checoles

Best I could do with my terrible photo skills!

pinholecam

1. 42cm

2. I think a Birdy would do too, but here are the downsides when I was looking for a bike to meet my needs :
a. Cost (except for the classic frame, the rest were more expensive)
b. Can't be rolled after fold
c. No front luggage truss and limited rear rack
d. Don't like the suspension which to me robs climbing power; yes, elastomer can be changed but I don't think I have the patience to keep stopping to change them to suit the ride condition when I am riding.
e. A bit thicker after folding because of the front suspension.

dancier

Most people wouldn't know how to find it on Crazyguy, so here's the link. I've got journals here and spend time doing research, but you'll mostly find Bike Friday's in this section.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...octype=journal

Rob_E

I did one mini tour on my Raleigh Twenty and took it on one long camping weekend. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/O2E2014 It worked fine, but I was never able to get as comfortable on that bike as my full-sized bike. Then on my second attempt to fly and travel with/on my Twenty, it had an obnoxious failure. No fault of the bike's, really. It was more an issue of my having forced some newer, not-quite-compatible parts into an old bike. Even so it was problem easily fixed once I was home, but on the trip it was a showstopper, and I ended up renting a car.
Still loved that bike and my current bike as commuter and round town bike and as something I can throw in a trunk to have and ride at the end of a car trip, but I don't use it as my touring bike. That's not to say that someone couldn't. There are many folders people do tour on, and there are reasons to recommend it. My favourite thing was that using the Bike-Friday-style luggage system, my suitcase became my trailer, so I could land at the airport, put a few things together, and ride right out of there with my luggage now a bike trailer. I can technically do something similar with my S & S bike, but the baggage is now just excess weight, not part of my luggage system.

Tourist in MSN

I have not toured on my folding bike, but I might some day. In a couple months I plan to use it for a week long van supported trip with ACA. (I do not really consider a van supported trip to be touring, all I carry on the bike is normal day ride stuff like lunch and water.) I have not ridden the bike that much but have owned it for years. If it rides well on that trip I may be tempted to put racks and panniers on it.

I did the Glacier Waterton loop with a group of 15 other riders several years ago, I was on a full size touring bike. But three of the group had Bike Fridays, two pulled trailers with their camping gear, one used rear panniers only. The bikes all appeared to work well.


Thanks for posting, I was unaware of it.

jur

Unfortunately this looks like it is not the new generation frame. Tern suffered a significant frame snapping epidemic, there is a thread here about it. Tern upgraded the frame welds before the problem was solved. That's what is visible at the bottom of the main tube, but not in yours. Yours does show an extra welded reinforcement but the latest one looks different. Do you know what year is yours? I don't know how to date them.

checoles

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Tern-Link-A7-20w-2017-Folding-Bike_105864.htm

It's a 2017, literally only bought it a few weeks ago to replace my old Dahon. Is it worth me contacting Tern themselves with?

jur

Don't bother contacting Tern. I wouldn't trust the answer.

Going by your date I think it is good. It does have additional reinforcing at the bottom which as far as I know the originals didn't have. It might be of value to go through the photos of broken frames to see how these look underneath.

checoles

Ok, no worries. Thanks for the info, great help

bhkyte

Just to correct a privious post here. tourning version of the Birdie does roll when folded. It has roller wheels on the rear rack and the front rack folds up to act as a towering handle like a wheeled suitcase.
It is the best rolling folded bike that I have ever used. Better than a brompton, mezzo etc.

MrFlamey

I have a Tern Verge x10 that I bought in 2013 (around the time of the frame snapping problems actually, but it wasn't in the recall batch) and have done a few tours and lots of longer (100-200km) rides and it's pretty great. I live in Kyoto, Japan, which is surrounded by mountains and has a large lake nearby called lake Biwa, which from my house and back is about 200km around. I can handle that on my x10 no problems, and it's certainly better than doing it on my old cross bike, or my shopping bike (which was ass-destroying).

The tours I do tend to be either to take my bike somewhere on the train (carry cover stowed under the seat at all times for this reason) and then go around an island or something, or I'll just ride somewhere quite far, then get the train back to Kyoto. My two biggest tours were from Kyoto to Tokyo (~500km in 3 days) and Kyoto to Fukuoka (~700km in 4 days). The Tokyo trip was on a different bike but I did the Fukuoka trip on the x10 and had absolutely zero problems with ride comfort, speed or handling. The Verge, and some of the other sportier folders are really designed for ride comfort more than compact fold though, and while it does fold OK, and fits on the train, it's a really awkward bike to carry when folded. When it's not folded, it's pretty small and light, so very easy to carry short distances if you can't ride a section for some reason.

I'm 6ft, which while not particularly huge, does mean I have the seat high, giving me a high centre of gravity. This can be annoying on steep gradients (I guess over 15%?), as I end up doing wheelies by accident, since the bike has a short wheelbase and if I have a heavy backback too, it's really easy to do. Despite the wheelie problem, handling most climbs (which are probably 5-10% mostly) is not really too different than doing them on a regular bike, since the x10 has 10 gears, with a fairly wide ratio between highest and lowest. The only other small issue I've had was when riding at night, and that's because the wheels are small. Since I wasn't using a bright enough headlamp, there were a couple of occasions where I hit a large pothole, which is bad enough normally, but at night and with 20" wheels it really sucks. I have a much brighter headlamp now so that I can see the road surface properly.

