From what l see any / every gravel road becomes a washboard with the passage of vehicular traffic.

Agreed, however standing climbing also protects the knees, which is why I also added that to my quiver, in addition to getting off and walking up steeps; Both use different muscles than just spinning, and climbing standing seems to give my torso muscles more workout, but I've gotten more efficient by learning to just use my weight and not a hard pull on the handlebars. Walking up is good for my calves, especially to work out a cramp or sense one coming.

As to whether standing or spinning is most efficient? Probably depends both on the rider and how steep. I would guess that the steeper it is, the more standing is favored, as spinning that fast may be tougher aerobically. Lesser grades that are faster, standing adds aero drag, and spinning is more moderate.

I verified today, that raising my whole handlebars and aeros would make the bar ends too high for standing; As I suspected, I need to raise just the aeros, which is more complicated, but I have a plan.

Initially, you asserted, without making reference to wheelbase, that the FSIR Spin 5 chainstay length of 40cm was too long, and therefore its geometry "weird". So, by induction, by pure logic, if 40cm is too long and weird, then the longer 42.5cm chainstay is even weirder.

Now caught with your pants down, you move the goalposts by bringing up the wheelbase. Ok, let's look at which bike's chainstays are longer and weirder relative to wheelbase.

Chainstay to wheelbase length ratio
Birdy: 42.5 / 102cm = 0.42
FSIR Spin 5: 40 / 98cm = 0.41

These calculations show that relative to wheelbase, the Birdy chainstays are longer and therefore "weirder" than those of the FSIR Spin 5. On both accounts, absolute length and relative to wheelbase, the Birdy chain-stays are longer. Once again, you'd do well to educate yourself on the use of quantitative data, avoid throwing numbers that boomerang to hit you back in the head, and, above all, stop making up bogus BS.

I've got a couple of images with these ruts, but they are rather uncommon. The main reason, I think, is that these are very quiet rural roads with very little vehicular traffic, one reason that makes them great for cycling. And once you plant the rice, you let it sit and grow. No need to keep going back. Also, the vehicles to plant the paddy don't have wheels, but rather tracks. Again, very few four-wheel vehicles on these roads, certainly no Ford F150 or the other truck monstrosities that you see in the U.S. Day to day, people there, as I do at home, get around in light, Honda-Cub like, 110kg scooters.

Quite right. The worst for washboard creation is heavy trucks with massive unsprung weight (unsupported by springs; solid axles, heavy wheels and tires, brakes, etc), and even worse, some that have no suspension dampers (shock absorbers), typically tandem axles on walking beams (bogies). Even on smooth roads they bounce at their natural frequency, and every divot they leave just accentuates the input to the system and you get longer and longer washboards after a pothole.

Tracked vehicles are great, as long as you don't need to do much pivot-steers that can chew up a surface. But transiting at relatively low speed and low ground pressure, they're like Kwai Chang Caine walking on rice paper.

True. Regular maintenance counteracts that tendency.

A classic. Fuji folding mountain bike. Standard 26" knobby wheels/tires. I converted it to single freewheel. New: freewheel, cranks, folding pedals, brakes, seat, grips. New shorter stem on order as the top tube is very long and I have average length arms. Most of these bikes were branded as Marlboro and earned via coupons in packs of cigs.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...caaa423d_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3ab8923b_b.jpg

Like to your bike! Very good color match "saddle - frame"!

A different kind of folding gravel bike is the Lectric XP Lite (original) or Lite 2.0. The 2.0 is available (black only) with a Gates carbon belt drive:
https://lectricebikes.com/products/xp-lite-jw-black

Here's the stock photo of the original one I bought. I've since added the rack, fenders and a small rack bag:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b938e1b4e5.png

The Lectric-branded folding lock bolts nicely to the back of the seat tube.

Its single gear is appropriate for a comfortable cadence at 15 mph, give or take. It's Class 1 or 2. Consider it an around-town bike rather than something suitable for touring, as the torquey hub motor is leaned-up heavily for any climbing, which effectively limits its range.

The 1st generation model came on knobbies, which I replaced with BMW street tread tires, so it's not a gravel bike any more. Orange ones were on sale from the LBS, so that's what it's got. I recommended to Lectric that slicks be an option, and they decided to switch to slicks. Maybe they listened!

I added the comfort seat & suspension seatpost. My daughter (now 13) has claimed this as her bike, and I promised to save it for her to take to college, when that day comes.

I did a full review on it over at ebikesforum, here:
https://ebikesforum.com/threads/lect...w-thread.2712/

This past year, we brought this and one other folding eBike with us on a road trip to Colorado. The other one was stolen, but the folding lock protected this one. After the one was stolen, I let her ride the Lectric and I rented a nice carbon Trek Checkpoint for the next day. She rain out of juice and had to pedal it up a hill; it was a ton of work. If they could somehow implement a 5 mph climbing gear into this basic design, it would be awesome. Even as-is, it is a great bargain for $800. Some of you are spending that much just on upgrading your folders. Not to put you down, but just pointing out that a quality eBike doesn't need to cost four figures.

The last con is that although it is "Lite" it still weighed 46 lbs. before adding rack, fenders, bell, bottle, luggage. Call it 50 lbs. It's a good road trip bike. Put it in a large Rubbermaid tote and it is easy to load in your car. It JUST fit in the back seat of my WRX when I had that. Two of them will fit behind the back seat of a CR-V.

I have the wiring harness and battery to make this a long-distance hauler.... I just need to do the mod. The weather sux, so I've been less than inspired,

Hi I'm thinking about getting a Change Gravel Folding bike for a tour of Korea/Japan and Taiwan. I'll be using trains and buses quite a lot so a folding bike will make it more convenient What was the quality of the gears and brakes and in general were there things you didn't like about riding it? Thanks for your thoughts Russell