james_swift

Wow, man, that GoBike is 1 sweet ride!!! I want one!!!

Chop!

Hey James!

I can highly reccommend the GoBike, although they are quite difficult to get hold of in Europe. It's as good as my Birdy was, better in the 'looks' department!
My arse has hardly left the saddle in the last 2 weeks!
It does have a few fairly well documented niggles but on the whole I'm very happy, off to Varna in Bulgaria for a week 2moro, wish I could take it, but it would eat up all of my luggage allowance with it's flight case!!

v1nce

Hmm i am confused, i thought the GoBike was Basically a Brompton Knock off of somewhat lesser quality?! I could be very wrong...?

Chop!

Yep! you are very confused!! The GoBike and the Brompton are like chalk and cheese! And I own both!
I dislike the Brompton and intend to sell it! The 2 bikes couldn't be more dissimilar.
The GoBike has single sided leading link suspension with disk brake on the front. Air shock supension on the rear, weighs about 25lbs to Bromptons 35lbs, folds completely differently. check them both out at my site!

v1nce

Aha, thx for the info. Very nice bike. How much did it cost about? Would you say it is even "better" than bike friday? Definately looks more high tech. Not exactly standardized i am guessing. It seemed to have parts i had never even seen.

Strange and suspicious though because i am 95% positive that here in the Netherlands they sell a (so-called) GoBike with the features/quality i describe. Wonder if this is coincidence or someone pulling a fast one.

v1nce

Common folders here,.. hmm interesting you should ask. Giant Halfways and Brompton are big brands here (see at least one Brompton every day when i ride). There are also more and more (high tech/new) folders all the time from brands such as Gazelle and Batavus, some of them very nice and fairly affordable. Then there is a whole slew of crappy old school folders (for example 'Rhino Weekendstar') that can be had for next to nothing but that fall apart quickly (waste of cash i say, better to buy something decent second hand).

Dahon is making some inroads but def. not the biggest player, mostly see their cheaper models.

And then there is the Gazelle Kwikstep that was sold in droves in NL up to 20 years ago. This one seems very good as it has similiar geometry and design to a bike friday. You can get them second hand for anything between E 40 and E 140. The parts are not too great/heavy & old school but the frame set seems cool. I am not too sure about the rather odd 'hinge' they sport though. Also they have pretty large wheels 22 inch i think. Still i know a powerfull bike messenger guy who rides one a fair amount and it seems to hold up well.

Twenties are rare but cheaply bought when you find them.

Then there is some more new brands but i don't know the names.

Chop!

Hi Vince, I bought mine from Seppe @ Ingear in Belgium

https://www.ingear.be/gobike/en/whatgb.asp

There is also a new Y-frame Birdy

https://www.velovision.co.uk/cgi-bin/...l?storynum=732

Off on holiday to Bulgaria today so will send some more links on my return

Safe Riding

Simple Simon

Wow Chop - what a great folding bike collection !
Why so many ? (please share your views of each).

James H Haury

Those bar ends on your xootr , are begging for wine corks. Maybe some nice cloth handlebar tape too.

Rincewind8

Here is mine!

It's a slightly modified Downtube VIII FS.

james_swift

That's a nice bike. I'm guessing it's a conversion from a flat bar to a drop bar, correct? That gripshift is pretty ingenious, but it looks kinda dangerous, like it could punch you in the sternum should you go over the bars.

But I agree, we could definitely enjoy some bigger pictures of such fine ride.

Rincewind8

Thanks!
Yes, it is a conversion from a flat bar to a drop bar. I also installed a stem to get a more stretched out position. I am actually not very concerned about the gripshift, since it is fairly large and bulky, unlike some old road bike quill stems. I guess worst case in a crash it might cause bruising.

The pictures that are linked with the thumbnails aren't big enough?

james_swift

Could you give us a close-up of your stem/gripshift-mount mod?

Rincewind8

Is a description sufficient? Instead of the original handlebar I mounted a piece of a cheapo seatpost that fortunately matched both diameters (the gripshift clamp diameter and the somewhat larger stem clamp diameter). The cheapo seatpost is one of those old versions, where the seat/rail attachment clamps onto a pipe. Sometimes those can still be found at department store bikes. That's where mine actually came from.

I guess cutting down the handlebar would work as well, but I much rather salvaged that old seat post than the new handlebar.

Chop!

I'm on tour for around 320 days a year, I use the Strida III a lot in towns as it folds fastest and has no oil, grease or brake dust, I now use the GoBike as my main bike. Sometimes a member of a band or one of the crew want to come for a ride so they can borrow the strida or the Brompton. Then for heavy transport (or taxi-ing people) I use the Long-john.
I also have a collection of old BSA motorbikes, 2 folding motorbikes and a BMW 600 Isetta bubblecar, but as I'm never home, I never get to use them!!! So I started to spend my money on the things that I'd use most

af895

Happy happy! I recently found a 1985 Norco Monterrey on the curb near my house. The frame's a write off but I took the Suntour groupo off.

Yesterday, I put the front 52/40 double crank set on my KHS F20 Westwood. I tried this with the exisiting sealed cartridge BB but it's 109mm spindle was set for the stock FSA Alphadrive 44/32 MTB crankset and the new chainrings rubbed the chainstays.

Joy of joys, the Norco's loose bearing BB works fine in lieu of the cartridge and the chainline works!


Went out today and gave it a shakedown - 25km and it's working beautifully! Loving the higher gearing!

Some more pics - past modifications and current config: https://www.ncf.ca/~af895/bike/KHS.html

James H Haury

Af895,Nice find it is certainly serendipitous. I was able to use a shimano biopace crank found in a tip on my dahon getaway recently and it certainly made my day .I imagine your feeling much better as you got a sweet looking double crank and the bb.

giantcfr1

Spotted this one on the weekend. Has GPS on the handlebars.

James H Haury

14 inch wheels are the smallest i will go with.

af895

HA! I'd buy that just to leave in the trunk of my car. Admittedly, while my folder is convenient with 20" wheels, it's not THAT convenient.

I've thought of a "scooter" (the push type, not the motorized) but I'm a bike guy. Where can I get one of those and what the heck are they? (I think I've seen a photo of them before)

giantcfr1

A guy had this one at KyotoLoco which is a bike event held here in Kyoto Japan. I see an enormous variety of folding bikes here. I regret I didn't take a photo when it was folded up. You can probably guess how it looked after it was folded.
Steve.

Boe

https://fixed.se

af895

Boe: saw your other post with the restoration process pics.
Absolutely gorgeous! Love your bike!

Do you know what it was originally? The hinge looks different from the horizontal Raleigh hinges I've seen but I'm no Raleigh expert.

Boe

It's a Triton, dont know much more than that. Could be from anywhere really.

Mehow

Great looking bike Boe!