Little Wheels Rule!!
 

Hi all, thought I would share this photo of my wife and myself crossing the finish at the recent Mutual community challenge, a 138km ride held in conjunction with stage 4 of the tour down under, to the best of my knowledge we had the only folders in the event on the day. Happy Riding:thumb:


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=235430

wrong bike...lol

but still awesome

Thor

Thor,

There are lots of Fridays in Australia, and here's two reasons why:

http://www.bikefriday.com/community/...riday_club_inc

http://www.bikefriday.com/community/...her_air_friday

This is a business opportunity for you - you need to acquire the Australian Dahon and/or Tern distributorships!

Lou

And here's one of my Swift doing the Alpine CLassic 200 this past weekend:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...swift_2012.jpg

I saw one other small-wheeler, a Moulton NS. I think I was the only folding bike.

Are there any Australian made folders...or any Australian made bikes, at all?

There is a local brand, Malvern Star, which was ridden by famous long distance cyclist Hubert Oppermann. They used to be a big brand, then fell victim to cheap imports, and abandoned their own line, resorting to re-branding OEM bikes in an effort to stay in business. This was a bad move as the brand became associated with cheap heavy clunkers. Recently they have again attempted to regain their prestige by introducing a line of locally designed CF road bikes with the Oppy name branding. I don't know how successful this has been.

Malvern Star used to manufacture the Moulton F frame under license for the local market. These come up on ebay from time to time. I think there may have been a U-frame folder as well, probably a re-branded Euro bike.

I hope that picture was taken in Oregon, otherwise she's on the wrong side of the road.

And glad to see Jur holding the flag, he seemed to be missing in the first photo

Greenspeed make very nice trikes (some fold), and Trisled make very fast Velomobiles. Greenspeed have made a few two wheeler recumbents too. I don't know if that qualifies for you definition of bikes.

Ah yes forgot about Greenspeed. And there are of course boutique builders as well, such as the very drool-worthy Baum.

Then again, little wheels are illegal :)

Sounds like the cycle mfg business in Australia is a very small version of the state of it in the U.S.

Sounds like the <insert any noun in here> in Australia is a very small version of the state of it in the U.S ;)

Doesn't sound like Aussies are charting their own course. Definitely too bad. We are not exactly a 'rising' economy/society, here in the U.S. right now.

Lou

People are constantly amazed that a bike with small wheels can do pretty much everything their larger wheeled cousins can do and this applies to the highest levels of performance as well as other areas like touring and long distance cycling.

My Phillip's 20 has been one of my most ridden bicycles and for longer distance rides I have found that it is every bit as good my expedition tourer... last season I put more miles on the folder than any other bike and at times was riding it 500 km a week.

Quite often I would meet other riders on the road and they were amazed this bike with small wheels could not only keep up but exceed the performance of their "real" bicycles.

My P20 folder also serves as a utility bike and love it for towing my trailer as it has ideal gearing and spins up so quickly, even with significant loads.

I have acquired a Moulton Mk2 that I plan to convert into a full on road bicycle and a Dawes Kingpin that will probably be reborn as a proper British all rounder which will let my 20 serve as my foldable and seperable touring bike.

My P20 is not your average Twenty... and has yet to be finished.

Forrest

Tweaking out the Moulton and Dawes will be a much more straight forward affair.

People are constantly amazed that a bike with small wheels can do pretty much everything their larger wheeled cousins can do and this applies to the highest levels of performance as well as other areas like touring and long distance cycling.

My Phillip's 20 has been one of my most ridden bicycles and for longer distance rides I have found that it is every bit as good my expedition tourer... last season I put more miles on the folder than any other bike and at times was riding it 500 km a week.

Quite often I would meet other riders on the road and they were amazed this bike with small wheels could not only keep up but exceed the performance of their "real" bicycles.

My P20 folder also serves as a utility bike and love it for towing my trailer as it has ideal gearing and spins up so quickly, even with significant loads.

I have acquired a Moulton Mk2 that I plan to convert into a full on road bicycle and a Dawes Kingpin that will probably be reborn as a proper British all rounder which will let my 20 serve as my foldable and seperable touring bike.

My P20 is not your average Twenty... and has yet to be finished.

Forrest

Tweaking out the Moulton and Dawes will be a much more straight forward affair.

GreenSpeed trikes are AWESOME, I tried one at the Pacific factory (where they are made), crazy fast.

Another australian brand: Craftwork some great mountain bikes with very clever suspension.

and to contribute to small wheels;

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...1_789895_n.jpg
Gary doing a century (Seattle to Portland)

Juan

Do Pacific Cycles make all those bikes listed on their site?

Yes, thats a selection (currently they work with 40 or so brands),90% of the trikes are made/or designed by Pacific, 1 in 5 employees at pacific are designers and they are the only ones that are crazy enough to make prototypes come to life. (thats how bikes like the Birdy & iF Mode started, "an idea").


Juan

How is this for little wheels.

http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/a.../WP_000972.jpg

Kingfish... the Fugsley is looking awesome... how does it ride ?

So radical.

Those are little big wheels. :)

Awesome!

I added boat lights for tail lights and still have a life vest flshlight to get a bulb for and mount as the headlight.

It rides great. I have it geared very low, so it is a breeze to get rolling on it. Now, it isn't a soft ride because those Harley Davidson tires are rock hard. I need to weigh it, but I am guessing it is 50-60 pounds. I also still need to take it down to the beach. You can see the entire build diary over on Rat Rod Bikes. Just search for Fugsley (folding pugsley).

Here is a video of me riding Fugsley (my monster folding beach bike).
http://youtu.be/XTVrW-D-Vak

The lady: Oh, my god!
That was funny. LOL

Now, do it again in Ronald McDonald costume. :D