Old 05-17-21 | 04:06 PM
  #2  
Jipe
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In your list, there are two very different kind of folding bikes.

First, small folded, fully folding bikes, the Birdy and Brompton

Second, much bigger folded, not fully folding bikes because he front wheel must be dismounted.

You must define your needs, if you want to easily take your folded bike in a public transportation and need to fold it often, only the two first will be an option. Even the Airnimal Joey Sport with its 24"/ETRTO520 wheels is quite big folded (980×850×350mm).

Besides that, the strong points of both the Birdy and the Brompton is the ease of carrying luggage for a daily use. Both now can use a front bag which is really a pleasure to use. The Birdy as the advantage to also being able to use classic rear and front bike pannier like those of Ortlieb and Vaude for instance (this isn't possible with he Brompton, its rear rack is too low and too close to the bottom bracket, any wide bag is hit with the heels while pedaling).

The Brompton main weak points are its comfort on bad road and poor transmission. Even if it ride very well, it cannot compete with the 3 others.

The Birdy, even if it has smaller wheels, is a fast bike. Its wide tires (up to 2"/50mm) and full suspension make it very comfortable and make it usable on unpaved trail (I would compare it to a gravel bike, its not a MTB).

The Airnimal Joey Sport, even if it has a flat bar and no drop bar like the Joey Endurance, is basically a half folding (only the rear is folding) road race bike with medium size wheels. It has a major drawback: its wheel size is ETRTO520, there are very little tires available in this size, only two can (relatively easy be found, the Schwalbe One 23x520 and the Panaracer Pasela 25x520 both are pure fragile, high pressure (10 bar/145PSI for the Schwalbe One) narrow road tires (there is also a Terry Tellus 32x520 tire available only from Terry, not sure that the Joey Sport accept 32mm tires).

The Change Bike is a big wheel half folding bike (only the rear is folding) with the drawback of this concept, i.e. very big folded, almost as big as a not folding big wheel bike when removing the two wheels (unlike Brompton, Pacific Cycles and Riese & Müller, Change Bike prefer not to specify the folded size of the Change Bike bikes).

I would say, that if quick and smallest folded size are the key for you, go for the Brompton.

If you are looking for a small fold and a universal use bike (daily use, travel, carrying hings, of road/trails), go or the Birdy.

If folding isn't important for you, i.e.e you won't fold the bike often and want a road bike, go for he Change Bike.

Due to its wheel size, I cannot recommend the Joey Sport (this is based on practical experience, I once owned a ETRTO520 wheeled bike).
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