Which chinese folding bike should I buy?
 

Hi. Will be in china in two weeks and want to buy a good folding bike to take it home. I did some research about local brands (I want quality and not the very cheap stuff). Found the Rhine Birdy, Rhine 2013, Anemos Zippy. Also some FNHON bikes.
Which one will be suitable for me if I need to mount a rack, mudguards and a dynamo hub? Should be solid enough to carry my 90kg + luggage for multi day trips. Also want to use it at forest tracks and dirt roads.
I asked the manufacturer of the Anemos Zippy, but they said there is no fitting rack and they have problems with the folding mechanic if they add mudguards to the bike.
I guess the birdy will be the right bike for me, what you think about it?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=365067

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I only have one tip for you as I'm not an expert like so many here are. One of the things a mechanic told me when I was having problems with an Adventurer FB I had purchased awhile back was the 6-speed derailleur system. He mentioned that the 6-speed derailleur systems were the cheaper ones and are used primarily on the low priced bikes. He recommended at least the ones that work with the 7 or more speed sprockets. Anyway, that's what I was told. If I'm wrong with this, I hope others will correct or rectify this. As I mentioned, this is what I was told.

None of the bikes have a 6 speed system, so I don't see a problem with that?

Dahon has a huge presence in China, but if I understand correctly, you specifically want a bike that's not sold in your home market and that you will have no local support for after your return?

'Luggage for multi day trips' can mean a windbreaker and credit card, or it can mean 30+kg of self-contained camping gear.

Waiting to see if the Brompton 'rip off of intellectual property' fanboys chime in on this...

The Anemos bike has made an appearance on these forums under a different name. It looks interesting and pretty cool, but as far as I could tell the folding size wasn't so impressive despite the folding-under rear triangle.

I'd go for the Rhine, I think the old style Birdies look nicer than the newer hydroformed ones.

Yes, thats what I mean.

Well, inculding the bike it could be 120kg.

Most modern 6 and 7 speed bicycles are freewheels. 8 speed and beyond are cassettes and are generally considered higher end. If you want a cassette, not a freewheel, you'll probably be looking at an 8 speed or higher.

Here's how Sheldon Brown explains it.

WHich bike do you mean? None of the bikes I posted above have less then 8 speeds. Rhine Birdy 8, Rhine 2013 16, Anemos 8.

Which China? Taipei or Beijing?

keep in mind that bikes for chinesemarket are usually just a little bit different than for the rest of the world. There is money to be saved in bottom brackets, hubs, spokes, rims, etc etc, besides usually the steerer colum is much shorter as is the seatpost.
Its easy to "save " 50 or even hundred bucks and than make a bike for a person who weighs 100 lbs ....

You however want to load that puppy up with 240 lbs which is the ueber-top limit for a well made and no expense spared foldie .....


this might not work out as nice as you think it does

just sayin

I was responding to (as I thought was obvious since I bothered to quote it) the response from Still Pedaling. I wasn't commenting on any of the specific bikes that you had listed.

I would second that. The quality controls are lowered (sometimes down to nonexistent) for the Chinese market and components and fabrication are of lower level. Chinese themselves are so fed up with the quality of domestic products that they seek foreign products just to be on the safe side.

Well, I'm not familiar with those and I'm fairly new to folding bikes, but after an extensive research and a few road tests I got me an Ori M10 LiteWeight. I believe is manufactured in Taiwan. I rode-tested a Brompton, a couple Dahons, a Tern and a Curve.

The fold is great (only the folding of the Brompton was better); the ride is amazing (better than all the ones I tested). It didn't even feel like a 16". And it weights about 10.4 kg. All parts are industry standard, or so the seller told me. In my humble opinion, a bike to consider if you can get it over there.

Beautiful bike. Where did you order it from? How much does it cost?

The fold does look nice. Looks like a nice bike when it's not folded also. Did you swap out the pedals or are those the ones it came with?

Ori is a legit brand. Not unlike Strida, it was originally designed in UK but later acquired/evolved by a Taiwanese manufacturer. It's fairly popular in Asia, and there are dealers in China:

http://www.oribikes.com/ori/dealer/cn.html

Thanks! I got it from a guy who has a little bike shop, here in Mexico. He imports several brands of folding bikes, including ORi. About $1.400 USD, tax included.

Different pedals. Comes with all-black ones.

When I was shopping around, Ori was nigh impossible to get in the US. Did you get it from taiwan?

The Ori is to expensive. Can only take things for $600 tax free, otherwise I have to pay about 25% tax after arriving in my country.

I purchased a great 20" folding bike, the UCC Transformer 2.0, from a student who returned to the US after 4 months studying Chinese medicine in China. It wasn't expensive in China she said, relative to prices in the US for anything similar. Here's the website: http://www.uccbicycle.cn/en_products.asp. It isn't sold in the US as far as I have found with many searches. If you can find this bike while you are there, try it. I don't think you'll be disappointed. UCC as a company (according to what I read in an interview of one founder) realized they couldn't compete at the bottom end of the market against established mass producers like Giant and Dahon, so they went for higher-quality bikes as their niche.

I added a Nashbar front rack and a rear rack that has adjustable height. By adjusting the rack to maximum height, I was able to use full-size panniers on the rear without heel interference. I can still fold the bike almost as compactly as without the racks. I bought 20" fenders which I haven't mounted yet but I'm sure they'll fit.

The bike has a front derailleur with 2 chainrings and an 8-speed rear derailleur, giving it 16 gear combinations. The components are good quality, not bottom end stuff. It has a folding scheme similar to Dahon (maybe licensed from Dahon). The frame is aluminum, strong and not too flexing while riding. It feels good. I recently went on a bike trip by bus, train, and car, to Lake Tahoe (California) with my daughter who took her 700c road bike. Here's my bike and duffle bag sitting at the Amtrak train station in Davis, CA: http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=365248

We road along a class 1 bike path around part of the lake. I had absolutely no trouble keeping up with her. She was impressed at that because she figured small wheels means slow. I told her the key is the gearing. This bike climbs hills well and has good speed on level ground. I happened to have an extra 26" wheel with 8-speed cassette from a bike that was converted to electric hub-motor rear wheel, so I had this extra cassette. It had a larger low gear #1 than what came with the UCC bike, so I had the shop swap it onto my UCC, giving the bike an even better hill climbing gear. I mounted a cyclocomputer on the main tube using zip-ties. It works great, rides great. Having some extra weight on the front wheel when I load front panniers actually improves the ride, making the steering less twitchy and avoiding wheelies when accelerating up steep hills or going over speed bumps.

The Ori is the same or very similar to the Mezzo folding bikes. I don't know the relationship between the brands. Maybe Mezzo licensed the design to the Ori company or maybe the Chinese manufacturer builds the Mezzo bikes for the UK company. Anyway, the design and features can be studied at the Mezzo website and on several YouTube videos. There is an extensive thread on this folding bikes forum about the Mezzo versus Brompton and about upgrading the Mezzo.

More photos of the UCC Transformer 2.0: http://www.xici.net/d111440301.htm

I vote ori or rhine if you want support when you return.

My thinking is that Birdie stuff fits rhyne? Mezzo and ori pretty interchangeable.
However I have not tried any of the bikes other than a mezzo and your real life experience should educate us all on these bikes? Good luck on purchase, hope you find a bargin or an exclusive great bike.

Rule out the ori if you don't want A fast but firm ride, suitable for mainly road use. A suspension seatpost helps.

When you're back from China, please let us know what bike you brought back and your opinion of it.

I browsed through the Rack section, but didn't find a Nashbar rear-rack with adjustable height. Would you have a URL?

Thanks.