basically designed with just enough capacity to barely work. But I feel like if we really wanted PT to be the obvious best choice it should be provisioned a bit over the least possible capacity.
This depends on the metro. NYC generally doesn't care for the trains/subways so they only make a difference on buses.
Surprised more people aren’t aware of Montague.
https://www.montaguebikes.com/
The article touched on it, and I agree, the biggest benefits for me are the portability and storability.
I can easily fit my folding bike into my car trunk, and very easily fit another one in the back seat. This enables you to drive to the start of a distant cycling route without having to deal with bike racks behind or on top of your car. So much less friction to you just going somewhere and cycling around.
And the small size means I can skip the common bike storage in my complex and store it in my apartment and it doesn't take up as much space as a full-sized bike. In my city, like most major cities, bike thievery is rampant. And if they can't steal your bike, they strip it of parts.
There are some drawbacks though. You can't really use them for hauling heavy loads, so forget bicycle touring or pulling a little trailer for kids or other things. They are also quite slow. And maybe some models have lots of gears, but the ones I checked out (in my admittedly limited search) did not, so they are not suited for very hilly routes.
I got mine used for $200 off FB Marketplace, it was in great condition and ready to ride. It is some generic brand that was sold in Walmarts a few years ago and I could not find any other information on it. I don't really care though. It got me out and cycling again!
> "You can't really use them for hauling heavy loads, so forget bicycle touring or pulling a little trailer for kids or other things"
Eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzRqKP0XmhQ - Brompton with Burley Travoy trailer while the guy moves house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocMRuUBUFrU - Bromtpon with Cyclone trailer while grocery shopping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvBA1K8oFmQ - Brompton with child trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOH3wEB0pS8 - with different child trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waW1wq07JsA - Brompton with child seat adapter in front of the rider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV60S7ma4d4 - Brompton with child seat on the back.
I know it's not for everyone, but it is also a reasonable touring bike if done within its constraints. I've probably done closer to 40 days on my 16" Brompton, longest was a two-week 1000km ride. On the topic of leaving the bike out-of-sight: In those 40 days I've left it locked a total of 20 minutes, otherwise it comes with me into restaurants, supermarkets, public restrooms, hotel rooms..
The biggest downsides are speed and climbing ability. 80k or so has been a reasonable max distance on tour (I've done one 100k day, it was long) and I wouldn't take it to the Alps.
Like the OP, I run Schwalbe Marathon Plus which has been good. But I have had one catastrophic puncture after riding over a particularly nasty piece of glass that cut straight through the tire. After that I bring a folding backup tire.
> "a reasonable touring bike if done within its constraints"
Yes; for example, YouTuber Susanna Thornton does bikepacking and wild-camping on her Brompton: https://www.youtube.com/@susannathornton/videos
and Darin's Adventure Chronicles: https://www.youtube.com/@darinsadventurechronicles/videos
Many other one-off videos exist too under searches for brompton bikepacking and brompton wildcamp.
Also:
* https://www.youtube.com/@2Bikes4Adventure/videos
This is a high quality video of a guy reviewing his own Brompton, but generally showing around it, the features, the fold, the kickstand mode with the rear wheel folded under, the rolling wheels to wheel it around when folded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6bmuJ98Zc8
It's his bike, he loves it, it's not an unbiased independent review.
I had a Brompton in Boston. It makes absolutely everyone happy. It's been a conversation starter with everyone from 15 year old kids dressed to give a don't start anything vibe to 75 year old retirees.
As TFA notes, they're allowed on trains even during rush hour when full-size bikes are not. They fold effortlessly; folding and unfolding a couple times a day at the station is no hassle at all. They ride much like a full size bike, with the exception of the fact that if you pedal through a turn, you're much more likely to strike a pedal into the ground.
The only downside is that the 16" tires are murder on bumpy roads, of which Boston has many.
The 16" tires killed all the joy I normally get from riding a bike tbh. I tried better seats, shock absorber posts, different gear ratios, everything. Just sucked the joy out of the ride for me. Hiding "throw away" bikes around the city and far off bus stops etc ended up being my solution and it worked better for me at least.
My other option was leaving my all-weather beater bike down at the station near work. I ended up not doing that just because I didn't want to have to haul it back and forth a couple times a year for maintenance. But yeah, valid solution for sure.
