The original assertion, before the moving of the goalposts and the backtracking started, was that 16" bi-folds of the Litepro, FnHon, etc. pedigree, do not fit most Europeans (and US Americans) due to their taller stature. I have said -- it's part of the forum record -- that they are only appropriate for people up to about 180cm. Pinigis claims the Origami Lotus fits riders up to 190cm (6'3"). A European forum member, a German who rides a 16" bi-fold FnHon Zephyr without apparent problem is 180cm in height. So, let's test the original assertion. What does the data say about these folding bikes fitting Europeans and Americans? What percentage of European and U.S. adults are of stature 180cm or below?

The data, in fact, show -- contrary to the original assertion -- that the majority, more than 50% of adult Europeans -- males and females-- are of no more than 180cm in stature, and therefore can potentially fit in 16" bi-fold. The data show that 61% and 99% of European adult males and females, respectively, and 66% and nearly 100% of U.S. adult males and females, respectively, are no taller than 180cm.




The results are illustrated in the following graphs:





Source: publicly available data on the mean height and standard deviation of European and U.S. adults.

What do these percentages mean in absolute figures? In the case of Europe, they represent a good half a billion people. Yes, billion. I didn't calculate it for the U.S, but it's gotta be -- a guesstimate -- around 200 million folks.
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Naturally, there are regional and country variations. We know that. You are welcome to carry out similar calculations for individual countries. But the original assertion was about Europe/Europeans (and the U.S), not about specific nationalities or countries, and variability among countries does not disprove the overall aggregate finding, or prove the original assertion.





For U.S. Americans befuddled by metric, an inch is 2.54cm.