I ordered an Origami Crane 8 "Travel Kit" on 2 April. The company was a bit short handed on staff so there was some delay in shipping and parts of the trailer were left out (Paul sent them out once I let him know, however).

Cost of the bike at this time was $399, though with the trailer kit it was $499.

I went with the travel kit for two reasons: The trailer seemed like it would be useful for a bit of light utility cycling around my area, and the case seemed like it would be a decent storage case for home or travel.

I have had an interest in folding bikes for quite a few years now, but only recently decided to get one. The primary motivation was for an upcoming event I have near Baltimore at the end of May - for the last several years, it has been something I've centered a short out-of-town vacation around (show up a few days early, leave a few days after), and my wife and I have mentioned it would be a better experience if we could bike around the city instead of always walking (driving in the city is a hard no from me).

Too bad Baltimore Bikeshare is not so great.

Anyways it came like this:



Turns out the travel case doesn't actually fit the bike assembled. Which, in retrospect, makes sense.

It had a couple of bang-ups out of the box - scratched stem and a chunk of paint off of the rear drop-out (which was not easy to take a picture of - should have thought to do that before assembly).






Spent a few hours fiddling around with basic assembly, and took it to a bike shop for a once-over. Some of the spokes were a bit loose, particularly on the front wheel as memory serves. Rainy weather and long work hours kept me off the road for a few days but I did get to put it through some light cycling around the local park. Looks like this once it's all together and given a few extras:




Some relatively gentle riding revealed the need to tighten up seatpost clamps and the clamp for the handlebars - not a lot of room to really grip on those but I managed to do it with some rubber-wrapped needle nose pliers - those seem to stay put now.

Over the last few weeks I've put probably less than 25 miles on it - mostly just around town and the park - though today I did do a 8 mile trip to the store and back, which is the longest I've ridden it so far. Longest I've ridden a bike since 2015, really.

Mechanically it seems to work well. The derailleur / shifter system is accurate, responsive, and shifts pretty reliably even when I'm trudging up a hill (I can also see why they call it "microShift"). Stability is good, ride quality is not plush but adequate - small wheels, no shocks and all aluminum means you'll feel the bumps. Fenders work OK - better than nothing - but the wheelbase is short enough that you still get some splash over on your feet if you take a puddle at speed. I have heard steering on these small-wheel folders is a little "twitchy", but that wasn't my experience here. Pedals are solid and fairly grippy, though they could be a bit better. Seat is *quite* grippy, as well, which is something of a con for me personally since it makes it hard to slide back when I mount. Weight of the bike isn't bad at all, though I need more practice carrying it while folded - mostly a personal height issue than a weight one (I am quite short).

I did not notice any of the "flex" issues some people say they have with folding handlebars (I did not use the height adjust feature for the stem at all - I suspect if it were higher up I might experience it). That said, I did not do any riding "out of the saddle" - indeed, the overall geometry of this, combined with my somewhat quirky philology, made it difficult for me to feel comfortable even getting up off the saddle. I don't think that's an issue for normal people, though, just this one.

Top speed will always be an issue with small wheel folders like this, as we know, but to be blunt a most bikes are faster than I am anyways. What I did notice is that acceleration seemed to be slower than other bikes I recall having ridden - I'm not sure that it's just me being out of practice, either. Once it gets going it really does get going - when I want to go, I can go. Wish I had a spedometer to figure out just how fast, though! Generally speaking my wife - on a full-sized Fuji hybrid with toddler in a baby seat - kept up, though a few areas I was able to leave her behind (realistically more from caution on her part than any real speed advantage I had). Once I'm up to speed, the fifth (out of 8) gear appears to be the sweet spot. No idea how many gear inches that is.

The only current issue I seem to have is with the front brakes, which squeal like a Banshee - I will need to mess around with the toe-in, as everything else seems to be solid and the rim true. Looking at this, I need to also adjust the seat angle, perhaps (I have foot/leg issues and always have trouble mounting stably).

I don't actually use the folding feature much yet - taking it to and from the LBS, but not so much at home. It's small enough on its own that it doesn't strictly need it. Once I have some closet space re-arranged it might actually come in handy, however (that said I found myself wondering about hanging it from a closet pole by the front wheel - I've seen wall mounts that do this with some bikes).