I went with the simplest possible design for mine: fixed gear, v breaks sealed bearing wheels. Was basically zero maintenance as I only ever used the brakes for emergencies and used foot power for planned stopping etc. had gater tires, worked fine in the snow in Boston round all year.
Admittedly, I’ve never ridden a 16” wheeled bike. My 20” is rough enough that I’ve never bothered considering the smaller wheeled models. Maybe if I bike/train commuted every day rather than a few times a month.
They're obviously great for commuting.
For general use, they are in theory thief-proof because you can take them everywhere with you. The downside is they're expensive so you HAVE to take them everywhere with you. Leave them out and they'll get stolen. For that reason I think the happiest I've been is with a dirt cheap bike in Japan. Didn't even lock it properly (just a key built into the frame) and could park it outside any old shop or restaurant for hours. Super convenient.
I have owned a AU$7,000 (US$5,000) ebike in Sydney, Australia for a few years and have parked it everywhere without worrying about it getting stolen.
It has a built in lock that blocks the front spokes, an alarm and I use a $200 chain lock around the frame to fix it to something.
I taped an Airtag-equivalent to one of my bikes as well
For me, just having a $7,000 bike parked on the street would be too stressful even if it didn't get stolen. I've had bikes stolen in Australia and there is basically nothing you can do about it. The thieves have hoodies, masks, and battery powered grinders that will cut any lock.
The only defense is storing your bike inside. And then you get karens on the owners corp whinging that you aren't allowed to take bikes inside. Who also don't give two shits when your bike gets stolen from the basement bike storage.
I felt this way until I bought full coverage bike insurance.
For my $250 deductible I basically just get a nice upgrade to the latest version / a brand new ebike for ~$200 / year.
The peace of mind alone with insurance (and a really nice lock) have fully mitigated this for me. I've been leaving my ~$2k ebike locked up all over San Francisco for ~3 years without it being stolen. (My first beater bike was a POS locked up in my apartments secure bike storage and it was stolen after I owned it for ~9 days so I figured I couldn't double down on the bad luck).
Have a foldable bike as well, but in Japan, generally you have to put the folded bike in a bag as well. So it’s always just a little bit of extra friction.
Then again, taking the front wheel of my road bike takes an extra minute. Then i can put it on the train as well. That’s when I start questioning my decisions no matter whether I took the foldable one or non foldable one.
Can confirm, they're great! I will sometimes take a day trip from London to a different town, and it's nice to take the bike with me on the train, disembark, and be able to cycle around without worrying about which bus to take, how to pay, etc. But I can still take the bike on the bus if needed!
Brompton is probably the #1 brand bike thieves will target though, everyone I know who has one never leaves it out of their sight. That's way too stressful for me, I don't want to take it with me in the supermarket or watch over it at the pub. I just got a cheap Decathlon with very low thief appeal.
a bit nitty, but "never get punctures" is just an attribute of the tires, not the bike. if you stick Gatorskins on a Tarmac SL8, you'll also never get punctures. but that's like putting tractor tires on a sports car, and you'll be slower and have a less comfortable ride than you would with GP5Ks.
I'm in the market for one as well, but am only interested in an electrified, gravel-capable Bike-E-style [1] recumbent layout.
1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle#/media/File:...]
I have a Tern Eclipse P18 24" folding bike which I like a lot. Tern and Dahon are related. Wasn't cheap and is hard to find. I literally drove to Vegas and met an IT sysadmin in a casino parking lot at 2am. He was coming off shift. It was legit (found it on EBay and he had the manuals) but it looked+felt like a drug deal.
I have upgraded the Tern. The original FSA crank would come loose and so I replaced it with a Shimano 105 part which required a Wheels Mfg 386 EVO Adaptor. I've never had a problem with it since. I also replaced the front derailleur with an SRAM Yaw which is just perfection.
It's great out to about 20 miles and you can't go up anything really steep because the shorter wheelbase just pops a wheelie. Tires and tubes are hard to find. But it's an awesome bike to have around.
If somebody told me they knew an SRAM.com on this website, I would not expect a bike parts company.
I used to own a dahon that I got from a guy on craigslist back in like 2011/2012. Incredible bike. After moving further out of the city for cheaper rent I sold it to help pay rent. Really wish I could have kept it.
