Originally Posted by
Jipe
Te folded size of the Brompton and Birdy and several other folding bikes depend of the mounting of the saddle.
The size given by Brompton is very optimistic, its with the saddle mounted on a position that minimize the folded size, i.e. pentaclip in front of the seat-pillar, saddle advanced to the front as much as possible and mounted on the lowest position on the pentaclip, a configuration that only fits for short people. Then, the folded bike fits into the airline size without any case around it, in a soft bag snug around the folded bike.
Of course, its with the standard seat-pillar that fits only for people up to about 1m75 and less when the saddle is mounted on the lower position of the pentaclip. People above about 1m75, need a longer seat-pillar that increase the height of the folded Brompton.
With an average cyclist, the folded Brompton is bigger and its the reason why all cases made to carry the folded Brompton are too big to fit in the airline limit. The folded Brompton without any dismounting doesn't fit in any airline compliant case. Its also the reason why the Chubby is bigger.
And its the same for the Birdy, the size given by Pacific Cycles is for short people, the bigger one given by Riese & Müller for taller people.
My comparison picture show clearly that for both bikes the saddle position has a major impact on the overall folded size. Removing the saddle+seat-pillar greatly reduces the folded size.
Last point, how often do most people fly with their folding bike?
A few points and a few questions. First, the Brompton telescopic seat post pretty much solves most suitcase problems. You can remove the inner post and saddle and keep all your saddle settings. You also get to keep seatpost bung. When I was working, I am now retired, I had to at times fly with little notice, so I set the Brompton up to pack in under two minutes. Mostly I used a B&W hard case. A couple of times I had problems on arrival with the way Homeland Security repacked my bike, so I went a Vincita Case. It was a tight fit with B&W case.
Does the Birdy lock up together as one piece in the folded position like the Brompton? Can you use the Birdy in shopping cart mode like I do with the Brompton? I have posted pics of this before. I did have to mod my rack though to facilitate this. When you say Riese and Muller size is larger, is their model actually larger? I did not understand this.