Folding Bikes - Working on a number of folders.. :]

It's rainy season here so I started to work on some of bikes around me.


After some experiment, with road handlebar and wheelset, I re-fitted MTB handlebar and wheelset to my montague folder. This time I selected some lightweight components to make it light... It is now 8.7kg, or 19.2 lbs.



Happened to get a fantastic deal on this used birdy. It will be built with ultegra drivetrain and silver components.



My girlfriend's moulton TSR will get a whole new drivetrain and some more dress-ups.


As all the bikes are now disassembled for upgrading I'm commuting with my trusty presto lite :)

the pearl paint on the birdy is GORGEOUS!

Raxel,
Can you provide more details on what you did to the montague folder in the road bike trim. From another thread I remember you changed the brakes for the 700c wheels, added a spacer on the rear wheel (?/why-where)..... can you elaborate, in some detail, please?

I was very surprised that this folder could be rebuilt as a "road" bike at that weight. I realize that wheel set you had were very nice, very light, and very expensive! I am looking for one of these hummer branded montague for this purpose. I already have too many folders, but...

Oh, that birdy IS beautiful.

porschetoyz:

You can fit a road wheelset to MTB frame, but you have to solve two problems: Brake and rear wheel spacing. As you fit larger wheelset, brake pad position should be raised. You can make homemade adaptor or use BMX V brakes with large pad adjustablity(Which I used). And road wheelsets' rear hub spacing is 130mm, whereas MTB spacing is 135mm. To fill this 5mm, I have made two 2.2mm aluminium plate.

However, I concluded that there are little gain of using road wheelsets with MTB frame. Unless you use a very expensive carbon fiber wheelsets, weight difference is almost nil. Only advantage is that you can use very narrow tires(down to 19c).

Congratulations Raxel. They are both absolutely stunning bikes. Nice mods on the Montague too!

I won't hold it against you for not liking Bromptons. However mine rocks :P

Raxel, Thank you for the info.

I would have thought that the *average* road wheelset was lighter than the *average* MTB wheelset. Further, even with both set of wheels (road/thinner and MTB/wider) wearing slick tires I still would have guessed that the total 700c wheelset package would be lighter?!

Do you have a picture that you can post of the BMX V brake setup on your bike. Maybe also make, if it is significant. Maybe also a picture of where the spacers go (on the skewer?). I thought the hummer conversion was VERY slick. I should have posted in that that thread... but, I was new here...
thanks again.