Originally Posted by
Spudmeister
You changed the saddle, grips & tires. Dude, you've modified your bike to make it more comfortable.
Yeah, yeah, you have a point, but it's a matter of definition, isn't it? These things are ephemeral, changing them doesn't change the geometry or fit of the bike. With the exception of the tires, of course, since I put a big one in front and a little one in back, effectively relaxing the frame angles by a degree or so.
Oh, I forgot to mention this one: I also disabled the suspension on mine by tying it into compressed position with nylon twine. Another modification made for the sake of comfort!
For my purposes, the most important thing about the folding bike is that it folds, and any modification that has no impact on the fold is irrelevant. Which brings us to your other point:
Originally Posted by
Spudmeister
I don't understand why this 'defeats the purpose and spirit of the bike'. You don't get a folding bike so you can fold it, you get it to RIDE. Folding is just a bonus that makes it easier to get the bike to where you're going to RIDE. RIDING is the purpose of all bikes.
This just isn't true in my case; if my bike didn't fold up, I wouldn't be able to take it on commuter trains during rush hour, so it would become useless as a commuting machine. I would like to change the stem, to increase reach and thus comfort and efficiency, but then the fold would be less compact and the bike would be less useful; so that modification would indeed defeat the purpose of the bike. As for its spirit... well, I'm not sure what the spirit is either.
Originally Posted by
Spudmeister
On topic - I've never had a bike that was completely comfortable out of the box.
No, I guess I haven't either. Either that or I just can't resist changing things.