Random musings...

In the USA we have BikeFriday, with a few folding models but more that demount for travel. We have Montague's large wheel folding mountain bikes that will fit into a car trunk without removing the rear wheel. And we have Swift/Xootr, a bike with voracious fans despite not folding up very small.

Of course there's Brompton, enthusiastically marketed by a small number of dealers, and good on them.

There are any number of unique, novel folding bikes that are popular in other parts of the world that seem to be extinct, or nearly so, in the USA: Airnimal, Bernds, Bigfish, Birdy, Bridgestone, Di Blasi, Mezzo, Mobikey, Strida, &etc. There are many other interesting folders that, AFAIK, have never been retailed in any meaningful way in the USA: Anemos, IF, Jango, MIT, Ori, Rhine, &etc.

What we do have in the USA is Dahon, and lots of folding bike brands that are, how shall we put this? Perhaps, 'variations on a theme by Dahon': b_fold, Citizen, dibar, Downtube, Dynamic, Giant, Hasa, KHS, Melon, Mobic, Montecci, Novara, Origami, Origin-8, Oyama, Schwinn, Tern, Ubike, &etc.

Has the evolutionary marketplace spoken vis-a-vis the optimum design for the majority of USA folding bike users? Or is the USA just a tiny, unsophisticated market for folders, which can't support much diversity?