Azreal911

I'm thinking of my next bike but i'm trying to use it for long rides also cause I intend to have only one bike (n +1 doesn't apply at my household and is illegal!) and also intend to use them in 60km+ organized rides. I was down to these two bikes. The verge duo and a two speed brompton with same gearing and fenders only to save on weight. The fold on the brompton is a winner but for me I rarely take it on a train and if I do it's only to ride it back up from downtown for fun (30+ kms). I only need to fold it under my cubicle and that's it. But for our semi crappy roads in my area the 20" wheels would probably go over cracks much better, we're talking about cracks right across the roads which you can't just avoid. I currently own a strida (daily commuter 12km/day) and once I upgraded to 18" wheels I never went back to the 16's (very different feel over my junky roads) which is why I sometimes question my brompton choice there (but it has a mini rubber bumper on the back). Downtown has better roads and bike lanes so it is a different matter there. I read alot of the wheel size debates on this forum but in the end it led to just no real definite answer for me. Just wanted to hear if any of you crazy guys tried brevets on their folders and what's their experience on them? I'd love to hear from 16" wheel users and 20" wheeled users. I know some would probably ask I get more gears but I've grown to really love the simplicity of these two bikes with the minimal amount of needed gears. Being previously stuck on a single speed I can get up some pretty good grades just by pedaling with some momentum and keeping the pace, with a chain drive it's even easier without the occasional skipping. Plus the The Tern and Brommie I can stand on them to get up the hills when needed, commuting daily really strengthens your legs ALOT. Would love to hear what the folding group thinks of the madness of riding long distance on tiny wheels.

verge duo:
no cables very clean look
don't fold as well


brompton two speed:
same weight
smallest fold in the business!

BruceMetras

I've taken my Mu Duo (Sachs Auto 2 speed with mod to 451 wheels) on 40+ mile rides) ... its high gear is 75 g/i, so for me, that is a very comfortable place to be for longish rides.. owning a Merc (B wanna-be) with a SA 3 speed, I wouldn't even consider going the same distance given the choice .. I have M bars on the Merc, so riding position is more upright, but I think even if I got into a more aggressive riding position on the Merc, I'd probably always grab the Mu if I was going for a 3+ hour ride.. I also run an auto-2 speed on a Titanium frame 700c bike that I take on friendly group rides.. it's also geared in the high 70's, so able to clip along in that 18 to 22mph range with a cadence of 80 to 100rpm..

Azreal911

My gosh Bruce your answer is exactly what I'm looking for the problem at hand. Lucky! you just basically owned both bikes! Best of both worlds for commuting and long rides. Unfortunately I can only pick one option.

LWaB

Did Paris-Brest-Paris on a Duomatic F-frame Moulton (349 wheels) in 2003. Top gear was about 72". Done Dunwich Dynamo (190km overnight) on a Brompton T5 a few years back. Top gear was 80-something".

jur

Did a 70km pootle just this past weekend on my Brommie. Regularly go to work or home via the local 500m mountain on the Brommie.

As for wheels size, I am more than ever convinced that the other frame parts, ie suspension in the Brommie, and long seatpost and stempost, contribute lots to softening road bumps so the wheel size to me is pretty irrelevant. I expect the Tern to be stiffer overall and therefore bumpier despite having bigger wheels.

jur

Just want to add: The bike you pick really depends almost entirely on your own fitness. If you are very fit, then a 100km mountainous ride on the 2sp Brompton would be relatively easy; but if you are questioning whether you need more gears, then you probably do.

Azreal911

This is what I ended up with, for the winter hiatus I will be installing the sturmey archer two speed kick back hub with coaster brake. The bigger wheels made a instant improvement on rolling resistance and comfort on my craptastic roads that gave me quite the problem (it has cracks that a minisuspension won't save you!) when I had 16 inch wheels and then moved to 18 inches and now 20 inches just got better! My main requirement was for it to fit under my cubicle so this worked like a charm! I don't want to go any bigger else it won't fit under my desk (I tried with my wife's Jack it wasn't pretty). I waste like 10 extra minutes locking my bike at the bike lock area and coming back to my work desk instead of riding right up to the elevator.

It was either the link uno or the verge duo or a two speed brompton that I was looking at. I had to scrap the duo idea cause after much thought I didn't like the automatic gearing because of some long climbs on some rides I would usually like to spin up that hill and the last thing I need is a higher gear. Having a kick back hub would at least let me control what gear I would want to be in. And I couldn't do the brompton cause I was lucky enough to borrow my co workers brommie for a week of commuting and it was pretty jarring cause of our unfortunate road conditions.

bbmike

If you don't need the foldability of Brompton but have equal amount of cash than IF Urban seems like a great bike:



Ps.: sorry, just realized that I'm too late

pacificcyclist

It's possible riding with only 2 gears only in areas that are not very very hilly like in Toronto. But in very hilly areas like in Vancouver, 1 or with 2 gears are very challenging and basically require you to do strength training for the duration of the ride. It's certainly doable, but I would suggest that if you had only ridden 12km on a Strida is to ease yourself into a 60km ride over a series of months so your core will become more developed. Otherwise, if you have weak core strength which holds your pelvis somewhat level, your knees will tend to buckle inwards or outwards depending the sway as your pelvis become unstable and then you're going to have a myriad of knee issues. I've heard from my doctor that some of his new patients came from cyclists who went into the single speed fad and did not realize that it does require a little more training and conditioning compared to the multiple speed bikes which will then allow you to spin at a very high cadence.
Some people can spin at a very high cadence with a 70" gear, but unless you're well conditioned to do that and is a very strong rider to begin with, I would go instead with a Tern internal gear bike, because if you're trying to use it to ride long distance, you are suggesting to me that you are not sure if you have the strength and endurance to ride with a high gear in multiple terrain over long distances. My advise is to get a Tern multispeed bike and then training yourself to ride with just 1 speed. Just remember that not everyone is cut out to ride with a single or double speed bike unless you have conditioned yourself gradually.

fietsbob

Myself , I have neither , though mine, an M3L with a Mountain drive crankset, double planetary gears .. has a Much wider ratio spread.

Brevets require too much travel $ for me ..

Azreal911

Ah, thanks for the info Pacificcyclist but i've actually ridden my strida on 60-70km rides for fun in the last few years and maintained an average of 18km/h speed overall. I've basically used my strida single speed (60gear inch) for everything and put 7000km of mileage (3 1/2years) on that sucker before I moved to this one so the feeling is very similar. With it I'm able to spin up some pretty good grades of 5% or so before the belt skips and able to maintain a good 70rpm on a 3% for a bloody 2km climb on a strida . So its actually easier now with the chain not skipping I can power up those hills. I wasnt jumping from a geared bike to a single speed, that would really kill a person. The silly things I do is sometimes take the train all the way downtown and ride back uptown (30km) just for fun after work! took 2 hr's though on a strida with the slight uphill but it was great on a nice summer day. As long as I don't live in san franciso I should be ok .

Also toe clips on my pedals make a huge difference when spinning up the hills, that way I subconsciously trained myself to not just mash on the pedals but to share the load on the upstroke too. It's a massive difference, almost like SPD's but I gotta wear my leather shoes to work.

pacificcyclist

Which is why I love riding my Speed Uno with a pair of Power Grips on my commute and shopping run. It's just so fun, especially the coaster brake! Good that you acclimatized gradually. Hate to see you became some of the riders here who injured their knees and feet by riding too much too soon on single speeds here in hilly Vancouver.