Originally Posted by
Gibsonsean
Thanks Jipe. Interesting points. Maybe i should give a Brompton more time. I don't have much experience of riding smaller wheeled bikes so your insight is appreciated. I guess with lower weight and radius smaller wheels are easier to accelerate, an advantage in stop start riding. Larger wheels take more to get going but maintain more momentum and provide more stability (relatively) at speed?
Yes, the small wheel have less momentum and accelerate quicker what make small wheeled bile pleasant and fun to ride once you are used tto ride them. If the frame design is good, the bike is stable. Big wheels is not a warranty for a stable frame, there are full size wheels race bike that aren't very stable too,
The limitations of the Brompton is its obsolete transmission and several poor/low end components but this can be solved wit some $$$.
Originally Posted by
Gibsonsean
The relative lack of top notch tire choice in ETRTO 507 is a downer.
Its the road tires that are missing in ETRTO 507. There are actually several 24" sizes. The road bike 24" size is ETRTO 520 but there are few tires available in that size
Originally Posted by
Gibsonsean
Are SS frames not still heavier than Ti equivalents?
Frames in Ti and frames in Columbus Xcr or Reynolds 953 have more or less the same weight. The actual weight depends of the frame behavior, Ti soft, flexible frames can weight a little less, stiffer Ti frames weight slightly more and/or need grade 4 titanium which is more expensive and even more difficult to manufacture.
Originally Posted by
Gibsonsean
Helix does have mounting points on the steering tube and we've seen a design for a universal mount that appears to allow full steerage inspite of the fork design. Clever fender and rack designs too which work with the fold. Designs only so far.
The Helix has a kind of Lefty fork, the single tube will hit the front bag mounting block if it is mounted on the frame like on the Brompton (and some Bike Friday and some Tyrell). The only possibility seems to me to mount a front bag on the handlebar (like several KlickFix bags) but with such a solution the bag influence the steering and the weight of the bag must remain very low. But if you can show pictures of the solution proposed by Helix, I would be interested to see them.
Fenders and rear rack are surely possible but they must be specifically designed for Helix.