Folding Bikes - Folding fast for travel

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : Folding fast for travel

RSousa2
06-10-10, 11:58 AM
I trust many of you travel often and would love to take your high-performing bike everywhere. However, many bikes take a leisurely 15 minutes to disassemble and assemble again which defeats the purpose, as you end up getting 'lazy' and not taking the bike with you whenever you fly to another location for 3-4 days.

For a do-it-all, I came across Airnimal Joey (Rhino takes longer to get to a bag) and Dahon Jetstream P8/EX as fast folding bikes for travel that I could take eventually anywhere, perhaps faster than the Bike Friday equivalents like Pocket Llama, Crusoe.

For road-bikes, the equivalent are Airnimal Chamaleon and Dahon Mu SL/EX whilst the Bike Friday options are the Pocket Rocket/Rocket Pro.

Any comments based on your experiences travelling with any of the above would be super-useful and surely important to share with fellow travellers in this forum.

Many thanks!

jur
06-10-10, 05:09 PM
R14 is a member here who has tried a lot of folding bikes, and he ended up with a Brompton, because every other folding bike still took its fair old time to be put into a suitcase. My own experience with a Birdy also confirmed that it requires a good while to take the wheels off, take the stempost out, get it all into the suitcase aligned properly etc etc. I wouldn't do it in less 15 minutes unless I have practiced a lot.
JulianEdgar
06-10-10, 05:27 PM
My wife and I have used Bromptons for years, and have flown them with us many times within Australia, carrying them in the original cardboard box. A Brompton is extraordinarily fast to fold/unfold and is also easily carried by hand in a folded state.

[Disclaimer: my wife's business sells Bromptons]

The Birdy I have recently bought is a much better bike to ride than the Brompton but its compactness when folded and its speed of folding are nothing like as good as the Brompton. I have also ridden lots of Yeah bikes (similar to Dahons in many ways) and they also don't fold as well as the Bromptons.

lucille
06-10-10, 05:57 PM
15 minutes is long to prepare a bike for travel? Do you mean just fold it up, or fit in a suitcase?

I just put my Bike Friday (NWT) in a suitcase for the very first time last weekend as a practice run. It took me an hour, which included taking both racks off, struggling for a while to take one of the pedals off, front wheel (back wheel stays on), seat post, stem, one bottle cage. It should take me half that or less with more practice. For me even an hour is worth taking the bike along.
Here it is in the suitcase:
154814
JimT
06-10-10, 10:02 PM
15 minutes is long to prepare a bike for travel? Do you mean just fold it up, or fit in a suitcase?

I just put my Bike Friday (NWT) in a suitcase for the very first time last weekend as a practice run. It took me an hour, which included taking both racks off, struggling for a while to take one of the pedals off, front wheel (back wheel stays on), seat post, stem, one bottle cage. It should take me half that or less with more practice. For me even an hour is worth taking the bike along.
Here it is in the suitcase:
154814

Seems reasonable to me.

Jim