Japan is a fairly densely populated country, so even if you go into the countryside, there will be small towns and villages you can often find somewhere to stay at, and along the south coast there are major cities ever 40-80km, so I usually pack fairly light, with maybe a couple of changes of clothes, tools and a tube, some water and snacks (again, I can just buy stuff at convenience stores or vending machines if I really need). I have nothing attached to the bike, because everything I need fits in a large backpack. I've never toured in any larger countries with longer distances between population centers, but I would definitely have to rethink my load if I was trying to tour somewhere like the US or Australia

I joined this forum to comment in the "Helix Update?" thread, and assuming they don't hit snags in manufacturing, my next bike will be a Helix, which is also a folder, but one that promises comfort without sacrificing fold quality or having tiny wheels. It will replace my x10 and I'm looking forward to trying longer rides and touring on it.

arbee

https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...1&d=1522003174

I’m about a month late to this party, but noting your location as well as the subject, I figured I’d jump in.

Summary: I’ve enjoyed touring-by-bicycle on both full-sized frames and on my Swift Folder. For mixing-and-matching public transport with bicycling, the Swift wins. I’ll quickly add: your side of the pond does a much better job accommodating bikes on public transport than we do. Additionally, England’s public transport network is a real option for traveling widely and skipping segments where you'd prefer not biking rather than only offering access to a few densely-populated corridors. Last in this summary though it has nothing to do with size-of-the-bike: you’ve widely accessorized your roads with an amenity somewhat lacking on this side of the pond. You call them “pubs”.

Back to your query: not included was any mention of your plans for lodging. If you’re schlepping what’s needed for camping – even “stealth” camping – you might find the cargo capacity of a folder is limiting. Alternatively, if you’re staying at commercial lodgings – B&B’s or whatever – a folder should do the job. Not a consideration on most full-sized frames, on a folder, you’ll need to be selective as to the size of panniers so your feet don’t chafe (or worse) on them.

Another word about staying at B&B’s though this has nothing to do with the size of what you’re riding: I enjoyed and appreciated Iron Donkey’s offerings.

Bicycle Tours England Wales Scotland Bike Touring Cycle Vacations Biking Holidays

I brought my own bike – the Swift – but I relied on Iron Donkey for accommodations. Yes, considering that you’re a local, you can make your own enquiries and arrangements, but I (and friends) found what Iron Donkey offers was in the right place at the right time at a fair price.

Abu Mahendra

I went from Taiwan's Taipei to Taitung via the Northern Cross Highway and the East Rift Valley, with day trips on the side. At one point I was up at 1,200masl.

I didn't change anything on the bike as it was pretty capable in its default configuration. the only thing was to add another bottle cage on the underside of the downtube. Gearing is 19-113 gear-inches so no issues there. Some of the inclines on the Northern Cross had me at the lowest gear. Roads were mostly paved with patches of smooth gravel here and there.

checoles

Ha, yes, the "Pub"... I don't think you can venture more than 5 miles in any direction, anywhere where you don't come across one. I would call this "Perfection."
Yeah the public transport is pretty good to be fair, when it runs on time anyway. rather accommodating. What was your route exactly, if you can remember it?

Che

arbee

The routes I obtained through Iron Donkey may not be proprietary, but IMHO, they’re their stock in trade. I’m loathe to redistribute them. But I didn’t rely entirely on Iron Donkey. Rolling my own for some segments of my travels, I came up with e.g.:

from Bath to North Cadbury Court: https://goo.gl/qlNgnS

thence, onward to Wells: https://goo.gl/kgirRJ

Worth emphasizing: these are URLs from a few years ago. You may know: Google re-jiggers a route each time it’s generated. What you see now isn’t precisely what I biked then. For example, about 21.6 miles into my ride to Wells, my actual route headed northeast on (unsigned) Long Drove which does have a Sustrans Bike Route 3 sign, thence, to the path adjacent to A371 and into Wells.

Which leads to: sitting at my desk in NYC, my initial resource was Sustrans

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map

with which I assume you’re familiar. Sustrans was an excellent place to start, but I encountered a few speed bumps. First, there are significant holes in the route network (hence, rolling my own); and second, the established routes were being re-numbered which was ... amusing.

Another comment about the Sustrans / Bike Route signs – a picture is worth 1,000 a words – is attached.

[IMG]https://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=604779&stc=1&d=1522102107[/IMG ]

You can barely see – through the leaves – the Bike Route sign. This wasn’t uncommon. And I learned: what’s defending the sign’s privacy is Stinging Nettles, also not uncommon.

I purchased appropriate editions of Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps. (These, IMHO, transcend the category of “map” and rise to works of art.) They’re also *very* complete. For example, about 26.5 miles into my route between Bath and North Cadbury Court, I crossed River Alham at what my Explorer Map indicated was a “Ford”. Other Fords were accessorized with stepping stones or the like; not so this one. But (unlike Google; perhaps there’s a “Gurgle”?) the Explorer Map alerted me what to expect.

This thread is transitioning to other than “Folding Bikes”, but I didn’t want to leave your request for specific routes unanswered.

checoles

Spot on man, and yeah, those overgrown bushes/hedges are all down to the farmers not doing their job...they don't like trimming up their fields... I've not been that far south though, so I don't know the area. Looks nice on the Google Satellites though Hope you enjoyed our many pubs and many country roads