You don’t really see or hear about folding bikes that often. There are some communities
and YouTube channels out there dedicated to them, especially the higher end Brompton brand,
but we only occasionally see them used in real life and we hardly ever hear them recommended
in response to problems that they help with, like bike theft.
We got folding bikes a few months ago and we’ve been impressed. They have a lot of
really practical advantages, especially for people in cities, and the downsides aren’t
as bad as you might think. We don’t intend to get rid of our full-sized bikes but a lot
of people could easily get away with just a folding bike. In this video we’re going
to cover the positives, negatives, and surprises of folding bikes, plus our recommendations
for who should consider them.
The particular bikes we got were from ZiZZO, a budget brand from Amazon. This made sense
in our case because these are our secondary bikes, but more expensive folding bikes can
bring extra advantages like lighter weight and a more sophisticated folding mechanism
that allows for a smaller size and even rolling while folded. The classic example is Brompton,
but there are more folding bike brands out there than you might realize, some with really
unique designs.
The first positive feature of folding bikes is obviously the size. The ones we have fold
up to substantially smaller than our regular bikes, and this is hardly the smallest kind
of folding bike you can get. The main reason we bought these compact bikes was to take
on the train or in a car when we visit other cities, but we ended up finding the small
size really useful at home too.
We always prefer to keep our bikes inside to avoid theft and weather, but we live in
a walk-up apartment in Montreal and carrying our regular bikes up and down the stairs is
kind of a pain. We even accidentally broke a light fixture once (no, YOU broke the light
fixture). Now that we have the choice, we often just default to our folding bikes for
shorter trips to avoid the hassle of carrying our full-sized bikes up and down a few flights
of stairs, even though the folding process adds an extra 30 seconds, which we’ll talk
more about later in the video.
Outside of the house, folding bikes are a lot easier to take on a commuter train for
a multi-modal trip to work or to bring into a cafe or grocery store instead of locking
it up outside. It’s easy to see all of these advantages related to transportation and storage,
but another less obvious advantage is the ease of cleaning in an apartment. We dabbled
in winter cycling for the first time this year and made the unconventional choice of
using our folding bikes because of how much easier they fit into the bathtub to regularly
clean off all of the salt and grime. This adds an extra job of having to clean the tub
more than you would like but you can't win them all.
Keep in mind though that these kinds of bikes don’t have the same advantage in weight
that they have in size, probably because of the folding mechanisms requiring extra components
and reinforcement. My folding bike with a rear rack is just under 30 pounds, which is
only 6 or 7 pounds lighter than my full-sized hybrid bike and quite a bit heavier than a
typical road bike. With that said, even at the same weight smaller things tend to be
less awkward to carry.
In terms of performance, you might expect that the smaller wheels would make these harder
to pedal or something but it doesn’t actually work like that, at least as far as we’ve
noticed in the 500 kilometres we’ve covered on these bikes so far. The real limitation
is in the gearing, which doesn’t cover the same range as you’d find on a normal bike
because folding bikes usually only have gears on the back and not the front. The exact configuration
depends on the bike model but ours cover lower gears for hills better than higher gears for
speed.
Just for fun though, we decided to test out the performance of our folding bikes on Montreal’s
4.3 kilometre Gilles Villeneuve Formula One racetrack. Putting in an 8 out of 10 level
of effort but feeling pretty limited by the gearing, my fastest lap on the track averaged
26 km/h with a top speed of 39 km/h according to Strava.
That’s not too bad but it was also under good racetrack conditions. In real life performance
is also limited indirectly by comfort and safety, and folding bikes just feel less stable
than regular bikes at high speeds. It’s not about build quality since the frame feels
reliable, but the smaller wheels, smaller frame size, and somewhat twitchier steering
mean that potholes, bumps, and debris become bigger threats and higher speeds feel more
stressful. We don’t usually ride at such high speeds anyway but it’s a real concern
when going down hills.
For another performance test we tried out the Camillien-Houde climb on Mont-Royal, from
the sign to the lookout, which is an average grade of just over 6% covering 1.6 kilometres.
This is reasonably steep and used by a lot of road bikers in Montreal for training, so
it’s not a place you expect to see a folding bike. It wasn’t exactly easy but it also
wasn’t that different from my regular full-sized hybrid bike. The bigger problem with the folding
bike was actually not wanting to go back down the hill and risk the small wheels hitting
a bump or pothole at high speeds.
Another comfort factor to point out is that the smaller frame size means the handlebars
are closer to you. This isn’t a negative necessarily, but it does push you into a more
upright position that’s comfortable for casual speeds as opposed to the aggressive
reached out position that’s more aerodynamic and conducive to faster speeds. One advantage
our regular hybrid bikes have here is that the handlebars can adjust for a more forward
position.
