Andrea’s Folding Bike Blog – Fold or Bust?

Week beginning 15th June 15

I regularly use my bike as part of my commute to work and, for a while now, I've been wondering what it's like to use a folding bike. I see people with them on the train and they look good, but are they all they're cracked up to be? Do they really make commuting easier? Well now I have my chance to find out, thanks to Chris at HAT who's loaned me a folding bike to test; and what better time to do it than in Bike Week?

I picked the bike up from Chris's Aladdin's cave of bikes at Kirklees College's Huddersfield Centre. He showed me how to fold and unfold it, made sure I could actually ride it, oiled the joints, and I was off.

My first test came 10 minutes later when I got back to the office. I managed to fold it up but wasn't sure if I'd done it properly – it seemed way too easy. I then had to carry it indoors. It's quite bulky and I wouldn't want to carry it a long way but I navigated a small flight of steps and 30 yards to the office without much difficulty. The bike is small enough to sit in the office without causing a major obstruction. It would have been nice to be able to slot it under the desk but that would not have been practical. For the rest of the day it remained a talking point amongst colleagues and visitors to the office.

At home time I was soon on my way to the train station, having reassembled the bike in a couple of minutes. One of the barrier guards let me through the barrier whilst I was searching for my ticket – he knows me as I've been using the station for so long now! The train was an express which didn't really have dedicated cycle storage so I opted for a carriage with a toilet and folding seats to be on the safe side. I was able to sit with the folded bike out of anyone's way. One stop on and ten minutes elapsed and I'm on the platform reassembling and ready to go again. Then for the real test: 4 miles home.

I was a little nervous at first due to the fact that the bike is smaller than my own and made me feel a little more vulnerable to the traffic. This soon faded and my main concern was the dreadful state of Kirklees' roads. The smaller wheels meant that any lumps and bumps in the road were accentuated a little more than I am used to. Having only 7 gears also proved no hardship and, in fact, on the hills where I normally need a really low gear, I found that the lowest gear proved an easier ride due to the bike being much lighter than my own. So, I made it back in one piece and ready for the following day.

Mid Week

My first full day with my new toy. I rode the 4 miles to the railway station getting there in plenty of time to fold the bike down before the train arrived. The journey was yet another revelation about the gears. There's much more downhill going to the station and on those sections where I was able to free wheel, I found that top gear (7) was not enough. I found myself having to wait a while as the road flattened out or began to rise again before I could gain

some traction, or I had to pedal furiously to match the wheel speed! On the positive side, this was a good test for the brakes, which worked very well.

I was late leaving work due to being engrossed in a spread sheet and not keeping an eye on the time (very sad, I know). Happily, I've now mastered folding and unfolding the bike quickly and I was able to ride like the wind and board the train just as the guard was blowing the whistle. This meant I didn't get in the carriage with designated bike space. Fortunately there was an empty wheelchair space in the carriage which the bike fitted into unfolded. Had anyone in a wheelchair boarded I would, of course, have folded the bike down out of the way. Northern Rail are very accommodating when it comes to bikes and I had no complaint from the conductor when he arrived to inspect my ticket.

When I got home I took a couple of pictures to show the differences (and similarities) between my own bike and the folding one. I think these show that the folding bike is robust enough for road riding, and easy to store if you don't have much space.