Haha, indeed, and not something for one who cares about the finish of their car's paint. The shape/geometry of the folded mass is also a thing to not overlook. I recall being less than ecstatic when putting my folded Xootr Swift into the trunk of a subcompact sedan. A brake cable caught here, a handlebar plug popping out there...

My BF New World Tourist is a disorganized mess when folded, with cables only holding the handlebars, separated seatpost and all the rest floating. I try to put these under control with velcro straps, while trying not to stain my sleeves with grease and not forgetting to curse the designer in the process of placing that all in the trunk (no, in my memory the company did not even provide velcro straps to hold it all together). Brompton by contrast is a pretty boring undertaking. Ha, I earned my Brompton when my wife was comparing placing NWT and Brompton into the trunk and decided that this could not continue...

Shameless thread bump:
Next update due in just a few days.

I think tomorrow’s another backers update right?
But the big public one has been taking its sweet time...I wonder when it will be out?

Backer's update is out. All going well. Reading between the lines, looks like there may have been a couple of weeks of slippage on some custom parts but I am really starting to look forward to a new bike late April/early May, with a fair wind. Next update will be in 4 weeks.

Next update will also have accessory designs.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that, as I'd like to see the final mud guards and backpack. We still haven't seen if Helix will actually come with reflectors on the front or back, as no pictures of the bike have ever shown them. There's also no emblem design yet, but I don't personally care too much about that.

Shame that the next update is in a month, rather than on the usual two-week schedule, but it sounds like there is a lot to look forward to. Pre-order customers have to pay the remainder of the balance for their bikes in April, too.

Clean your chain really well and the use wax. Or Squirt lube. Zero grease. Mine came with a customized strap - you can buy one through BF if you didn't get one. Wraps around the seat tube ready to deploy as needed. Sounds like you didn't buy the folding seat mast version - better for packing but not for folding. Folding seat mast is great; you never need to reset the seat height either. But, yes, Brompton folds better. BF rides better though, imo.

For good or bad I don't do chain cleaning ever. If I go onto travel I cannot take any chain cleaning setup with myself anyway and will not busy myself with cleaning when all kinds of other stuff piles on me in travel. By now I made some straps myself but all that mess had no thought put in as far as handling a folded bike was concerned. At the time I bought the bike, the folded mast option was not available and the design concentrated on dismantling the bike for suitcase - that was semi-OK - but not really tackling the folded bike such as for car trunk. I can design/tweak things myself but you want a starting point where you are half way there and BF is just where you throw your hands up.

Riding BF is generally OK. Low points is that the steering is squirrely and in steep uphill or downhill - don't remember already which - I was afraid I could flip over. The steerer tube-stem interface scares me whenever my mind comes back to it - something I cannot quite fully forget about while riding.

FYI since I started using squirt lube I have never cleaned my chain. You just reapply as needed, no muss no fuss. It dries and doesn't get on anything.
You must have a very old BF if the folded mast wasn't available. Thousands of folks ride them and don't have the issues you are thinking of when riding, but whatever makes you comfortable (or not). Happy rides =)

I use my own mixture for chain, excluding utterly black MoS2 in the case of a folder. As I ride round year my primary concern is in protection against rust. The mixture dries out into paste.

Indeed my BF is fairly old. Tikit was about to come out at the time. The reason I am scared is in the fact that to prevent stem from moving you need to tighten QR so much that the bolt starts turning into U. The photo is of poor quality as the bike is upside down due to the rear triangle being away to have brazing done on it (separate story)

http://i66.tinypic.com/163rl3.jpg

FYI mine does not do that. I'd contact BF with that picture for reference.

Thread's dead, baby. Thread's dead.

Indeed, Helix enforced the blackout on information !

Next real information will only come when (if) bikes are delivered.

We only will know then if the Helix fulfill its promises what isn't sure when seeing what happens with other kickstarter projects.

The last one is Vellobike+: kickstarter campaign announced weight 10.9kg for the titanium frame version, 11.9lg for the CroMo frame version, current specification just before delivery of first batch are respectively 12.9kg and 13.9kg (+2kg) and even 13.4 and 14.4kg for the version with Schlumpf Speed drive. But creators claim they are still the lightest electric assisted folder !

Mine does bend like that. And after contacting them they wrote me it's normal.

I encounter on occasions such a bending for a stem holding a handlebar, but there the bolt is kept put for years. Here, you open and close the QR when adjusting the height of the handlebars and/or dismantling the bike for travel. I know that a stainless bolt there would snap. The resilience is located within the gap between carbon and stainless, pretty close to the limit.

That's a really nice looking bike! Hard to believe they can get an electric assist bike down to just 11kg. Looking at their updates does show that they seem to be pretty on top of things compared to the trouble Helix has had throughout its development, although I would say Helix is perhaps a little more ambitious because of the overly perfectionist approach of the project leader, and all the custom tooling they've had to set up because of that.

They also had a big delay but not as big as Helix.

Seems that even if a first batch of 50 pieces is assembled, no bike was delivered yet and so also no user feedback yet.

After delay and no delivery, the next major risk of kickstarter projects are compliance with announced specification (and it is now sure that Vellobike+ won't comply for the weight) behavior/performances and reliability.

These two can only be evaluated after delivery but Vellobike+ is either a single speed electric assist bike or a two speed Schlumpf electric assist bike and I have some doubts about a bike without gearing, even electric assisted.
Remember also that the battery capacity of the Vellobike+ is quite small so the user might be in a situation of having to use a single speed bike without assistance when the battery become empty.

I definitely prefer the concept of Ahooga that has a classic bike gearing.

The Ahooga looks very interesting. It is the first I have heard of it. Vellobike did offer a belt drive Shimano ALFINE 11-speed internal gear hub (non-electric) in their kickstarter (which I ordered). They are estimating delivery early May. I was originally interested in the Helix, but I also looked at the Vellobike which was similar in their folding design. I decided to go with Vellobike since it was an established company selling their first general models.

The not electric Vellobike+ wth the folding fork and Alfine 11 seems to be a very nice folding bike.

The titanium frame version saves 1kg if I understand well. The risk is, as always with titanium frames, the quality of the manufacturing that defines the long term reliability of the titanium frame.

From the comments of one backer, it seems that the frames are made in Vietnam, not Taiwan or China. Don't know if this is true and if it is also the case for the titanium frame ?

What is anyway ridiculous is to state (and being legally allowed to state) that the Vellobike are "made in Austria" while all main parts, and as far as I know, not even a single part is manufactured in Austria. Only the assembly is done in Austria.

A friend got an electric NoaHK that is supposed to weigh 9kg. I lifted it and indeed it is very light but I have neither put it on scale nor tried to ride it. From the looks of NoaHK, I'd say an elevated toy, neither interested in spending any of my own money on it nor in having to rely on it in any manner.

Is Spanky Lady pregnant? If so, how many months?

How embarrassing. No. Just putting on weight and getting ready to sing I hope :)

Helix is shipping bikes!!!:beer:

April Fool? :innocent: