Originally Posted by
j.postema
The Berds folding bikes look like a serious replacement candidate as they seem to be manufactured in Germany (by hand?) and come in different frame sizes and are made of steel which I prefer to aluninium. The design looks clean as well compared to many aluminium folding bikes which look too complicated to me. Seems they also equip them with pannier racks... They even equip with both SON dynamo hub and Rohloff rear hub
The Bernds is indeed manufactured by hand and has a history of I think close to 30 years of development and incremental and not so incremtental improvements. It does ride like a "big bike", folds quickly but not super small. I is built to order, so you can have any spec you want but it is by no means a cheap bike (rather a pretty expensive one). One can often get used ones as a bit of a bargain as they are hardly known but you have to know about the subtile differences between the model years to be sure to grab a bargain. I do own one and like it (though most of the time I prefer my Brompton due to the small fold).