I dunno about elsewhere but in Ontario the legality of a bike being on a sidewalk is based on wheel diameter to permit kids bicycles. So there ends up being kinds of adult bikes with intentionally tiny wheels, and it creates a real menace to pedestrians. Some municipalities also have age restrictions to combat this.
What are the more legitimate reasons for little wheels on bikes? I guess the goal like with this one is to have the least amount of bike as necessary?
> I dunno about elsewhere but in Ontario the legality of a bike being on a sidewalk is based on wheel diameter to permit kids bicycles.
There is no Ontario-wide law, per the Highway Traffic Act, §185(2):
> (2) The council of a municipality may by by-law prohibit pedestrians or the use of motor assisted bicycles, bicycles, wheelchairs or animals on any highway or portion of a highway under its jurisdiction. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 185 (2).
* https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08#BK286
London:
> 2.12 Motor vehicle - bicycle - on sidewalk - exceptions No person shall, without lawful authority, either by himself or by permitting others, operate a motor vehicle or bicycle along a sidewalk. This section shall not apply to a person who, […] or (d) being under the age of 14, operates a bicycle along a sidewalk.
* https://www.trekbicyclestorelondon.com/about/cycling-law-lon...
Toronto:
> Chapter 950-201 C(2) of the Toronto Municipal Code states that “no person age 14 and older shall ride a bicycle on a sidewalk of any highway.”
* https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-tra...
Nothing about diameter/radius.
Yes. Hence the folding.
I was excited to see a picture of the bike folded up, but I didn’t see that in the article.
Not the same bike, but here's one folded up. Not the best picture in my opinion. But it looks like it folds up very compactly.
https://www.inoutfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Brompt...
https://www.inoutfield.com/2014/05/21/farewell-boris-bikes-h...
I love my Brompton. I've had mine for 12 years that I bought back in LA and brought it with me when I moved to Tokyo. It's such a great commuter for getting around the city and easily fits in my trunk when I want to take it with me for a trip.
Tokyo also has a couple of great Brompton shops for maintenance and parts.
One of the fun things about these bikes is you’ll get many curious onlookers in the US and delight them by showing them how it folds up. Kids seem to love the demonstration and it’s cool explaining how bikes work, especially the hub gear.
As someone who rode a folding bike for several years as their primary mode of transportation, I personally found no joy in it. It was simply the only option for being allowed on the commuter rail into the city during "rush" hours. I eventually got fed up with it and gave it away and chained up a full sized beater bike at the city limits and rode that the last few miles after getting off the rail. I'd prefer to never ride one ever again tbh
That said I love my fixed gear beater and I would take that thing over the fanciest folder in existence.
I cycle 60 mins per day along the tow path in London on my Brompton, put it under my desk in the office, and then get the train back in the evening. No issues handling that distance.
I extracted a lot of utility out of a folding bike during university in Korea. The smaller wheels are indeed a tradeoff for space vs. comfort but all in all it was a useful purchase.
There are a couple of companies doing full-size, or nearly full-size wheels on folding bikes --- very glad of my Montague Swissbike X50, and considered a Change Bike, and still want a Helix.
I love my Brompton, expensive as it was. Every time there is a break-in in the bike storage room, I am grateful I can store mine inside.
Still, even though I've had it for years, I always feel awkward about bringing it in to a cafe or similar, and almost never do it.
Many HNers will enjoy this book about the company’s maturation from a hardware startup founded by one difficult genius to an institution that had to be rebuilt as it scaled: https://bookpeople.com/book/9781615199563
I'd like to try a folding bike but (1) bromptons around here are filthy expensive and cheaper options (that can be found around 1/20th the price of a brompton) are really low quality, and (2) none of them come with big gears that I'd need to get home, with sections that can reach 22%
If you don't know if you need a folding bike, you probably don't need a folding bike. It's kind of compromised as a bike, and if the (admittedly huge) utility of it folding isn't painfully necessary, it'd be hard to justify owning one.
Once you get to the point where a folder is unavoidable, you may as well get a good one, be it Bromptom, Dahon, or whoever. At that point it's definitely a buy-once-cry-once kind of purchase. As much as I love mine, I wouldn't recommend anyone buying one who isn't already really into cycling for transportation rather than sport and doesn't really need a folding bike.
And yeah, the low end of the market is pretty crap, much as it is for regular bikes.
