A word of warning/caution to Birdy-riders: A couple of days ago there was
another report of a spontaneous break of the rear fork on a Birdy in the German folding bike forum. This is the third report about that in that forum within the last years. Two of the breaks ended with a crash, one was discovered in an early stage by the rider during maintenance, thus avoiding a crash and complete breakage.
(picture source: Twitter:
)
Edit: Bike Forums seems not to display links to Twitter. However: The link can also be found here)
The bikes affected were made in 2008 (broken in spring 2015), 2009 (broken in Jan. 2019) and 2012 (broken in Oct. 2016), according to the reports. Though the Birdy manual outlines pretty rigorous maintenance and exchange intervals for things like stem, front fork and bars the rear fork/rear frame is not covered. Yet it seems worth inspecting it on a regular basis. All three bikes seem to have been maintained properly and ridden normally within their spec.. Two of them seem to have been ridden more intensively on a almost daily basis, no info about the third. All breakages happened at exactly the same location on the rear swing arm, directly behind the welding of the stiffening arms that come from below.
Disclaimer: I've neither personal experience with the topic nor do I know any of the riders or bikes personally.