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The New York Times tests folding bikes

Dave Walker — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:42:22 +0000

Physical Culture | Gear Test, Folding Bikes - The New York Times > Style > Slide Show

The Brompton comes out well, as it should. Quite how the handlebar of the Dahon was stolen ‘whilst folding’ I do not really know.

Bigfish

Dave Walker — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:00:38 +0000

I saw the Bigfish folding bike at the Cycle Show last year. The folded size is far from the smallest, but this video does a good job of communicating its good points:

You can find more information on the Bigfish blog and official site. If you’d like more videos there are some on the official Bigfish Youtube page, although I quite enjoyed this one from RideThisBike.

Strida video review and links

Dave Walker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:36:51 +0000

I’m posting more about the Strida than any other bike it seems.

First of all a set of very in-depth review videos. Here’s no 1 - there are 6 in all.

Ebay folding bike headlines

Dave Walker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:56:12 +0000

When advertising a bicycle for sale on Ebay one has to make the bast use of a very limited number of characters for a headline. Here’s one I read today:

Dahon Speed commuter fold - up bicycle very little use

Seems a bit harsh.

There was another the other day that described the bike as hardly ridden in Lancashire.

Sorry - carry on as you were.

Bickerton folding bike ad from 1983

Dave Walker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:33:20 +0000

The Bickerton was an early folding bike, manufactured between 1971 and 1991. This splendid advert was run in 1983:

Interestingly one of the commenters on the Youtube page is one sk8erboi600, the account name that I believe belongs to Mark Sanders, creator of the Strida and other innovative folding bikes. He says:

Well done Mark - nice to see the old ad again.
inspired many of us !

Hemingwaydesign ‘Roadrunner’

Dave Walker — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:58:42 +0000

I love the look of these bikes: Hemingway Design Roadrunner.

It seems as if you can only get them from ebay at the moment - they go for 30-75 pounds. Mostly around 50 or so.

Fake Stridas destroyed

Dave Walker — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:49:22 +0000

IF Mode wins design award

Dave Walker — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:06:07 +0000

It doesn’t surprise me, as it’s a pretty good looking bike.

See:

There’s an IF Mode video below, and a link to the (not brilliant in Firefox unfortunately) website here:

My Dawes Kingpin

Dave Walker — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:39:05 +0000

I bought this Dawes Kingpin folding bike from Gumtree a couple of months ago with the intention of restoring it, but owing to the fact that I also have one and a half Raleigh Twenties being worked on, not to mention another new bicycle arrival, I think I need to sell it to keep some space in the garage.

It is early 1980s I think. Some work needs doing - the gears being the most immediate example. I’m not good at tweaking Sturmey Archer gears, but I’m having a go.

Discussions are taking place here (another picture or two at that link), but if that doesn’t work out I’ll sell it on Ebay.

The Dawes Kingpin seems to be highly regarded in certain (albeit limited) circles. See for instance this page on ’shopper bikes’:

The Dawes Kingpin is the shopper to have. It is well made and has standard threads, so any parts will fit. Prices for these, when we have them, starts £130 for rigid and £150 for folding.
These can be modified with more alloy parts to make them lighter, or have more gears. We once made one with 24 gears.

As with Raleigh Twenties people make all sorts of modifications to these bikes. See for instance: SM-Kingpin MkIV

Update: I have now sold this bicycle

David Byrne’s bike racks

Dave Walker — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:07:43 +0000

Nothing much to do with folding bicycles - I just liked it: