Folding Bikes - Please Help !!!

Hi Everybody!!!
I badly need your expertise to help me decide whether Montague Swissbike LX model is a good bike to buy.
http://www.swissbike.com/
What I thought is -- that this bike is good, because I do not need to buy a car-rack and because we currently rent (extra space is always an issue) it will be easier to store it. All I plan to do with it is use it for riding in the park, commute to work occasionally or go on trail (not often) .So, I thought this bike is fairly universal bike/hybrid bike that can do the job for me. Am I right or am I wrong? Your comments /suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards

iMikey

Montagues are generally not regarded very well in these parts. Frame is ok but components are not great.

If you're not riding much though, it could be OK. Dahon Speed P8 might be a better choice.

The Montague bikes are pretty good, if you are looking for full size mountain bike that only folds occasionally. The folding is not convinient, as you need to take off the front wheel everytime, while the frame doesn't have a 'third leg' to supported the folded form from falling, nor is it light (around 30 lbs), so kind of clumsy. Its not small enough to put in the trunk unless you have a very big car or SUV. It fits better in the back seat. Parts are low end and most likely needed to be swapped out later on if you want better performance. But since its a full size mountain bike with front suspension, it beats most of the 20" folders on off road stuff.

If you want more convinient folding, better go for 20" or 16" folders like Dahon, Downtube, Swift, or the expensive Brompton or Bike Friday. These folds better and way quicker, with some smaller than the others. They are very agile on turns, due to the small wheel size. But then the 20" wheel size can't handle off road stuff very well unless its a full suspension folder (but still no match to a 26" mountain bike). And can't handle riders that are very tall or heavy.

So weigh whats more important to you, and select the bike that does what you want best, while fitting your budget.

When Montague first began building folders to the 1990 patent (U.S. Patent 4,900,047), several companies, including Schwinn, co-branded and marketed the Montague M1000 BiFrame. I bought a 1991 Schwinn-Montague BiFrame new, and have found it to be rugged, reliable transportation. The frame is True Temper OS chrome-moly, and components are mid-range Shimano Hyperglide.

While it's true the front wheel has to come off for the fold, folding is quick and painless and the folded bike is small enough to easily fit in the trunk of my VW Jetta.

YMMV.

1991 Schwinn-Montague BiFrame with specifications (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7/k4drd/Bicycles/1991BiFrameandSpecs.jpg)

Thanks a lot everyone for your input - but I think that I will avoid buying swissbike and will get myself a decent hybrid for now.

Thanks a million again everybody.

Regards

iMike

While it's true the front wheel has to come off for the fold, folding is quick and painless and the folded bike is small enough to easily fit in the trunk of my VW Jetta.

YMMV.

1991 Schwinn-Montague BiFrame with specifications (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7/k4drd/Bicycles/1991BiFrameandSpecs.jpg)

I used to have a VW Jetta, the trunk (boot) was simply enormous, it could have done duty as a hearse, let alone carry a 26'' folding mountain bike. I've got a Mitsubishi Colt now, a completly different story, you can just squeeze a Brompton in, anything bigger and you have to drop the rear seats.