Things I like:

* Weight is pretty low
* Bike is very "handy" - I can carry it out and around things easily
* Rear rack and fenders - I like my cycling practical (and they're alu)
* Folding pedals! Really great for even when I have the thing sitting deployed in the hall or something
* Components generally seem alright
* The usual folding bike storage plusses
* Color is pretty slick
* Marked seatpost for relative ease of finding where to put it (a smidge past 1.475 for me)
* Riding posture is pretty comfortable
* Cassette rear gearing so I can pretend I'll tweak it to my liking

Things I don't like:

* Fold doesn't seem to get compact enough for the magnets to actually matter (may need practice)
* The usual folding bike minuses
(All other cons are personal problems, basically)

Neutral Considerations:

* Tyres are Kenda generics of some fashion - will need to upgrade those in the near future
* Rear rack seems to have cutouts for cables similar to the Dahon one, though Origami sells none. Found some generics on Amazon but they seem too long. Dahon ones might work though.
* Wish it had mounts for a front rack, similar to the Dahon offerings


Conclusion
Overall I like the bike so far. Not really ridden in years, but at no point during the last week of cycling in the evenings or today's small shopping trip did I start thinking that this bike was a bad experience. Are there better folders out there? Yes. This one, however, seems to hold its own within its price category. There doesn't appear to be any real, glaring flaws in it. More riding may reveal secrets, however.

Originally I was going to get a Dahon Mariner. The Mariner lost out to this one narrowly - the crane was a little lighter, a little cheaper, and some googling-around on the derailleur (Acera) revealed that it is evidently a little bit better than the one the Mariner had (Altus). Also, the Mariner's shiny paint - while attractive in its own right - didn't quite thrill me. I liked the Crane's grey/red/white better. This bike will meet my needs I think, and now that I have actual experience with small wheel folders, I am considering picking out another in the future, perhaps higher up the spec-chain (and likely something with a geared hub, like the Vitesse perhaps). First, though, I'm looking at a new full-sized bike - leader right now is the Montague Navigator.

Now for the things people actually want - pictures! (Turns out there's a 10 image limit it doesn't warn you about until you post so enjoy this Imgur link instead of seeing them all embedded):

https://imgur.com/a/VsCk8Pf

==

The real test of all this will be how well it handles downtown Baltimore. Should be just fine I think. If I was real adventurous I might even try riding from the hotel north of the city down, but to be honest I'm not 100% confident taking the lane in a bike like this. Time will tell.

Between now and then I plan to try and take it around to a few other places near by and see what comfort is like if I do more miles in a stretch. Downside to having wife and child in tow is that there's absolutely no shortage of stops and holdups (for better or worse). I will be replacing the tyres with (probably) Marathon Plus in the coming weeks - might also toss in some liners as well. Figure if I'm going to be in unfamiliar territory I should armor those tyres up as much as I can practically manage.

Actually got a rugged camera coming in the post sometime in the next few days so I might even give the whole route filming a try.

For those who may be curious, here's a link to everything involved in this folding bike project (not all of which featured):

Bike: https://www.origamibicycles.com/product/crane-8/
Helmet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003IBD3ZW\
Lock: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HN47G1M
Cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WN91Q2
Primary lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IO12Q4O
Secondary lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IIPBYB2
Seatbag: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KC8R4TJ
Pump: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GLBVQHY
Tool: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MQK9LSV
Tube: https://www.origamibicycles.com/prod...b3-inner-tube/
Bag: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXL9UEQ
Patch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CMIW2CW
IFAK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F8GMTQS
Vest: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LRVX4AS

Hope this helps some other people who may be deciding on a Crane 8, or are just in the market for a folder in general!

...now to go build that trailer, which I'll share later.

M.

Great review! Just a word of caution on biking from downtown Baltimore. Do your due diligence. I was warned of a few spots from local coworkers. I am pretty confident and aggressive but Baltimore was the only city I have traveled in where I turned the bike around on the bike path and left it at the hotel. The inner harbor area is really nice but you go out a mile and you have to traverse some really dangerous areas, as in housing projects. That was my experience going south past the stadium or east. There are options north that may be safer.

Thanks for the feedback! Wasn't sure how to actually review a bike because a lot of it is kind of rider subjective (and I don't have a huge variety of experience to draw from).

For sure Baltimore has its bad areas. I'm a bit familiar with the city, fortunately, so I tend to stick to the better areas along the harbor zone and out into the likes of Fells Point or Canton. Baltimore does have an interesting dynamic as you probably saw - the harbor region is really nice, but if you make your way over to the likes of Howard St (IIRC), it becomes an abandoned spat of blight. But if you keep going, it becomes quite nice again - until you reach another blighted area. It's curious, to say the least.

I do need to do some street view of some areas I plan to visit though - I know the Inner Harbor has at least one bike rack, but a few other areas are a mystery to me. Mostly it's about expanding things for us to do in the area, since we both just like riding.

Then there's the general area around our hotel, which is actually up north out of the city; an area I might move to should I find a suitable job opening. Been through there a few times and it wasn't unappealing.

M.