I'm struggllng to understand the rationale behind any of this, TBH. Why transport a bike in the back of a car to go for a short ride? Why not just ride directly from home and back again? Giving up on a new bike after a couple of trips round the block doesn't sound like much of a solution to me, especially as it sounds no time had been spent getting it set up so it works as well as possible with regards to things like gearchanges, tyre pressures, wheel bearing tightness etc. Most of these half assembled bikes sold through retailers are not going to ride very well straight out of the box unless you happen to get really lucky. You aren't paying the cost of the LBS doing the pre-handover tweaking , so you have to be prepared to, and expect to, do it yourself..
Your existing large wheel bike doesn't sound like it has had any maintenance since you got it either, and rather than sort it out you just buy something else. I'm inclined to think history will repeat itself again next time as you will never get much out of cycling if you don't ride bikes that are kept well sorted and work as well as possible.
Yeah it will seem fairly stupid to many people, especially proper into-cycling kinds that are likely to be on this forum. But the reason for the folding bike is to fit into the car without needing the hassle of a carrier (had one previously) and to avoid needing to remove the front wheel, leaving the forks to scratch the hell out of the cars interior and leave oil / dirt all over it with the seats folded down. Then, the reason for the taking a car at all is as it's 5 miles of virtually no path, fairly poor roads, dark after work in this weather, cold and dangerous due to cars passing closely and the turns / hills making it hard even if they were trying to be careful. I know some are happy to persevere but I'm not there
yet.
Agreed about having it setup properly, but LBS are professionals with a lot of skill and their labour fee is probably half the cost of this bike, and even at that, I reckon part of the issue is Argos's supplier have slapped virtually a standard 6 speed regular gearset onto a folding bike without much thought or amendment made for the folding bike characteristics to fit in budget (£130 ain't much to work with I suppose). I blame myself for expecting much better to be honest.
Yes, the full size bike is still around. It works, but its brakes are wore out (unevenly), it's corroded and rusty throughout, cheap gearset is fully operational but in its own cruddy mess. It's a 2016 Raleigh Edale (read:
Halfords special). But actually it's done me for five years, I never had much issue with it really, it is what it is and did a fine job. I think I paid £220 back then, but remember seeing it going for £70 new toward the end of its selling life. I'll be using it for the next few months, until the cycle to work scheme reappears. I think it'll be full size bikes for me for the future.
I'm keen to see if everything I complained about goes away on the full size bike around the same route, but I sold my bike carrier last year during lockdown and I'm not fussed on buying another, nor the roof mounted ones. I'll have to craft some foam padding to wrap around it to protect my car for at least a one off cycle in the city and see if it truly was me being out of tune fitness wise, or if the budget folder really was just an uphill battle to get used to.
For anyone interested, I'm going to try and take it to Argos today and make my plea about the quality being poor and a disappointing experience... their policy states that of course, it must be unused / unopened to be returned within 30 days. So they are likely to say no, meaning Gumtree be my only hope. I'll let you know how it goes.
