rhm

I'd appreciate hearing any remarks of anyone who owns a Mobiky. How long have you had it? Do you like it? How far do you ride it? How tall are you? Have you made any modifications? If it were stolen, would you buy another one? Other comments? Thanks! --Rudi

makeinu

There is a free issue of AtoB available through exacteditions.com that includes a review/comparison of the Mobiky and the A-bike.

spambait11

You might want to get in touch with this person. What a cool setup!

cyqlist

I've had mine for 4 months, but I do not use it for daily commuting. More like cruising around the neighborhood and bike paths, short distance transportation and the occasional commute or errand that requires a folding bike. I would not want it for my only bike, and it is not even my only folding bike. The forward position of the bottom bracket makes it relatively unsuitable for pedaling at high effort levels, IMO.

I've ridden it up to 10-12 miles at a time and think I'd be comfortable with significantly more than that.

I'm 5' 8" and 165 pounds and although the Mobiky is advertised as okay for up to 240 pounds I would not recommend it to anyone significantly larger than me - I have the seatpost near its upper limit. The seat to handlebar distance is closer than on any of my other bikes, but not too close.

I think the way it folds is very elegant and well engineered and constructed, but it is not light - I find it a bit awkward to carry up and down stairs, even with the built in handle. I do like the way it rolls on its own wheels when folded. No need to ever carry it any distance except on stairs.

I love the little wheels and fat tires - the ride is quite comfortable, and the optional suspended seat post seems quite unnecessary as far as I'm concerned.

Some of the reviews are quite critical of the brakes. I've found them adequate, even going down some steep hills in my neighborhood, as long as they are well adjusted. Adjustment of the front disc brake is dependent on good alignment of the disc on the hub and this might be a problem with the cheap Joytech disc hub that comes on the bike, though it is probably possible to tweak it into alignment one way or another. My solution was to build a new front wheel on a Schmidt SON generator disc hub, which most people would not consider cost effective on this bike. In addition to the cost, there are technical difficulties in building such a small wheel on a full size hub, especially when the number of spoke holes doesn't match as in my case. You can see this and other details of my Mobiky in my pictures on flickr.

The Ato B reviewer also criticized the design of the 2 stage drivetrain. It's true that theoretically the gearing could be configured to achieve the same ratios with a single chain, but I think they missed the point. The bike design would have to be completely different. There are big advantages to not needing a chain tensioner; having the bike fold around the jackshaft is brilliantly elegant, IMO, and it makes the full coverage chainguard very effective when the chain is always in the same place.

Other cool features include the 3-position kickstand that works when the bike is folded or unfolded, and the very elegant folding handlebar design. The telescoping stem is also very nice, much better than the one I saw on a Dahon.

Another modification I made was to swap the saddle for a Brooks B17S. The original saddle was too soft and its suede surface was too sticky for me. I chose the short version of the B17 because of the way the saddle fits behind the handle when the bike is fully folded.

The attachment of the rear fender seems fragile. One poster on Flickr had his break off, and it looks like the one in the AtoB review was bent. I might add a reinforcement to that. There were also some problems with spokes breaking on the rear wheel, but I was told by New York Mobiky dealer David Lam that that problem has been fixed. David is a great guy by the way and I recommend him highly if you're considering a Mobiky, but he might talk you into getting a Brompton instead. His shop is called Bfold.

rhm

Thanks for all that!
Have you tested the voltage that wheel gives you? I ask because I built up a pair of wheels for a Moulton Stowaway, ISO 349 rims and the new SA drum brake / dynamo hub. At very moderate speeds (like, maybe 10 mph) it was putting out 15 volts! I realize your Schmidt hub is built for relatively small wheels, but not THIS small, right? I ran mine through a voltage regulator to give a uniform 12 volts, powering a 12v 5w halogen bulb, and that setup gives me a LOT of light.
Interesting that the spokes are ALL laced to the INSIDE of the flange.

