Folding Bikes - The irony of folding bike useage

As we all know, folding bikes are great for city commuting. It is an irony that I find riding my Dahon more pleasant outside the city. The quality of Toronto pavement
has a lot to improve. Even on my big bike sometimes I need to watch I don't bite my tongue off riding over some potholes and bumps (that like to occupy the portion of the
street where cyclists ride). When riding my folder, I need to be really paying attention
to the road surface. Outside the city, however, the roads are smooth in comparison. Go figure.

Yep a common delema here in the UK too. Without suspension, portable folders which usually have small wheels by default can get pretty uncomfortable on badly made up roads.

My Moulton TSR (splits in half but does not fold) is the most comfortable small wheeled bike I own and ride.

Regards

Jerry

Big Apples help, if they will fit.

Big Apples help, if they will fit.

Yes agree completly. I have them fitted on one of my other 20" non suspended bikes and they really do help.

As you say though, they don't fit all frames :(

Jerry

Big Apples help, if they will fit.
Tried that. They improve the ride somewhat, but not enough. As well, they didn't fit properly so I had to remove them. You can't really compensate for the big loss of wheel diameter (compared to big bikes) by adding a half an inch of width to a tire. Besides, I didn't mean this post as a discussion of what helps reduce the rattling of bones, but rather as a note that there is some irony in using these bikes, as noted in the OP.

The irony is/was not lost on me. Everytime I hit a mini-pothole on my brompton, the irony goes right up my... :)

The irony is/was not lost on me. Everytime I hit a mini-pothole on my brompton, the irony goes right up my... :)

LOL

I still love my Brompton despite its small wheels. My daily 10.5mile round commute each day for the last two years has transformed my working week :D

The irony is I spent eight years before in my car sitting in town traffic daily when I could have owned and been using my Brompton.

Jerry

The irony is/was not lost on me. Everytime I hit a mini-pothole on my brompton, the irony goes right up my... :)

:D
I hope you have a good quality saddle, so the seat post doesn't come through it when you hit a bump ;)

Brooks Flyer. Every time I hear the squeak of those springs, my lower-half thanks me :thumb:

I have a theory that rear suspension has a softening effect overall, i.e. the comfort improvement is felt at the front as well as the rear of the bike as a result of some sort of complex interplay of forces; my Brompton tends to deal with potholes better than my Dahon despite having much thinner tyres. The Brompton deals with bumps quite well, however, on cobblestones it's HELL.

20x1.75" tires do quite well for me on toronto roads.

some of those potholes are pretty big and deep around here.

U.S. city streets, even in the suburbs, are getting worse due to constrained budgets. Our area in Vancouver is 20 yrs old, or less, and riding on 20" wheels is not always that smooth.

Our Pocket 8's with 1.75" Kenda tires are far more comfortable than our custom Fridays with ThudBusters and 1.35" Kojacks. Those 1.75" tires even worked well on the graveled carriage trails in Maine's Acadia Nat. Park during the summer of 2010.

On the other hand, the newly paved and lightly used streets in Ocean Shores, WA are really smooooth!

Lou

Springy Brooks + Cane Creek Thudbuster, expensive but cheaper than an a$$ transplant. I've got the 400mm ST model and they make a folder specific 33.9 x 610mm

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4143/4748224191_3496522e85.jpg

From the topic I thought it would read something like this:

"The irony of folding bikes is that most people very rarely fold them" which is also true at least in the UK.

Juan

From the topic I thought it would read something like this:

"The irony of folding bikes is that most people very rarely fold them" which is also true at least in the UK.

Juan

My Brompton gets folded every day to put in my office :)

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6034/6308934524_eb41d73c3a_z.jpg


PS Has a nice brown Brooks B17 saddle fitted since this pic was taken. Done about 100 miles on it and strangely its been ok comfort wise from day one.


Regards

Jerry

Dahon: folded & in the car most days.

Bike Friday: only folded for aircraft transport...

As for the original "irony": true for large bikes too.

My Brompton gets folded every day to put in my office :)

PS Has a nice brown Brooks B17 saddle fitted since this pic was taken. Done about 100 miles on it and strangely its been ok comfort wise from day one.


Regards

Jerry

Good job Jerry! I also fold my folder it at home work and on the train, but we are the minority I believe!

Brooks saddles are great once you "Break them" unfortunately my bum just didn't adjust to mine fast enough and ended up ditching it.

Juan