Folding Travel Bikes.

A couple of years back now, mid COVID, we bought an old little sailboat.  Had a wonderful summer last year on it and hopefully another this year. would love to have a bike though for those places we get to where it would be fun to go ride some of the forest roads we come across or trek across a little island.  Yes, I'm sure I could have a NS Rack adapted for a boat, (i have seen them!)  but our boat is quite small (27') and there's really no place to hold a full size bike...  thats where folding bikes come in.  The GOOGLE has seen me searching for folding bikes (Bromptons Dahons) and sent me this today...  https://bikepacking.com/bikes/bike-friday-all-packa-review/  

This ticks lots of boxes and is small enough to put in a box and drop in a locker, (maybe of the next bigger boat we buy, "another 3 foot itis" is an issue) 

NOT a serious MTB bike, I can't see myself dropping into Boundary on it, but for shits and giggles I might well try...  

Bike Friday has some cool options, made in the USA, https://bikefriday.com/

Any thoughts?  

Cheers

David

I've owned a few Bike Fridays and still have one BF folder. For paved/gravel riding they can be a lot of fun. Some of their models are meant to fold/unfold quickly like for a commuter taken on a train...others are more packable for travel and not as fast/efficient to go from stowed to rideable.

Thanks Vic, that's good information.

Would people generally prefer something like that Bike Friday or a proper hardtail with S&S couplings? Notwithstanding that I'm 6'6" so that Bike Friday would be comical for me to ride it.

The author does make some good points about being easily able to assemble, break down and then reassemble the Bike Friday many times in a day, which is a cool feature.

If you get the commuter style Bike Friday you can go from stored configuration to riding in seconds and then back again as fast. I've owned a S&S coupled bike and it was a chore to breakdown and reassemble. Great for a long trip where you do that once at each end, but not something you want to do several times a day. The Bike Friday touring bikes are midway between the commuter style BF's and a S&S coupled bike for speed/ease of breakdown/assembly for stowing on a sailboat.

The time/hassle factor is important because I found people use these sorts of bikes more or less depending how much effort they need to put into using them. 

The Bike Friday I kept works like this --> https://youtu.be/fQscBxx7wLE

The fold/unfold is so fast/easy that you don't think about it and the stored size is pretty small. I lived in an apartment in downtown Calgary for a long time and this bike got a ton of use because it was so fast/efficient to fold/unfold, I could take it into businesses with me so I didn't waste time locking it and the folded size was pretty small for storage in a closet or trunk of a sedan.

Thanks Vik,  The major use for this will gravel tracks/fire roads, and paved roads NOT MTB type riding  The idea of a bike that folds small enough to fit into a small volume is the appeal.  I started with looking at the Bromptons, which seem a tad pricey.  the wider 2.4" tyres of the Bike Fridays is appealing.   that quick fold/unfold is amazing!  Thanks for sharing

Craw, Thats a cool idea, but bigger wheels make for much bigger "deconstructed" packages. 

We saw this up at Squirrel Cove, Cortes island last summer... that's a much bigger boat than we have though. I can't imagine the corrosion damage that the sea water would cause though.

Thanks for the insight. Interesting to consider all these use cases.

They don't fold up but I've always thought these little velo orange neutrino's were cool.

I had a Neutrino for a couple months. I thought it would be a fun bike that's easy to store in an apartment. It is, but I think it was a) too small for me (6'2"/188cm with a high ape index) and b) the frame felt too wiggly even at my low weight (165lbs/75kg). I like really stiff frames, and it wasn't that. It did make me think about getting a custom fat mini velo made though... use the Vee 20" fat tires, burly frame, do stupid stuff.

Posted by: TristanC

I had a Neutrino for a couple months. I thought it would be a fun bike that's easy to store in an apartment. It is, but I think it was a) too small for me (6'2"/188cm with a high ape index) and b) the frame felt too wiggly even at my low weight (165lbs/75kg). I like really stiff frames, and it wasn't that. It did make me think about getting a custom fat mini velo made though... use the Vee 20" fat tires, burly frame, do stupid stuff.

Thanks for the feedback.  I wonder if that wiggly-ness you felt was designed "compliance."  I've seen lots of pix of them loaded up for bikepacking so that's a concern for sure.

Posted by: BC_Nuggets

Thanks for the feedback.  I wonder if that wiggly-ness you felt was designed "compliance."  I've seen lots of pix of them loaded up for bikepacking so that's a concern for sure.

It could be, I'm not a fan of "compliance." The way I check for it is to turn the handlebars back and forth quickly while riding, and feel what the back end does. The Neutrino, unloaded, felt a lot like my Surly fat bike, loaded with 70lbs of gear.

Nothing to do with the low rando style trail?  It seems a lot of the velo orange bikes are made to ride better with some weight up front.

Could be? I have an Otso Warakin with about 10mm more trail and it feels totally different. I also had a basket on the front of the Neutrino, and loaded up it felt worse, more shimmy-prone.

I've thought about getting a BF because I live in Europe right now and taking a full-size bike on a long-distance train is a big hassle, but I think I'm just too tall for them. And I'm concerned about the compliance without being able to test-ride one.