History of Folding Bikes

There has been much written about Downtube folding bikes. So what is going on with them? Are they better than their competitors? Let’s list some of their main competitors:

 1. Dahon- They created the folding bike market in the early 80's. They have some very nice models, such as a full suspension Jetstream (MSRP $1300). The Downtube9FS full suspension bike has more speeds and retails for $549. Dahon's base unsuspended bikes are excellent quality options. The Dahon Speed 7 is their base 7sp model and retails for $550. The Downtube Nova has similar components and geometry and retails for under $300. In short Dahon's bikes sell for almost doubleDowntube models with similar components.

 2. Bike Friday- Bike Friday is one of the biggest folding bike companies in the USA. They build their bikes in the USA and have a great reputation. Their bestselling bike is the Tikit 8sp which has a super fast fold retail for a Tikit start at $1698 ( 8sp model ). The Downtube mini's are smaller, lighter have better Shimano Nexus 8sp internal hub drive train for under $600. The Downtube 8H has a suspension fork to increase comfort, and adds a carbon belt drive for $699. They offer all this for less than half the cost of a Tikit. A Tikit with the Shimano Nexus hub and carbon belt drive retails for over $2200. Tikits are great but the price leaves something to be desired.

What is better a Full size folding bike or Small Wheeled folding bike? Why is one better than the other?

Full size folding bikes are approximately half the size of a standard bicycle. They are allowed on most trains, and can fit on boats and RV’s easier. However they are just too big with an average size of 36”x36”x13”, most small wheel folding bikes are around 32”x23”x12”. You can almost fit two 20” wheel folding bicycles in the space taken by one full size folding bike, hence they do not allow one to make efficient use of space.

Smaller wheels are more efficient up until 16mph, hence bigger wheel bikes are harder to climb hills and slower on recreational rides. However the bigger wheeled bikes descend much faster than their smaller wheeled cousins. Nowadays most bikes are of very good quality; hence buying a good bike is easy.  So a shopper must make sure the bike fits their body properly. Most 20” wheel folding bikes are one size fits all. How is that possible you ask? The higher a rider lifts the seatpost implies their inseam is longer. Most people have arm length that is correlated to inseam length; since the seat tube is angled back the correlation of arm/leg length is built into the frame. Hence small wheel bikes really are one size fits all. Unfortunately big wheel folding bikes do not share this feature. You need to know the frame size ( seat tube length ) fits your body, otherwise you will find yourself crunched up or leaning to far forward.

Overall big wheel lightest folding bike are nice and compact, about half the size of a normal bike. However small wheel folding bikes are about half the size of the big wheeled folders, and that’s the sweet size. Two small wheeled folding bikes can fit into a standard car trunk, as opposed to one big wheeled folder. The small wheeled folders can fly on airlines with no oversize fees, this is not possible with large wheel bikes (unless you disassemble them). The small wheel bikes are designed to be a one size fits all option so the entire family can enjoy one bike.  It seems that big wheel folding bikes are nice, however they cannot match the advantages of their 20” wheel little brothers. Please shop around and decide for yourself.


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