Rincewind8

I think they are all laced towards the disc side of the hub. Disc hubs are usually asymmetric. To build a good wheel the rim should be centered. That, together with an asymmetric hub means more dish on one side and less dish on the other (most rear wheels are good examples also). The spoke angles on small wheels are so large that I could imagine it would not be practically possible to build this particular wheel with alternating spoke orientation. The large flange diameter of the Schmidt hub does help either.

rhm

Yes, I see now that that is how cyqlist built his new front wheel; I hadn't noticed that before.

But the original wheels, both front and back, were laced toward the inside of the hub. Certainly outside spokes are going to have an acute bend at the head, while inside spokes are going to have an obtuse bend, but I don't see why the latter is preferable.

There are photos on flickr of a Mobiky wheel with broken spokes. Spokes break because of fatigue, which results from uneven tension; perhaps having them all go the same way is intended to keep spoke tension even, and thus minimize fatigue?

fireworkz

@cyqlist - amazing job done on the front wheel.. your mobiky looks really nice .. good color.. I remember they showed this bike on the "I want that" show a while ago.. wonder if there are any other ways to drop down the weight .. i.e. by replacing parts ect.. ?

kgibbs51

I was seriously looking at this bike but bought a Dahon Curve instead. The reason is that Mobiky is 5lbs heavier and doesn't fold as small. The wheels are also a lot smaller than the 16" Curve's and since I'm always riding in Chicago there are many curb cuts and uneven sidewalks or potholes that I don't think would be good to hit with the small wheels.

From talking to others, the Mobiky's cache is its looks and many other folding bikes just do it better for less.

My Curve was $360 and I just rode it 10+ miles home from work. It has the same tranny as the Mobiky.

Its not like these things are Italian motorcycles. Buy a Ducati if you want to pick up chicks.

cyqlist

What electrical load did you have on it when you measured 15 volts? The load makes a huge difference.

What kind of regulator? Do you rectify the current to DC? Years ago I used to use a pair of zener diodes to limit AC current, but nowadays modern generator headlights like the LED Inolight on my Mobiky, or the halogen Schmidt E6 have zener diodes and other circuitry built in. The more usual way to get 12 volt output from a hub generator is to use two 6 volt headlights in series and keep one of them shorted out at low speeds. At low speeds and voltages a single 6 volt light is brighter than two of them and I suspect much brighter than a 12 volt one.

The Schmidt SON20 is intended for 16 to 20 inch wheels. A typical 406mm wheel is actually 18" in diameter. The Mobiky wheels are 12" so the generator and light act as if the bike were going half again as fast - about the same effect as your hub made for full size wheels used with the 349 rim.

cyqlist

The Schmidt hub has the smallest flange diameter of any available direct drive generator hub as far as I know - 70mm. And as far as I know there are only 2 choices for a generator hub for disc brake, the Schmidt and the Shimano Nexus which uses a different type of disc and has 80mm flanges. So the Schmidt seemed like the obvious best choice for me, although it unfortunately cost 3 times as much. The Mobiky is unusual among small wheel folding bikes in having full size 100mm spacing in its front fork. Otherwise I could not have had both the generator hub and the disc brake, since the narrower Schmidt hubs don't come in a disc version.

The original wheel on the Joytech hub had much more dish and all the spokes on the inside. I wasn't sure if it was better to have the disc side spokes on the inside or outside. The lateral spoke angles are more symmetrical with them on the outside, but the spokes had to be bent around the outside of the flange.

rhm

Mmm, good point. No load at all.

Just some cheap little thing from Radio Shack.

No. Sheldon Brown describes a system with nicad batteries, charged by the regulated output from the dynohub... but I haven't bothered with the batteries, so there didn't seem to be any need for DC.

