I made myself a travel take apart bicycle with 20” wheels in 2001. My goal was to be able to put it into a normal suitcase. It consisted of 3 sections. I tig welded lug like steel sleeves onto a long head tube and a separate rear triangle including the seat tube. Removable titanium top and down tubes connected the front and rear together. The top tube was held in place on both ends with a binder bolt on the lug/sleeves like a seat post into a seat tube. The down tube towards the head tube had the same kind of connection while near the bottom bracket shell I used a sleeve with binders on each end that slide over the 2 tube ends to hold it all together. I mostly just did this for fun to see if the concept would work. It had a decent ride. I was expecting some compromise in ride quality in exchange for its packing and traveling convenience. To my surprise it wasn’t much different than riding my normal bicycles.

We used to do these 1-week bicycle rides in Ukraine to raise money for our charity project. While paved roads in the countryside were reasonably smooth the ones in the city could be dirt (opposite of what one might think). For this reason I started out using wider BMX style of tires. That was a mistake because it made the bicycle ride sluggish and feel heavy. When I switched to 20” X 1 3/8” Continental tires the bicycle rode very similar to my normal bicycles. The key point I’m making here is that in this smaller tire size the width made more difference than I expected and should be a major consideration when designing the frame.

I don’t remember exactly the geometry I choose but I think it had 72º parallel head and seat angles and somewhere between 30 to 35mm of rake. Unfortunately I was rushing to get it done before I left for our trip and I sold it soon after I came back home so I didn’t document what I did. For reference I like my handlebars to be nearly the same height off the ground as my saddle.

Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan