cracker7213

I have been riding bikes for a long time and I have always wanted to own a folding bicycle. I'm currently in school and have limited space for bikes. My other bikes will not fit in my house and I thought a folder might do a better job. I have heard about dahons and bike fridays, but those are a little out of my budget. I would like something like a worksmen or a raliegh twenty. Are there any brands that have similar quality to these brands with a cheaper price tag? I would really like a steel one form the seventies or eighties. I've seen twenties go for $500! I can do all the maintenace myself, so that is not a problem. Any info would be great. Thanks

Dynocoaster 

Welcome to the fold. check craigslist the Raleigh is great to fix up. check out this for Twenties https://www.raleightwenty.webs.com/
Used Bike Fridays can sometimes be found in that price range. Where are you located?

cracker7213

The Twin Cities. This would be a bike for myself and also a present for my dad as he has always awanted a Moulton, so i'm thinking i can "give" him this and then when he get the moulton he can "give" this to me.

Urbanis

Have you looked at Downtube folding bikes? Good quality, inexpensive, easy to modify. Lots of threads in this forum about them.

Russcoles11

A Dawes Kingpin is an alternative to an R20. They are slightly better quality and have more standardised parts. Might be harder to find one though.

I tend to buy bikes on Ebay here in the UK and find a good way to get bargains is to look for posts with bad pictures (bike shown with flat tyres etc) and rely on your ability to fix minor faults. See whats available and what catches your eye, google the bikes name and find out about it then bid a small amount of money for it and see.
cresswell fold-i
.jpg This is my most recent purchase (note the flat tyres in the pic and pile of bikes indicating lack of bike care) and cost me £6 which is somewhere around $10. It looks a state in the picture but to actually get it running all I needed was tyres, inner tubes, seat post and saddle and a small part for the sturmey archer rear hub which cost me £0.95.
If you want to keep repairs and upgrades down in price, a good tip with folding bikes is that parents don't like buying 2nd hand bikes for their kids so you can get parts from a kids bike you buy on ebay and its a buyers market. £2 can get you a complete set of brake blocks, wheels, tyres.... basically everything except a frame and cranks.

Russcoles11

Just a thought but if you have any friends in the military who are stationed in Europe and might make a trip to the UK, Raleigh 20's are unbelievably common on Ebay.co.uk and they could ship one to you at national rates I believe, why not get several and sell them for $500 each?