smallwheeler

by this, you mean tomorrow, ya?

badmother

Plan for tomorrow:
Visit huge flea market to look for bikes, maybe even Kombi`s.
After that fondling the trike

dezzie

Bobbin Metric is a cool bike with lots of potential.

tdonline

Don't laugh but as a space-efficient person...how about a multi-gear children's bike? It would be used as the beater bike. 20 inch multi-gear kid bikes are much easier to find than mini-velos. And plenty on CL too.

badmother

Was thinking the same just a few days ago. Me and my friend bought some donor bikes. She bought a 20" childrens bike w a Shimano 3 speed hub. Hardly used. Buy a longer seatpost pluss a new stem, maybe this one: JS Adjustable Bicycle Stem Road Mountain Bikes Handlebar Stem Luxury Bicicleta Parts Folding Fucntion Cycling Accessories 44cm-in Bicycle Stem from Sports & Entertainment on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

You may find the crank arms are wery short (low BB), and if you install longer ones they will hit the ground when cornering.

Not that I need another bike...

smallwheeler

10/10 would ride:

smallwheeler

you are definitely right about that, my son.

smallwheeler

yes. i have to agree. also, i think the best of them all was the sillgey piccolo. wow. such a nice full cromo bike with very nice details. the mk2 had scalloped seat tube, custom dropouts and seatstay pins. that this platform hasn't really succeeded in the US yet is down to marketing.

Antone

Thank you all for the replies, there are some nice looking rides. I like the looks of of Biria Mini 20 and also the Bobbin Metric, the Bobbin looks to be from the UK, are there any dealers in Canada or US that have these?

smallwheeler

i saw one on craigslist a few months ago. boston belle is a dealer. they may have to order one for you, though.

Bobbin Bicycles

badmother

That is a beautiful bike, but why did they put the rear brake where they did? Under the seatstays would have avoided that extra loop on the brake housing and would have made the rear brake housing (+ brake wire) much shorter..

Possibly you get less flex in the brakes by putting it before the supporting stays than after but then another option is on the chain stays like the NWT. Looks like a city bike so that would have been fine.

chaadster

I tarted up my Nano to make it a decent fun bike, and with some different equipment priorities, it could be a very decent commuter as well. It's fitted with fender and rack mounts, and cheap enough it can be customized for duty for not a lot of money.

As noted upthread, it's pretty crappy out of the box, but it has the basic elements of a decent bike, you just have to double the spend on it and do it yourself!

For me, I just wanted something unusual and fun, and that's what I got!

smallwheeler

you ruined it for me. now i just want to gather up all of these bikes, melt them down and cast a massive steel sculpture of a fist holding up a middle finger.

smallwheeler

neat. what's the wheelbase measurement on this chariot?

chaadster

A short 934.8mm; weighting the front on steep climbs is very important! Haha!

smallwheeler

it's ok, you can round up to 935mm, no one will hold you to a machinist's standard of accuracy.

935 is also the wheelbase for the sillgey piccolo and i think, if i recall correctly, is also the respect mini 2.0 measurement as well. i think this is too short for an everyday commuting bike. fine for an urban trick/ skateboard park bike, and that's how the respect mini velo was marketed.

semi related:



i think soma got it right with their mini. the 55cm size had a wheelbase of 1010mm. for reference, a brompton is 1050mm and that's a very important factor in smoothing out the ride and improving the handling on 16" wheels, in that case.

badmother

So happy to help. Plse tell me if there is more I can do..

northernlights

When I saw adults in London riding around on 16 inch Bromptons for the first time it looked comical to me. 20 inch wheels are the pretty much the standard for folders and mini velos. I think 20 inch wheels are fine though, anything lower and you're getting into micro territory. A pothole could swallow a 16 incher. The diamond frame of the mini velo makes it look more like a regular bike.

FietsDontFailMe

I have been commuting on a Bike Friday diamond-frame New World Tourist: 20" wheels, derailleur replaced with an Alfine 11. I added bar-ends and a high-pressure rear tyre. (I rather like the whirr of the low-pressure front tyre, and it absorbs bumps well.)

Fast, stable, fun to ride. I have no hesitation in recommending commuting on 20" wheels.

If I didn't have the dNWT, I would buy a 20Something or this fine-looking Bobbin about which I learned here today. Confound this site for inspiring too many bicycle purchases. (o;

smallwheeler

pictures, please...

FietsDontFailMe

Here's a picture of the dNWT. (Not my bicycle; picture from the InterWebs.)

https://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb13453555/p5pb13453555.jpg

iamclaus

If I didn't need my bike to fold, I'd be looking towards a Vanmoof T series


I first saw it on the amusing Bike Instructor's Guide to Cycling in Amsterdam video

chaadster

Yes, probably a longer wheelbase would be more comfortable; I wouldn't characterize my Nano as comfortable, but that may be a combination of the geometry, setup, narrow high pressure tires, and ass-hatchet seat! That's me putting style over function!

The Soma was a nice, handsome frame! I wasn't sure a minivelo was going to be of durable interest to me, so I went cheap with the Nano just to see, but had Soma fitted sidepulls rather than canti brakes, and I'd been able to catch one at $750, I'd almost certainly have done that rather than Nano, but I'm not unhappy with the situation.

DoubleDiamonDog

Those are very cool bikes. Maybe a litle upscale for a commuter, maybe not. If not, how about Ti?

https://www.sevencycles.com/bikes/mini/mini.php

sibkey

if you're taller than 6ft - forget about minivelo