Originally Posted by
towndock
<snip>
I want to cheer on Bike Friday, domestic cool manufacturer. But. Mostly, they don't fold. They disassemble into a pile of parts.
Most of their bikes are not legitimately "folding" bikes.
Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
True. I consider them "travel" bikes, which is how their advertising was oriented, never commuting, for their original models. Their later 16"/349 Tikit, and then Pakit, were designed for fast fold and commuting.
Well the seat tube and rear triangle fold. The stem has a quick release and could be called disassembly. They're MOSTLY folding.
Between Brompton and Bike Friday, it comes down to whether one would want the faster, more compact fold, or the more efficient bike once ridden. Here's a 34 second video of a Bike Friday New World Tourist being folded and then unfolded.
It's not a much slower fold than a Brompton, if at all, but it is bigger and the stem is left loose.
It's for those reasons that I'm leaning toward a Bike Friday for my next folder. It will still easily fit in a car trunk or soft bag for train travel, but then isn't such a drain to pedal as something with an IGH.