Per requests for the folding process, with pix (below).
1) Loosen pivot bolt on adjustable stem. Note that the lateral displacement of about 5 mm before the bolt head is tapped to disengage the splined bracket from internal splines of the stem. With the bracket free of the internal splines, the stem can be pivoted down.
2) The top and bottom clamps on the sleevepost are loosened, which permits the stempost to slide out of the sleevepost, and the sleevepost to slide off the steerer tube. There are separate pix of the exposed steerer tube, the sleevepost, and the star nut in the steerer tube. Not shown is a section of the larger tubing cut to serve as a big compression spacer to tension the headset. (Also not shown are all the dremel cut-off bits I went through.) The steerer tube clamp (a hacked MTB stem) is not loosened, so the forks are undisturbed. This is very similar to the Swift and Airnimal setup, only they use “real” steerer tube clamps.
3) In the shot of the folded bike, I didn’t bother to remove the wheels … nothing special there. I put extra cable to the controls to permit flexibility in packing the bike. The handle bars and stempost tuck nicely into the space between the front wheel and the stand. The sleevepost, seatpost, and saddle can be tucked within the rough outline of 36” x 18.5”. The folded bike still fits in the DT bag. The tape does run to the back of the rear tire… the photo angle is deceiving.
The Al tubing is from Aircraft Spruce.
www.aircraftspruce.com
The smaller tubing for the seatpost and stempost is
03-37000-1 6061T6 TUBE 1-1/8X.058 1FT.
The larger tubing for the sleevepost and compression spacer is
03-37300-1 6061T6 TUBE 1-1/4X.058 1FT
Each foot of tubing is about $3.00…. plus postage.
The MK bike is a terrific ride, very close to road bike torso position and absolutely the same as road bike leg position. The 53/9 gives me plenty of top end for the flats and downhill, and the combinations off the 39 handle any hills, with luggage. The Capreo is really well designed (9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 26). It deserves the D-A RD. The straightest chain lines are 39/10 and 39/11, which are great campus and shopping center gears, and 53/9, the flat-out gear. Like a Swift or Airnimal, the MK bike doesn’t have the quick fold of a hinged handlepost …. but I spend a lot more time in the saddle than folding, so that tradeoff was easily made.
If the riding profile were office worker, you could probably get the MK bike acceptably small for a cubicle by sliding the sleevepost off, slipping the bars under the folded bike, sliding the seat post out, and putting the seatpost by the bars, pretty close to one of the pix below except the stem is pivoted in the pix below, and at the office you wouldn’t need to deal with a 5 mm hex key for the adjustable stem.