Originally Posted by
prathmann
The height of the rider is determined both by how high the lower pedal is off the ground at its lowest point and how long the rider's legs are since most people adjust their seat height so their legs are almost straight at maximum extension. No reason for either of those to be different on a folding bike as compared to a non-folding one, and there is no noticeable difference in my height when seated on my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket vs. my 700c bikes.
Ok - it was an off the cuff comment, thinking about it does sound like I was probably wrong. Like I said, it was a minor point.
Originally Posted by
prathmann
Nor is there any difference in the speed of my commute - which is usually on the Bike Friday even though I don't need the folding feature (but it's the one that normally has a rear rack already attached and is therefore more suited). Rolling resistance of smaller wheels is a bit greater but air resistance of those wheels is a bit less so it tends to balance out. Yes, on very rough terrain the bigger wheels can be an advantage, but my urban commute is not over that kind of terrain.
This sounds like it would devolve into a back and forth I'm not interested in getting into, but in general larger wheels seem to be faster. Certainly not day and night faster, but a little faster.
Originally Posted by
prathmann
I don't really see the intended niche for the design on the OP. The folded bike looks too big to be taken inside crowded buses or most other urban mass transit vehicles that wouldn't allow regular bikes and the unconventional geometry would make it a poor riding choice compared to either a regular bike or many of the better folders already on the market.
The idea he was saying was that the geometry wasn't something he had put any time into.
You assume that everyone who's bike commuting is doing so partially involving a bus or subway, and that's not true. Certainly if only 25% of my commute was actually biking, folding size would matter to me far more than small increases in efficiency with a larger wheel. But when I was looking for a commuting bike, I was considering something folding because it took up less room at home, at work, and it would be able to go into the trunk of my car a lot easier, even if it just made it 25% smaller. Didn't get anything because of the efficiency aspect, as my commute is somewhere between 0:45 and 1:15 hours, depending on route and traffic.