Just wanted to say a quick THANK YOU! to you all for some really good information and valuable insight on folding bikes.
My daughter just learned how to ride a bike without training wheels this summer and following her all over hither and yon on foot was me. I started loading my own Giant bike up to ride with her but that got annoying real quick. I decided to look for folding bikes and began with a local place, Bike Friday. Well, I found out real quick that Bike Friday was the '
Signature knitting needles' of the folding bike world.
The budget I had for a starter folding bike was about $300, it needed at least 3 speeds, and I wanted something new. My bicycle knowledge is very basic so having somebody to contact if there were issues is important to me. I started looking at the Schwinn's on Amazon and moved on to include Citizens (I love the way the Barcelona looks), Downtube, and the low end Dahon. I added the Origami to the list after reading a bit about them here on this forum.
Well after some hemming and hawing over details I decided to go for the Cricket! I like that it has suspension and that it's frame is a bit different from the standard folding bike frame. It also has fenders, a back rack and bell all in a neat little package. The color I picked for it was orange. Paul said they would ship it out to me around Wednesday of this week. I'm very excited and hope to get a folding bike for my daughter for Christmas if my experience is good.
I'll be posting a full review and some pictures of my bike once I get my grubby paws on it. At this point I do have a couple of questions for you seasoned folders out there.
1. Did you name your folder? If so, what?
2. I decided to hold off purchasing panniers (I carry my knitting with me everywhere) and got a couple different bungee nets to hold my existing knitting bag. Should I be looking at special panniers for my folding bike?
3. My daughter is 6 going on 7. Are there any 20" folders out there that might work for her or am I subjugated to only the 16" folders?
Again, thanks for your help and replies!