Yeah, I know. For some reason I had bad luck with the modern generator headlights, and inexplicably fried out three of those LED taillights with "Standlicht" capacitors. When something goes wrong with these things, it can be very difficult to diagnose (except for the one where the leads literally melted off the LED bulb, which was rattling around in the bottom of the lamp... not that hard to figure out what went wrong there!). I now have a bunch of non-functional junk that cost too much to throw away. And that was with 26" wheels. When I built up the Moulton with little wheels and the dynamo, I wanted to try out the Inoled, but since it's not built for the higher voltage, I decided to go with a home-made system. It has been reliable so far; but the important thing is, if something does go wrong, I expect to be able to diagnose and fix the problem myself.

rhm

Did you get to test ride them both, or did you have to settle for 'virtual' comparisons? That's what I'm doing, and it's a poor substitute for a test ride. I was fortunate enough to be able to test ride a Brompton (impressive fold; unimpressive bike) and a Swift (just the opposite). I played with a Mobiky at a Sharper Image store, and was pretty impressed; but they won't let me ride it.

But it rolls --and steers-- when folded. This is important. It even stands upright, which is kinda neat. The stupid thing is, the Mobiky's handle is on the frame; to properly steer it when folded, the handle would be on the handlebar.

Right, that's why I asked the opinions of actual Mobiky owners. Too many of the criticisms of this bike or the other are from people who have no first-hand knowledge, let alone long-term experience. I've seen a lot of negative comments about the Strida, for example, from people who have never ridden one, in sharp contrast to the posts by Strida owners, which tend to be positive. Is this just partisanship? Are we Strida partisans just trying to deflect our own embarrassment about owning such a boondoggle (or sheer Brompton envy); or do we actually like it for its strengths? The fact is that my Strida is easy to manage with one hand; if it weren't, I would have no use for it. From what I've seen, the Mobiky shares this advantage. Hence my interest.

When folded, Strida's stem becomes its handle, so it's wonderfully easy to roll it around, even with a briefcase and a jacket strapped to its luggage rack, which is probably its single best feature. There is a disadvantage to this, however, which is less frequently mentioned: when you pick the Strida up by its stem, the bike doesn't get off the ground until your hand is well over 45" off the ground, which puts your arm in a bad position for any lifting. So before going up or down stairs (which I do three or four times each day) you have to quickly shift hand positions, which isn't that easy to do in a fast-moving crowd of commuters. The handle of the Mobiky is much lower down, so Mobiky actually seems easier to lift than Strida, despite being significantly heavier.

I hear you. That's about what my Strida cost once upon a time, and the Mobiky is about twice that. But okay, as a Curve owner (not to say partisan!), please tell me about how it handles when folded? Can you maneuver it onto the train or bus with one hand? Does it stay folded, or is there a tendency to unfold itself at inopportune moments?

Man, if I could pick up a Ducati with one hand and stick it on the overhead rack of the NJTransit commuter train, picking up chicks would be no problem at all. Well, my wife would probably have a problem with it, but that's another story.

spambait11

Doesn't this also mean your body may be in a more awkward position until you reach the stairs?

rhm

Yes, thanks, that's an important point too. I can push my Strida down the aisle of a crowded train by wheeling it in front of me; I didn't try that with a Mobiky.

I'm not sure exactly how high the handle of the Mobiky is when folded; as I recall it was somewhere around the height of my hand when I'm standing up straight, so about 30" off the ground. This means I could walk beside the folded bike easily enough, but I'm not sure that's very useful. It may be be easier to steer the folded mobiky from the handlebar if it's not collapsed all the way down, but (a) I didn't try that, and (b) the placement of the handle would still be wrong. It would be preferable to have a handle on the back of the seat.

Alternately, I wonder if the Mobiky will roll backwards when folded up; you can do that with a Strida if you lean it over a little so the back wheel doesn't touch the ground, but that alters the balance, and it's too cumbersome to do while walking down the aisle of a crowded train.

My in-store examination of the Mobiky was very brief. I walked it around the store a little, but I didn't walk very fast and I didn't have a helmet and briefcase and jacket in my other hand, so it wasn't a good test. I'd much rather hear about the experiences of someone who does this every day.

cyclistjohn

Indeed.

I don't understand why people do that.

How do meaningless, unsubstantiated comments help either prospective buyers, or manufacturers keen on improving their bikes?
It's just bizarre.

