I fully agree. Folders are another product born out of convinience culture - a bike for people who´d really rather ride a bus.

Wait. Are you really saying that you don't think these bikes would work?

or for people who have small apartments? or apartments on high floors without elevators? I think anything that makes cycling easier for people is good--folding bikes included.

lord knows my gf would be happier if my bikes took up less space...

Bikes for people who would rather walk up stairs and live in small places.

Bikes now are pretty damn good. Stairs aren't. Which do you want to change?

Folders are for a lot more than "people who'd rather take the bus". I rode 24 miles before breakfast this morning, but I also do a lot of business in other cities. A folder can allow me to take the train, buying me a lot more time to work/sleep/read, and creating less emissions into the bargain. 3 miles to the station, anything up to about 10 at the other end - no problem. How can that be a bad thing? I find it hard to see the rationale in adapting trains to carry 100's of full size bikes, when I can buy one which will fold up and sit on the luggage rack.

i itch for a freaking airnimal.

#1 goodluck finding a used one
#2 goodluck finding a used one in my size.

folding bikes rock (especially mine). mine has 24" wheels, so it is about 5" shorter than a 700C bike with the same wheelbase. This means it fits into a small space in my flat between two book shelves and my wife would not be happy with a giant 700C bike lying round our tiny flat. Also, the smaller wheels make the bike much more resposive, but not as twitchy as the 20" dahon I used to ride. I hardly ever fold up my bike, but it has been great at night in the rain when I get a puncture and I am not in the mood to be messing with a patching a muddy innertube, just fold it up and hop on the bus home.

Haha, folders are cool and all, but I was just imagining the concept of a 700c bike being "giant".

I thought this thread was going to be about the decline of this board.

silly me.

Oh yeah they would work. On par with GT I-Drivel linkages. High maintenance, noisy, squeaky, rattling things that are a nightmare to clean, nevermind to run on daily basis. Precisely the sort of things I want to avoid by riding a fixie in the first place

Barspins?

Folded pedalspins?

I think it's interesting that both of the dudes above that own and expressed enjoyment from using folderbikes are from the UK. A proper rail system and ownership of a folding bike could be very useful to lots of fat Americans. However, we keep building roads. And eating.

Whoah there, did you just imply that the UK has a proper rail system?

The 'proper' is up for debate, but a system exists, which is more than can be said for north america

Even though I own no foldable cycle, I believe they are a very good idea, a solution to real problems. I almost (well, no, not really) got a job in a company outside of town, and commuting there with a bike would have been crazy. However, I can get close enough with our excellent public transportation's local train, and then hop on a folding bike and continue. People in Helsinki will know this already: if you go into a local train or metro with a bike, your ticket is going to cost you somewhat more than usual. Not so if you fold your bike.

1.) YOU doesn't even make sense!
2.) Jerry Springer would eat your soul if he heard you say that!

It's better than theirs, it's just not as good as we remember it.

a few corrections - going to metro with your bike does not cost any extra. And NOT all local trains accept bikes, wether extra is paid or not - and no, no info can be found anywhere wether a certain train will take one. It´s up to the ticket inspector to make the call, more or less. I once asked about this and yes, you´ll have to pay extra with a folding bike as well.

Can't believe this. What business is of anyone what is in my luggage? I once carried a Kona Explosif frameset on a local train from the center to Malminkartano, and sure as hell, did not pay a dime for that, even though my "luggage" was somewhat oversize.

the logic of the ticket inspectors goes something like this: it has two wheels, it is a bike, it´s clearly your bike and you are trying to avoid paying by cutting it in half via some trickery

They know a bike but are unaware of the concept of the folder and why it ought to go free

If it's in a bag, how would they know what it is?

Another thing that's cool about folders is that you can check them as baggage on most airlines without paying extra. Normally, I believe it's something like $75 on many airlines. I bought my folder for a trip to Hawaii because it was as cheap to buy a folder as it was check my bike. As an added bonus, I didn't have to assemble/break down my bike during my vacation.

Also, you can stick it under your desk, keep it in the trunk of your car, put it in a closet at your parents/in laws house, etc... My office is moving, making my bike commute 20 miles and while 40 miles a day isn't that bad, there will be times I don't want to do that every day. The closest I can get with public transit is 5 miles. My next door neighbor works 2 miles away, so I may start carpooling with her a couple days a week. I can't exactly ask her to put a roof rack on her car, but I can throw a folder in her trunk.

I ride a bike exactly because I got so fed up with the worse-than-useless public transport system in London. I ride a folder just because it can just make life real easy sometimes and because I wanted the smaller wheels. I fold it up to put in the back of cars as much as I fold it to go on trains. I would be interested to know how many people have folding bikes to put them on trains and how many just like the fold-a-bility.

IMO people that normally ride folders are maybe not as hard core as the people that normaly inhabit this SS/fixed forum (peopel that ride fixed folders are completly different though). Maybe they don't ride in America cause they are more affraid of being run over by the excessive number of cars on the roads there. Perhaps there would be more folders and bikes in general if there were less cars (no s*** huh?).

This takes fixed gear to a whole new level: no gear. It only goes down hill...

that saddle looks horribly bouncy