First of all, what type of touring do you and your wife plan on doing? Touring on a bicycle can be as simple as exploring the cities you visit, and just about any "budget folder" will do. If you do plan on going full tilt meaning front, and rear panniers, and riding over long distances, well, maybe a Bike Friday for example might be a good choice.
Otherwise you can look at these "budget" models:
Citizenbike Gotham 2 - $319 (Has a nice wide range of gear ratios)
Origami Crane - $289 (Good value)
Downtube Nova - $329 (Pretty light, and drivetrain can be easily upgraded to a 21 speed)
Greenzone Premium Edition - $399 (Well built, and solid)
Giant Expressway 2 - $460 (Well known, respected bike manufacturer)
I'll stop there because anything above $500 in my humble opinion is not a "budget" folder, and that's the territory of the other brands most of the posters have recommended. Even a used Bikefriday NWT is almost always a four figure amount. But again, use common sense in choosing a bike according to your needs.
Remember that to get any of these folding bikes into a case of the size you're looking at, may require at the very least to remove the wheels for it to fit. But then again, that's with most folders.
Good luck, and please let us know what bike you decided on.
Ed
Originally Posted by
Cousin Jack
My wife and I are educators, me retired and she still working, and we've done two great European trips, mostly by rented motorcycles. The prohibitive cost of rental motorcycles and/or the cost of shipping our own motorcycle is significant, and slowing us down. We decided to switch to bicycles (we're pretty strong fitness riders), and actually bought a couple of touring bicycles with the thought of shipping them over....but the airline "tariff" on bicycles and the difficulty of crating them for flight put us off........ we need folders that can go through checked luggage. We examined BikeFriday, but for the cost of two of those and their containers, we could easily ship our motorcycle over and back several times. My question: is there a budget folder, a second-rank bike maybe that can be toured on, and be purchased for less than one half your mortgage? I've discovered that a 29"X29"X10" container can be checked, and I think I could cobble up a couple cases if I could find a bike that would break down to fit.....
Thoughts?