As I mentioned in a post a while ago, I made an attachment to go on the bike which allows it to stand, & be strolled, near vertically, which is really handy in crowded situations. It doesn't interfere with folding. It's made of steel though, & I've been looking for some lightweight tubing along with a suitable mounting adapter, but not found anything suitable yet. I only have typical diy tools. I may price up what it would cost to make a proper prototype, but I suspect it might be quite dear.

If you look at the French Strida site, there's a picture of Bertrand Delanoë holding the Strida by the seat. Not sure if he's strolling it though.

I can also roll the bike backwards when I have a big apple tyre on the front :-)

I imagine that's easy to do on the new 5, as the freewheel is now in the back wheel.

I bought a pack of a selection of "A to B" magazines recently, to see what they were like, with a view to maybe subscribing, & how their reviews are conducted.
Cyqlist's notes are an interesting contrast to the A to B review, thanks.

We bought our bikes for their strengths, some of which we haven't seen evident in our "virtual" research into other folders, & these strengths are important for our pattern of usage. Actually getting a test ride on most bikes here doesn't seem too easy.

It's amazing how many girls smile & ask about the Strida actually :-)

Often though, my wife's with me, so it's only short term interest ;-)

kgibbs51

rhm:

Well I have test rode the Mobiky but IMO its hard to do because the only outlets in the US are the mall based Sharper Image and Amazon. Perhaps there are others but the fact is that nationally their outlets are sort of restrictive. I had to test ride the bike at Sharper Image on the 7th floor of a mall and while I was impressed I was still concerned that it wasn't put to the test.

In defense of the Sharper Image their Manager of Sales told me he would honor their 14 day return policy no questions asked if the bike hadn't been riden in the rain. Still, I couldn't get that in writing.

Amazon's return policy clearly states that they only accept damaged goods.

That's said I did email Mobiky's web contact and ask a few questions about replacement inner tubes and such to which they responded promptly and positively enough for me to be confident of their services.

So the Dahon Curve: Why did I settle on that?

Well, I was able to test ride it in street conditions and was satisfied. Also, I like that Dahon has a model line with a variety of quality/price offerings. To me, this means that they are dedicated to the products and market and have many retail outlets in my area. Mobiky only has 1 model so I suppose I was weary of that 1 trick pony.

I suppose I have to say that I'm a 1st time folding bike buyer and I didn't feel comfortable sinking $700 into a purchase that could find itself accumulating dust in my garage. Not to say I don't like biking but I planned to use this as a daily commuter and if the train conductor decided the bike was too big then I'd be back to walking. Again, the Curve was $360.

I'd like to clarify that the Curve can fold and be wheeled while folded. In fact this is how I travel with the bike when not riding. I leave the seat in the riding position and push the folded bike sort of like I'm walking a dog. Of course you can't back up because the pedals will turn and stop at the frame. But with the same hub the Mobiky is probably similaryly restricted.

I'm lucky that we have escalators in our train station so I don't need to lift the bike at this point. I just wheel it onto the stair and stand behind it 2 steps while holding the seat. I don't know if this would be possible with a Mobiky as I sort of balance the Curve on the rear 16" tire and wedge it into the step. I suppose it could be done with a Mobiky but as I stated, there isn't anyplace to test this unless the Sharper Image lets you at the mall.

I thought that I might luck out and find a used Mobiky on eBay but the last few that have sold there did so the $500+ and I just didn't think that was worth the risk.

Oh and 1 last item, while all Mobiky color choices are available at Amazon the Sharper Image only was able to get 2 colors. I asked about special order and they said no that their contract calls for red and deep blue only. I suppose the Sharper Image website allows you to order other colors and possibly return the bike at the store if you are not satisfied but I didn't want to take that risk. Of course this arguement is somewhat invalid as the Curve only comes in Red (SL in polished aluminum hasn't been released yet).

The Mobiky is a sharp looking bike for sure. I love the look but at twice the price of another bike from a proven company that weighs 5lbs less and folds significantly smaller I just though it better to abide by the saying "form follows function".

rhm

Good idea to get that in writing. Sharper Image told me the return policy on the bike was 30 days for any reason at all. They guy said they do this because (for insurance reasons) they can't offer test rides; but I did not get anything in writing.

