Originally Posted by
oblada
The contenders thus far are:
1) Birdy Touring: I've read that these ride very comfortably thanks to the full suspension, are solidly built, and have a relatively unfussy fold. However, they're reaaally stretching my budget.
2) Brompton M6L: everyone seems to appreciate these on this forum, and they sound like great commuter bikes, but I've heard they may not feel great to ride, so longer distances might be a challenge. Also, as mentioned above, their famous fold isn't that necessary for us.
3) Airnimal Joey Sport: I've read that these are about as stiff and fast as a regular bike, so that would be a major upside. I'm wondering if the fold is easy enough to manage on city sidewalks, and whether they could be, say, rolled around a store briefly without too much trouble.
4) Change Bike DF-702: similar advantages to the Joey, though significantly cheaper. Same questions about folding and rolling.
The Change Bike is in the end a large wheeled folding bike and it will never get away from the physics that a larger 27.5 wheel will be still that after a bike fold.
Also the frame is full size and after folding in 2/5 of it it will still be 3/5 of the bike.
I have used it to get to work (rotating with my other bikes) and its maybe 1 to 1.5 minutes of folding, so thats not too big a deal to me.
The bike does roll on one of its wheel after fold (esp if the bike is using flat bars and not road bars like mine).
The rolling will need a little practice since the bike is larger/heavier, but its not something that is too hard.
I often use the bike to bring my kids out and I am pushing it into the train while lugging camera, and 2-3 bags of their stuffs. (so thats a measure of it being still ok )
However, your need for using it in a supermarket does concern me as I do think it will be too big and does not stand on its own when folded as well.
For grocery shopping, you will be
pushing the bike, stopping at a shelf,
standing the bike, getting stuff and repeating the process.
The 2 actions I put in bold and underline may make this a cumbersome experience. (not un-doable, but cumbersome )
Nothing beats the Brompton in this aspect (mho); ok.... maybe the Tyrell IVE is rather similar in this respect too.
What you get with the Change Bike are :
1. The freedom of full size in terms of ride quality, parts selection, ride versatility (gravel/trails/pavement/roads )
2. Folding when other full sized bikes won't have such an option. (eg. Trains, coach, etc ) ; Or fold and take a train if its raining/etc