Folding bikes

lennymc

I am thinking of a (relatively) light weight (circa 10-12kg) drop bar folding bike that has similar geometry to traditional road bikes as a potential commuter. It is no longer practical for me to commute home after work (circa 2 hours) but I could commute in and train home with no problems. Plus, it would mean another bike.

As far as I can see most of the bikes for sale are flat bar, the tern verge bikes look well but are quite expensive. I could raid the parts bin at home to convert a flat bar bike, but am not sure if I would run into any problems. Would there be anything else I would need to consider (gearing with the small wheels etc)?

Any suggestions welcome! Lenny

cunavalos

Again they are at the expensive end of the market but have a look at the Airnimal Chameleon range. They have 24inch wheels which may be more suitable to the longer distance commute.

http://airnimal.eu/products/chameleon/performance-sport/

Alek

https://www.bikefriday.com/betatest/#road

Not cheap, but at least touring versions (from what I know) are dog's bx.

smacl

I was looking at this quite closely over the last couple of years. Not a huge fan of small wheels, so was considering either building up a Montague frameset from scratch, or possibly converting a Navigator to drop bars. For a cheaper option you can pick up frames based on the Montague style cheaply enough suitable for 26" wheels. I looked at a fair number of low end 2nd hand ones but they were truly crap. Anything I saw sub 12kg that was reliable and suited to long distance was coming in over €1k with the Navigator just under from Evans.

tomasrojo

Airnimal occurred to me too. Never used one, but they have a good reputation.

I have in fact cycled for over two hours on a Brompton. It was ok actually. Never tried it day after day. Some people have cycled over the Alps on a Brompton. They said it was "hard" or something to that effect.