Originally Posted by
bhkyte
On the question of wether you need to peddle more on a 20" v 26"
You will probably find a 20 inch geared bike ok. Unless you want to go over 25 mph a lot or have long downhill sections that you want to peddle.
You may find it is set up to be no different from a 26"
It depends on what the manufacture has done to up gear the 20 " bike if anything.
Internal hub gears up gear really well, or dual drive ,giving the same spread of gears as a 26"
This is the reason IHG are popular. On good 20" folders. Others use a specialist high gear sprocket/hub combination (shimano cespro).
Another possibility is to fit a larger front chain ring, I have a 56 on my 16" bike, and with dual drive mine has the same top gear as a road racing bike.
This. You can basically gear a 20" bike to be very similar to a full size bike.
You can also get a Capreo hub and cassette. I've got a cassette that goes from 9 to 26 teeth. This is very similar to having a 700c tire (full sized road tire - bigger than 26") with a cassette from 12 to 34 teeth.
Added: As of this week, the worlds fastest bicycle (just over 83 mph on flat ground)
runs on 20" 406 tires! See! They make you faster!