This is an interesting point, thanks for bringing it up. When established bike manufacturers offer a folding bike, they are captive to their conservatism, and end up with something like, say, the Raleigh Twenty; a fine bicycle that folds in half. I'm not criticizing it (I have one myself); but the fact remains, it wasn't in Raleigh's interest to re-think the whole thing from first principles, and even today most folding bikes are basically improvements on the Twenty, incorporating more or less ideas from the old Alex Moultons.

It's no coincidence that the most innovative folding bike designs --Strida, Sinclair A-bike, Mobiky-- are from companies that offer only one model. A notable exception is the Carry-me, distributed by a company that also sells 'normal' bikes (Pacific). There are numerous even more radical designs that fail to reach production.

Thanks also for your remarks about the Dahon Curve. I'll continue to follow the discussion on the thread devoted to that model.

kgibbs51

rhm:

Curve or not some things I just needed in a folding bike:

1. Less than 25lbs but not flimsy (thus carry-able for short distances)
2. Less than 13 inches wide (to fit within commuter train guidelines
3. Simple folding mechanism (I'm doing this 4x/day)
4. Safe/comfortable ride but larger tires (20") were too big for the train
5. Internal hub so that I don't have to mess around with bent derailers
6. Ability to roll while folded
7. Stylish
8. Affordable

cyqlist

Here's a good picture of a Mobiky on an escalator.

kgibbs51

Ya that's pretty cool I have to admit. I'd love to own one.

The only thing that I'd say would gig that position is that people in Chicago use the left side of the escalator to walk up. So if you block the whole ramp they give you dirty looks. Standees are expected to stay on the right.

I guess the days of believing the escalator is like a 6 Flags amusement ride are over.

rhm

Okay, I test rode a mobiky yesterday (at Bfold). Not a big ride, of course: I just rode it around the block a couple times. I noticed something that other reviewers have not mentioned, which is possibly of concern:

I'm talking about the seat tube, by which I mean a part of the frame, not the two telescoping seatposts that fit into the top of it. To fold the bike, you release a strut at the back of the tube in question; this unlocks the mechanism so the tube in question slides down and the rest of the bike folds up. It's a pretty neat system. But the tube does not have a tight fit to the rest of the frame, like most friction fittings on most bikes; it's a loose fit so it slides easily. A bushing of some kind of plastic to take up the slack.

Anyway, as a result, there is always a little play in the seat tube, including the seatpost and the seat itself. When the bike is fully set up for riding, and the tube in question is supposed to be locked, you can still twist the seat a little, or rock it front to back, or side to side. It's not much: a couple millimeters, I'd guess. But it feels wrong to me. And when you ride it, you can feel the seat move; if you slam on the brakes, and the whole thing topples forward a little. Do a quick swerve around a bump, and you can feel everything shift right to left and back again. I found this pretty disconcerting! David (the owner of the store) and I looked at a couple other Mobiky's and found they all had a little such play, but some more than others.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does anyone know what to do about it?

Rudi

kgibbs51

Rudi: In searching for reviews of Mobiky I came across 1 or 2 that raised concerns with the numerous pivot points in the frame. These reviewers stated that pivot points are potential weak links especially when shims and bushings break down with age. This will cause the frame to loosen or wiggle over time.

I'm not sure how many pivot points Mobiky actually has but my current bike only has 1 frame pivot, a handlebar pivot, and a tension lock seat. I find it fairly solid unless I'm hill climbing which I seldom do. For my type of riding I'm more concerned about cournering and that has a solid feel. I'm not so convinced Mobiky would be as solid over say a 6 year timespan.

As I said, for the price you'd be paying I could simply replace my bike at 3 years and still break even with the mobiky price.

rhm

Yeah, that seems to put it pretty well. I'm going to continue this discussion over at the Dahon Curve thread. See you there!

anabananasplit

That's my boyfriend in the picture. :-) We've taken our Mobikys on escalators quite a few times and there has been no problems. You can fairly easily keep it on one side and people can still pass alongside. No one gives you dirty looks about a Mobiky, on the contrary! ;-)