Folding Mountain Bike

[Capt T]

Can anyone recommend a budget priced Folding Mountain Bike

..
My thoughts are for a muck about bike , not serious, that i could sling in
the boot drive to out town parking say and cycle to city centres or as you
say a pleasant cycle through a wood on a gravel footpath. You see sometimes
offers in mags or large shops for such things.There are some currently on
ebay , all a strange green colour that vary from £39 to £79 plus postage.
Would this sort of thing be a liability. They claim they are lightweight
steel framed,

The small wheeled ones of which there are plenty feel very unsteady to me
and a bit too flexible.
Tks Andy

 

[Peter Clinch]

Capt T wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a budget priced Folding Mountain Bike

Not particularly... being a capable MTB adds money, good folding adds
money, so "budget priced" for both won't be up to much.

> My thoughts are for a muck about bike , not serious, that i could sling in
> the boot drive to out town parking say and cycle to city centres or as you
> say a pleasant cycle through a wood on a gravel footpath.

No need for a mountain bike for that, just anything with moderately wide
tyres. Also note that all you need is quick-release wheels to get a
non-folding into the back of most cars. It takes a bit more faffing,
but it works.

> You see sometimes
> offers in mags or large shops for such things.There are some currently on
> ebay , all a strange green colour that vary from £39 to £79 plus postage.
> Would this sort of thing be a liability. They claim they are lightweight
> steel framed,

For some values of "lightweight". A bike at this price, folding or not,
is likely a "bicycle shaped object" (BSO) and will probably be a liability.

> The small wheeled ones of which there are plenty feel very unsteady to me
> and a bit too flexible.

It's very much implementation dependent: you can get small wheel bikes
that are steady as a rock and you can get some that are twitchy as hell.
the usual case is in between where it takes a little getting used to
but once you do it's a non-issue. Frame flexibility is a function of
the frame, not the wheel size, and again you'll get what you pay for.
I'd be inclined to get something like a low(ish) end Dahon with 20"
wheels and make sure it has reasonably wide tyres (25-28mm should be
ideal) and that should serve you well, ride fine, and last a lot longer
than a "folding Mountain Bike" BSO. Rather more expensive too, but
should last for years and actually be nice to ride.

Pete.


--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Geoff Lane]

Adding to what Peter wrote, if £300 to £350 is within your budget, Dahon do
some very reasonable folders with 26" wheels. Take a look at
http://www.dahon.co.uk/ and search by wheel size then Google for each of
the models to get prices in the various on-line stores.

That said, I agree with Peter that you don't actually need a folder for
what you want to do. You don't even need to strip the bike down once except
to fit it inside your caravan to transport it to your campsite. Once there
and you've reassembled the bike, you can use a cheap strap-on cycle carrier
or one that clamps onto your towball to carry the bike to out of town
parking etc.

HTH,

Geoff

 

[Capt T]

Reassembling bikes with all those gears cables etc anf making siure that the
gears all work is a total nightmare and exactly what I dont want. These
modern folders , I saw an ammaco aluminium one that simply folded and turned
the bars and you were ready for the off in 2/3 mins. Having bikes on racks
won`t last 2/3 mins in a carpark in most city centres.
I was hoping therefore for some info re budget bikes circa £100.
Tks

 

[Mark McNeill]

Response to Capt T


AtoB do a nice list of folding bikes here:

http://www.atob.org.uk/price_tag.html



> I was hoping therefore for some info re budget bikes circa £100.

The best information on those is to be found here:

http://www.southcoastbikes.co.uk/Articles.asp?article=NO_BSO

You specified that you wanted a *pleasant* cycle; this is possible but
unlikely with a £100 bike. I'm afraid that bikes are like most other
physical objects, in that you get what you pay for.


--
Mark, UK
"A cathedral, a wave of a storm, a dancer's leap, never turn out to be
as high as we had hoped."

 

[Peter Clinch]

Capt T wrote:
> Reassembling bikes with all those gears cables etc anf making siure that the
> gears all work is a total nightmare and exactly what I dont want.

But the gear cables never need to be broken, so never need to be
reassembled. And consequently your fears of a "total nightmare" are
somewhat over-pessimistic. Pop wheels in to dropouts, do up QR levers
(they're called "Quick Release" for a reason), hook brakes back together
(and it is a case of hooking them together, no tools, screws or fiddly
bits) and there you are.

> modern folders , I saw an ammaco aluminium one that simply folded and turned
> the bars and you were ready for the off in 2/3 mins.

My Brompton folds or unfolds ready to go in about 15 seconds... 2-3
minutes is pretty slow. In fact, it's plenty of time to put the wheels
back on a non-folder.

> I was hoping therefore for some info re budget bikes circa £100.

The info is that at that price you'll get a "Bicycle Shaped Object" that
very probably won't last well or be much fun to ride. If you spend more
you'll get a better bike that will work better and for longer and
encourage you to actually get on it.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Rob Morley]

On Wed, 21 May 2008 07:35:03 +0100
"Capt T" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Reassembling bikes with all those gears cables etc anf making siure
> that the gears all work is a total nightmare and exactly what I dont
> want.

Eh? Just release the straddle wires from the
brake arms, make sure the chain is on both small sprockets
before removing the back wheel, flip the QRs and yank the wheels.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. The only hassle comes with
excessive lawyer lips on the forks, so people often file them down.