grumpy carol Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 hi we have just spent our first long term outing in our motorhome, there was a lot of items we needed and have now obtained,transport being the most important,our van is a frankia it is 8.4 mtrs long ,so i dont want to tow a car either on an a frame or trailer behind it,we have been looking at folding bikes ,has anyone any experience of these ? are they as good as a normal cycle whilst riding? any advice would be great thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 HI GC we use the cvleisure silver star electric. With this bike you have to pedal so the motor assists. Long range lightweight alloy with deralier gears. 20" wheels 21kilo gross 18 kilo nett of battery (folds in seconds) comfy ride due to yhe new front suspension . the new ones also have a rear rack complete with bungies. Cost approx £525, they do discount slightly sp ecialy for 2. If you should ask if any drawbacks.........NONE !!! PS ,,,We charge from the inverter does'nt take much battery so no problem. And they both fit in our garage with table 2x recliners ect . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza454 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Hi Carol,If you're not looking for electric, then the best fold up bikes available are made by Brompton, they're not cheap, but the build quality is superb.We've had a couple for a number of years and never had any problems.http://www.brompton.co.uk/content.asp?p=2&l=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWO Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Hi Carol The answer to your question is no , in most circumstances they are not as good as a big wheeled bike. On smooth surfaces and just short journeys around the van/ to the shops they are probably ok. For any distance over anything other than tarmac they are hard work. We have just given up with the Co- Pilot's folder and got another proper bike for her. If you can get then in the van go for bigwheeled ones everytime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 But Brompton are a "commuting" folder with small wheels, admittedly good quality but expensive.... 20inch wheel folders from Dahon are good value and light weight, I have 3 of different quality and they are around 12kg each Obviously they are compromised compared to a normal bike, but in last camper we had no choice..... now we have a large garage and rack (which we don't use) and carry 2 conventional and 2 folders (we are a family of 4) in garage. with a camper of your size surprised if you cant accommodate normal bikes. I am looking at electric bikes for the future....as hills are becoming a real problem *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrytraveller Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Hi Carol, Bought a new ebike last month the Powacycle Lynx LPX, http://tinyurl.com/57fg3a it was good fun to ride whilst it lasted - about 30 days. The Cycle shop couldn't get any spare parts for it, so I elected to try another model, the Powacycle Windsor http://tinyurl.com/648q5h . These ebikes are supposed to be reliable and are so posted on ebike forums - they certainly make light work of the hills, as the completely silent motor puts in about 50% of your pedal input. So it seems you can lose 5 stone in as many minutes, or so it seems (lol) I'm using a Maplins 300 watt charger to recharge the ebike battery, after a ten mile ride, it takes about three hours to top up the battery, I think the last one hour of charge is only trickle charging, consequently there is only a light load on the inverter and leisure battery, certainly the solar charged leisure battery is showing 14.5 volts for the last hour, on a sunny mid-afternoon. Regards Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred grant Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 try the airnimal folder with big wheels if you don want electric assistance grumpy carol me ansum. tested in mmm back along. a good compromise if i's remembers correctly my biddy. flyalongfred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 We have both folding bikes and normal mountain bikes (we changed them to road tyres as mountain bike tyres are horrible and very hard going indeed). The folding bikes were great and were bought so that they could go under our fixed bed, when we changed vans we eventually got mountain bikes instead, but we kept the folders as well. The folders are not the most expensive by any means, they were a good quality lower end bike, £150 each a the time (quite a few years ago now), with 20" wheels and racks on the back. As they are steel framed they are a bit heavy but that wasn't a problem. We found for doing a bit of small distance peddling, like parking the camper up on the outskirts of town and peddling in, they were great, and also for the odd longer trip. Folders do take more effort for speedier riding due to their usually only being 6/7 gears maximum, I've neer seen one with more than 7 gears, consequently, you find that your legs are going round more often than with a normal bike, hence the more effort you need to use. If, however, you are a more leisurely paced rider then you'd probably find they are okay. Don't whatever you do, be tempted to go for the smaller wheeled ones, they are absolutely terrible for anyting but poddling about very short distances, and that includes some of the more expensive models. It's the size of the wheels that makes the biggest difference to bikes, not how well they are made, although if you get some light weight ones this can obviously be a help as well. Di Blasti make some nice folders but they unfortunately only have the smaller 14/16" wheels (can't remember which!), which for us ruled them out totally, plus they were over twice the price of a normal folder. If you are not going to use them a lot, then the expense of such likes as Di Blasti, Brompton etc is possibly not worth going to, there are a lot of folders to choose from now, some very lightweight ones which makes them easier to lift up/down onto bike racks or in/out of motorhomes. Check how well they are made, for example what type of gears are they, are the cranks well made (we've found that my husband has a tendency to break these quite easily!). Make sure you get to have a really good test ride on them, not just pottering about for 30 seconds up/down the street, but a proper ride round, getting up to speed etc. You might find that having a look at the classified ads in the MMM mag gives you the chance to buy some second hand hardly used folding bikes so you can try to see how you get on with them without a massive outlay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrytraveller Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Hi Mel, Argos were selling a 26" wheel folder with 18 gears last week for £99, has gone up again to £169. I just looked on Ebay and they have a similar bike but better specs, 21 gears and 26" wheels for £116, have a gander at link http://tinyurl.com/687q8b . Regards Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brayn Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Therec is a firm called Thorn who make a superb demountable bike. Basically a standard steel framed tourer that can be split in two for travelling. They advertise regularly in Cycling Plus. It can have more gears than you shake the proverbial at! Having said that, it is possible to set up folders with a double front chainwheel without too much fuss. You could then get 12 - 14 gears fairly simply. You should also note that the number of gears is a bit misleading. It is the range of gears that matters to casual cyclists. For example, on my road bike I have a triple front chainwheel of 46, 34, 24 and a rear cassette of 14 - 34 teeth. Your average club racing cyclist would have 52, 42,30 and 12 - 26 on his/her machine. Most cyclists actually use very few of the gear combinations available, I would estimate that I use no more than 5 of my 24 gears for 99% of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirage Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 We`ve used Bromptons for 6 years now in UK and on the continent, most of our trips away are spent on them up to 20 miles per day. easy to ride and can move along at quite a reasonable pace. Obvious advantages are they can be taken on trains etc e.g. Cote d`Azur. Far better in a locker than hanging on a bike rack, can be folded and stored in a couple of minutes. We usd ours on canal towpaths, stoney paths etc without problem, only two punctures so far, trick is to keep tyres to max 70psi and ensure tyres fitted are the green badged Kevlar type. Have renewed rear tyres but have had no problems build quality excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Does anyone know if you can get a folding 3 wheeler. Ann is not the steadiest on 2 wheels and would feel more confident on three. And after a very near death experience last year in France I would prefer her upright than sprawled in the road as cars skid around her. Well at least until the life insurance is sorted ! >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROON Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 awwww Tomo, that is soooo considerate... :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brayn Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 try this site. http://www.missioncycles.co.uk/FoldingTrikes.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 I've seen the Di Blasti folding trike in the flesh and a very nicely made machine it is, not sure how bulky/heavy it is though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Mel, for £965 it should be well made! It should be put together like a Rolls Royce! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Totally agree Tomo, but unfortunately, paying a lot for something doesn't always mean it's good quality (think motorhomes ....!) :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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