NBD, and my first folder: Tern BYB P8
 

My first day with the bike, and it's a wet one! So far I haven't done much more than ride it home from the shop, but I'll give y'all my initial impressions.

The ride: the incredible adjustability of the Tern stem really let me fine-tune my riding position. I'll probably need to adjust the saddle a little more, but I'm 6ft with very long legs for my height, and my ideal reach is firmly in the range of adjustment for the bars. On most non-folding bikes I start to feel hand pressure pretty shortly into rides, and I had no problem with this one. I should check the tire pressure, but the 20" wheels felt fine even riding over bumps and railroad tracks. I probably felt the bumps less than I normally would on my 700cx28's that I normally ride. It was stable enough that I could turn one-handed while signaling with zero issues, but I did not feel comfortable riding with no hands.

The fold: it folds pretty small, and is easy to cart around folded, especially if you leave the handlebars unfolded. It's a little awkward/slow to fold for now, but I think it will be fine once I get the hang of it. I feel like even when I get used to it it's probably going to be an ~1 minute fold. It is really easy to get the shift/brake cables wrapped around the rear brake lever when you fold it, which can be dangerous if you don't notice when you unfold it. The trolley wheels on the back of the cart really need good smooth floor/pavement to work well.

Things I still need to try: I need to see if my luggage (ortlieb front rollers) are compatible with the rack. I probably want to buy some sort of system for carrying cargo on the front as well. Tern makes both a click-in-place luggage mounting system or also a more traditional rack. I'm not sure what I'll go with yet. How well it rides when loaded is going to be pretty important to me.

When I set out to get a folding bike my ideal bike was: small/convenient fold, disk brakes, fenders, dynamo lighting. I realized that combination is an as-of-yet-unsolved engineering feat and what I was looking for was a bit of a unicorn. So far I like this bike, and I think it's going to serve me well for urban transport and luggage-light international travel, but time will tell. An interesting note is that the bike has a mounting point for a disk brake in the rear, but not in the front. I wonder why Tern made this choice and if they have any plans to release a disk brake model in the future?
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Cool bike and I love the water bottle cage!

Tern Verge S8i.

Thanks! I saw the bottle cage in the store and it just felt thematically appropriate as well as the color of the cage matching the copper Crane bell I put on all my bikes.


This has a very standard-size fold for a 20" double fold bike, which was not small enough for my desires.

Pacific Cycles Birdy R20 11SP with Shutter Precision hub dynamo front wheel

Or any Birdy modelwith a 20"/ETRTO406 hub dynamo wheelset.

Let me know when I can buy one in the US.

First real shopping trip. The bike is *super* stable with loaded bags on the back, I would say much more so than my traditional diamond-frame bicycle.

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Try putting the weight instead over the front wheel. You might find it more stable. I do, with all my folders.

I had zero issue with stability though. The stability was *excellent* with weight on the cargo rack.

There is a reseller in the US selling the Birdy R20 11SP, it has been mentioned in the Birdy topic.

I'm not saying you have stability issues, I'm saying MY experience with my three folders was EVEN BETTER stability. The reason is physics. Traditional bikes have most of the weight over the back wheel - and that's with the rider somewhat hunched over. Most folding bikes have an upright riding position, which puts even more weight on the back wheel - probably 65% - so only 35% on the front wheel.

IIRC, the first time I read about this was by Dr. Yan Lyansky, owner (still?) of Downtube folding bikes.

That's also why I use about 10 psi lower pressure on my front tires.

Oh gotcha. Yeah I'm planning on figuring out a front luggage system of some kind for this bike. It has a very convenient front mounting point and I can either get a bracket that a proprietary basket can click into or a front rack that Tern makes, although I'm unsure of what kind of bags the tern front rack will actually support because it is quite small.

Can you confirm the pannier brand/model. It looks like the Ortlieb?

Ortlieb Sport Roller Classic.

Hey Willyedstyle,

Welcome to the fold!

-Matt

(no one said it yet).

Thanks! It's nice to feel wheel-comed and not pun-ished.

Some upgrades today:

Front rack, pedals, and a B17 special because the copper and honey go well with my bell and bottle cage.
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What pedals did you upgrade to? I’m finding the standard Tern folding ones are a bit slippery at times.

MKS Panamax with the Ezy Superior quick connect. They're definitely gripper than the stock pedals, which I *hated*, but the jury is out on whether I'll stick with them. My go-to pedals for urban cycling are the MKS Allways, which have great grip, but these have a grippy rubberized insert rather than studs, and they work well in the dry but I haven't seen what they're like in the wet yet.

Ur New Tern!
 

Hey Willydstyle (Cool name!),
Congrats on your new Tern Verge! It looks Bad@zz in gunmetal! My Giant Expressway1 folder has a similar colorway, but doesn’t compare to the quality & precision engineering found in those Terns! Those are Porsche level bikes!
If you’re still looking for a Birdie folder, there is one now available for $1K on Craig’sList in Connecticut. Check through the regions, but I just saw it 2 nights ago. Hope you like it & score another great folder. I sure don’t have the ca$h to buy it.

hey willydstyle, I am considering the BYB as a gift, but I have some concerns about the weight. The p8 weighs 14.3kg, from your experience after owning it for some time, is it feasible to for an older person ( >60 yo) to lug it up and down an apartment stairs daily?

I think it would probably depend on the particular older person. If they can carry their own groceries it seems like it would be fine, the bike has plenty of easy handholds. That being said, if weight is of concern there are plenty of lighter folding bikes in a similar price range.

willydstyle Thanks for your great posts! I really like the darker blue color of your BYB P8. How is the color called? On the tern website and other shops I can only find lighter silver/blue colors.

I would really like to find a BYB P8 with the same exact color as yours. ;)
Did your bike come without lights? On the tern website i read that the BYB P8 includes lights but the BYB S11 not.

I think this might be a discontinued color, either that or the blue on the website has a lot of HDR applied to it.

The bike came without lights. On the website they write "Opt" in the lights spec, which I assume means optional. I'm not sure how to upgrade to that option, but maybe you could talk to a Tern dealer about it?

It’s a heavy bike and my 17 yo daughter is having troubles carrying it from her room to the front door. Also it’s not a compact fold and hard to carry. Installing the front frame will help somewhat as you can grab it to carry the bike. For daily carry on the stairs I’d definitely, definitely be looking for something lighter and smaller fold even for myself. Probably even more so for an elder.

In my opinion front rack is the best upgrade you can make for this bike. If you plan to carry bags upfront using KlickFix quick release connection and buy luggage truss CMT, I’d recommend also buying Quick Release CMT which will allow you to quickly swap front rack with KlickFix adaptor.