I've the BTwin Ultra Compact by Decathlon and I'd recommend it as alternative to the popular Bromptons [1].
It cost less than half of the equivalent Bromptons bike that's featured in the article.
[1] BTwin Ultra Compact 1 Second Light:
https://road.cc/content/review/btwin-ultra-compact-1-second-...
maybe I'm missing something, but just put a smaller chainring on? or do you need something like MTB cassette amount of range?
given the tiny wheels, a chainring that would be "normal" on a 700c 1x gravel bike should be very easy for climbing on a folding bike.
> that can be found around 1/20th the price of a brompton
Where in the world are you finding a not-stolen bike for less than a hundred dollars!?
> none of them come with big gears that I'd need to get home, with sections that can reach 22%
Personally I'd recommend getting a bicycle with a motor.
Expensive? I bought mine for 1200 or so in 2006. Still use it daily. It is a steal.
A quality bike can last a really long time.
I live in NYC and I was tempted to buy a Brompton but ended up not doing so in the end. A friend of mine that always lives in the city said he regretted his because it's surprisingly heavy and bulky even when folded.
The reality is that all bikes can be folded once. The magic is in those that can be reliably unfolded for reuse.
My ‘low stakes conspiracy theory’ is that adults enjoy the Brompton more than you’d think, because it’s too small for them, so it feels more like a BMX for sensible professional adults who would never think to ride a BMX or want to be seen on one.
I’ve been eyeing up Bromptons for years, especially the new G (gravel) line which has 20” wheels up from 16” and chunkier tires (for ride comfort on potholes and rough asphalt, and being able to ride down a trail). But I have no need for one, and they’re not cheap to buy on a whim.
I’d really like to try a Kwiggle folding bike, too, just for fun. The standing-riding position might feel less like riding a bike and more like ‘accelerated walking’. And it folds smaller than a Brompton tri-fold.
[1] https://www.kwigglebike.com/en_US/
12" wheels would be sheer hell on anything less than perfect pavement. Source: I own a Brompton with 16" wheels, and wouldn't ride it more than about a block without cycling gloves. It's absolutely punishing on the wrists. The elastomeric block for the rear triangle makes it pretty tolerable on your ass, but the front end is rough.
The Kwiggle's FAQ contains:
- The steering column is made of austenitic stainless steel. This .. even provides a pleasant suspension.
- Of course everyone prefers to ride on smooth asphalt. With the Kwiggle you can also easily drive on paved trails. Even cobblestones are relatively comfortable to ride due to the wide tires.
- Is the Kwiggle suitable for longer distances? The physiologically optimal upright posture and the swinging saddle bring each of your muscles in motion, especially in the hip and lower back area. That's why you can ride even better than with any other bike, without tension, pain or signs of fatigue symptoms. We already rode 200 and 300 km (124 and 186 miles) in one day.
That's referencing their ride around the Dutch Ijsselmeer: https://www.kwigglebike.com/en_US/faltrad-extrem
I've used a Dahon Speed P8 extensively in Asia. In China you can just put a folding bike inside a large tarp bag and just get on any high speed train and then bike away when you reach your destination. It's awesome.
The only "gotcha" is how you deal with luggage. I've used a seatpost rack, but I've also had a seatpost rack fail on me one time.
Recently I tried out Brompton Bike Hire in London for a week. Can recommend the bike, and the price is reasonable. The bikes are hired from automatic storage lockers, which makes sense as a concept. The app is atrocious though, and I had a lot of trouble returning the bike at the end of the week.
A smaller alternative is a half bike, though it’s really a trike
What I've always thought was interesting about folding bikes is that it doesn't seem like it's possible for it to be done elegantly. It's been 150 years since the "safety bicycle" was invented, yet folding bikes are the exception and not the norm - even though it would be really handy if every bike could be easily shrunk down and packed up as easily as a baby stroller or a wheel chair.
Maybe it's just my experience, but every folded bike I've seen in the wild looked more or less like a bundle of bike parts, with bits sticking out here and there. You'll never look at a folded bike and think, "Hey, what's that?", because it always looks exactly like what it is.
It seems like there's something about a bike's geometry and mechanism which doesn't lend itself to symmetry and easy compaction.
You could just always buy a cheap one on Amazon and then make a real investment if you like