As for the overall sizing of folding bikes, they usually come as one-size-fits-all and
that means they won’t be as perfectly suited to you as a fitted bike in the right size.
With that said, the handlebars and seat have a pretty wide range and they might fit better
than you expect. The two of us are almost a foot different in height and these bikes
can be adjusted to fit us both surprisingly well, much better than some of the wrongly-sized
regular bikes we’ve ridden in the past. It’s also often possible to upgrade folding
bikes with longer seat posts if needed.
We talked about performance and comfort at higher speeds but there’s also the question
of longer distances. Personally, if we’re taking longer trips then we’ll use our regular
bikes if possible, because they’re a bit more comfortable and stable and that adds
up over a long day of cycling. Don’t get the impression that folding bikes are limited
to short trips around the neighbourhood though, we’ve gone up to 40 kilometres on them so
far without any trouble and we’d consider longer trips if we didn’t have our regular
bikes available.
One possible downside of folding bikes is longevity. Ours feel sturdy and well-built,
and something more high-end would probably be even tougher, but every single component
that allows the bike to take its compact shape adds more complexity and potential for failure,
and that has to be a negative of folding bikes. You can also probably expect that some of
these parts won’t be standard and sold at your local bike store.
Another downside is the cost. They tend to be more expensive than equivalent full-sized
bikes because of the added component complexity and probably also because they’re a more
niche product. We think we got a reasonable deal with our folding bikes costing around
500 Canadian dollars each, but a Brompton can cost between 1,500 and 3,000 Canadian.
Obviously many regular bikes cost that much too, but folding bikes skew higher on average.
If you’re wondering about how the folding mechanism works, it varies by bike, but on
ours it takes about 30 seconds and involves five steps. First, extend the handlebars and
point them up. Second, unlatch and drop the [handlebars]. Third, put the seat down. Fourth,
fold the pedals. Finally, fifth, unlatch and fold up the frame together. This is pretty
typical on budget folding bikes.
To summarize everything so far, based on our experience, folding bikes have a really significant
advantage over regular bikes in terms of size, and we’ve personally found that to bring
a lot of really practical benefits for storage, transportation, and cleaning. Folding bikes
don’t seem to have a disadvantage in pure performance, aside from gearing, but in practice,
comfort and stability tend to limit higher speeds. To some extent they limit distance
too, but we find these bikes handle distance better than speed. Cost is a disadvantage
of folding bikes, and both longevity and repairability probably are too, although we’ve only owned
them for a few months so far. The process of folding the bike depends on the model,
but we don’t find it too annoying. Even if you left it unfolded sometimes it would
still be more compact than a full-sized bike.
So, after all of that, we’re left with the question of whether you should buy or at least
consider this kind of bike. The magic of folding bikes really happens when they open up cycling
in a particular context where it wasn’t previously available to you. If the reason
you don’t bike to work is a lack of a safe place to store your bike outside, a folding
bike is a really great option if it opens up the possibility of keeping your bike inside
your workplace. Here, it doesn’t matter exactly how folding bikes compare to regular
bikes because regular bikes weren’t an option.
For the example of travelling, when we visited Toronto recently there was no chance of us
bringing our full-sized bikes in the compact rental car we got. Taking our folding bikes
allowed us to spend the whole day biking around, which is arguably the best way to explore
cities. Rental bikes can be an option but they’re costly if you want them over multiple
days.
Contexts like that are where folding bikes really shine, where you’re a commuter or
traveller or you live in a small space and regular bikes aren’t really practical. If
none of that is a problem for you because you don't lack space in your home, car, office,
or any other place you might bring your bike, then thanks for watching this far into the
video but you don’t really have a reason to consider a folding bike. It would bring
a few disadvantages without any corresponding benefits, unless you just want a new toy,
in which case it’s all benefits.
The question is more difficult if you're somewhere in the middle and you could make a full-sized
bike work but you're not sure if it's worth it. Maybe you want to take a bike on car trips
and you could get a top rack for your car but you'd rather not, or you could fit a full-sized
bike in your apartment but it wouldn't be convenient. Here it’s important to spend
more time trying out and testing the folding bike before buying it, because small disadvantages
in comfort and feel compared to a regular bike matter more if a regular bike is an actual
option in the context. We’ll just emphasize again that folding bikes handle distance better
than speed, in our experience.
That’s it for our take on folding bikes. We’ve gotten a lot of benefit from these
and we think they could be useful to a lot of other people too, especially because when
we use these bikes around our neighbourhood we get quite a few curious people asking questions
about how well they ride and whether we like them. If you’ve used a folding bike before
then we’d love to hear about it in the comments, whether your experience was positive like
ours or not. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to bike and subscribe.