Folding Bikes – The Lowdown
What’s Next…Folding Bicycles?
It was a different time. If fortunate enough to live in a house you explored your backyard as if it were a jungle or if you were unlucky enough to grow up in an apartment block you most definitely invented your own worlds to live in. I for one used to love to fold my own airplanes. Who knew that folding, merely bending and not breaking paper into a variety of designs and shapes could transform my mundane existence into something fresh, exciting and new. Freed of my parameters and barriers I was on my way, liberated from the confines of the boredom that summer vacation imposed on me from time to time.
Rarely had or have I experienced this feeling of total and utter freedom until stumbling upon Folding Airplanes for big boys and girls. No, it wasn’t anything as complicated as constructing jet airplanes (and that’s a good thing as meticulously gluing the multiple, minute parts of models was one childhood pastime I never got into) but rather Folding Bikes and what a revelation it turned out to be.
Why did I get into Folding Bikes? Now back in the day I had a Kona ‘Lavadome’ super light mountain bike and I rode the heck out of it for one year in the local off ride sites of Vancouver/the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, Canada in such places as the Delta Watershed, the UBC Endowment Lands/Spanish Banks, Stanley Park and Mount Seymour. Now let’s keep something in mind straight from the get go that a folding bike is in no way, shape or form meant to completely replace your mountain bike if you’re into the full-on ‘off-roading’ experience or your car, truck or motorcycle as your main form of transportation although depending on your needs it very well could; subject to how specialized you want to get and how much disposable income you want to throw at your endeavor.
Over the years bicycles in general both road bikes (racers) and mountain bikes have gotten more and more specialized to the point that the term ‘custom’ seems less and less relevant and folding bikes are no exception in this regard.
Are you a business traveler who frequently takes trains and planes both nationally and internationally and is looking to bring a folding bike along to lighten your load both physically and spiritually by taking along your mechanism for exercise and escape on these less than glamorous trips?
If convenience of transportation is paramount on your list of priorities keep in mind such factors as ease of folding, speed of folding, ease of carrying, luggage and storage capability/capacity in regards to not only the size but the shape of the bicycle when it is folded.
[...] condition was that it has to be a folding one so it does take up a lot of space. That is when I got my first folding bike which was a share disappointment. The bike after a few days became rickety and loose from all ends. [...]