EricTheRed
New Member
I've also got the Bfold3 (single speed £139). It came with lights, a bell, some natty grips of the type that help prevent your hands going numb, and a pretty decent carrying bag too. Personally, I find the 55 inch gear is low enough to get up most hills around town and I freewheel if I'm going any faster than about 18mph. The only time I actually fold the bike is when using car, bus or train, because it's cheap enough not to get nicked (touch wood) so I just lock it to railings outside shops, museums, cafes, etc, whereas I'd have to carry an expensive Brompton with me at all times (even the lightest titanium Brompton is heavier than not having to carry a bike at all). I did test a Brompton, which is clearly a thing of beauty and I've always wanted one, but I found the ride of the 20 inch wheeled el-cheapo Bfold to be astonishingly superior; probably due to the 20x1.95 tyres that seem to iron out the bumps and make poor road surfaces a little smoother somehow. Maybe it is true that fat tyres run at lower pressures have lower rolling resistance; either that or it's the larger radius that is making the difference. I mainly use it around town, but I've given this bike a real hammering, and my longest trip has been a 75 mile towpath ride (the supplied saddle isn't that great for long rides though). Yes, 75 miles on this bike feels like doing 100 miles on my full sized touring bike, but between this bike and a Brompton (I can't compare against other small wheel bikes as these are the only two small wheeled machines I've ridden) I'd choose the Bfold. And I prefer the single speed, rather than the geared version. With the best will in the world, I wouldn't want to clean the transmission of a folding bike every time I rode it, and the efficiency of a dirty derailler based transmission can be several percentage points lower than a dirty single speed, reducing the efficiency of bike that is already less efficient mechanically than a standard full size wheeled bike.
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