Folding Bikes

Folding Bikes for Sale

Although different manufacturers claim they were the first to make the folding bike its origin is still not known. We do know that it has been around for awhile. One company says they invented this special bike in 1973 despite factual information that it was on the road prior to that year. Most people give credit to William Grout who introduced his "folding bike" to the world in 1878. Others, however, considered his bike to be more of a "portable" bicycle. The first documented folding bike, which holds a U.S. patent, was invented by Michael B. Ryan in 1893.

Folding Bikes Offer a Variety of Choices

Many manufacturers offer a variety of choices when it comes to the folding bike. One of these is the number of speeds. You can find some folding bikes with just one speed while you also have a wide choice in those with 24 speeds. There is also a number of different wheel sizes available. These generally range from 16 inches to 26 inches. Naturally the different variables also determine the cost of the folding bike. One of the less expensive is the Downtube - 2009 FS. It has a price tag of $399. However, these prices can climb to a much higher price. For example, the Dahon - Flo is a 26 inch, 27 speed folding bike that has a price of $2999.

There Are Many Manufacturers Today of Folding Bikes

Today the folding bike has become so popular that there is one brand or another that is manufacturered throughout the world. For example, the Zerobike is manufactured in Spain while China produces the Tianjin Flying Pigeon. The U.S. manufacturers the Schwinn and Japan puts out the Smartcog. You can buy a Polygon manufactured in Indonesia or a Puma produced in Germany. There are dozens and dozens of folding bike manufacturers found throughout the world. Some of these suppliers ship worldwide; others make their bike available in their country only.

Together with the innovations that have been made for bicycles, one cannot help but commend the invention of the folding bikes.  This bicycle, as the name implies, is a bicycle that can be folded into a compact form.  With something so small and easy to carry, it’s easy to transport and store the folding bicycle.  Even if you commute to work, you don’t have to worry about your bike getting stolen if it’s a folding bike and you can carry it in with you to your workplace.  If you like to cycle in different locations, folding bikes also facilitate easy transport in cars, planes or boats.

Through the passage of time, the folding mechanism of this kind of bike has been constantly improved.  Today, it can be pretty confusing to select a folding bicycle for the wide range of folding mechanism capabilities like folding ease, folding speed, weight, durability, compactness, and of course price.  When you’re buying a folding bicycle, however, you have to take into consideration the ride too.  Together with this, you have to look at the number of parts and conformity to the most demanding structural requirements.  There have even been a portable bicycle in that, it’s made of breakaway models rather than pieces that fold.

Why Folding Bikes were Made

To cater to the needs of people from various walks of life, the bicycle has undergone change and innovation.  Just like with cycling on the off road, mountain bikes or all terrain bikes were made, folding bikes were made in the interest of military capability and efficiency.  Bicycles were used in the military in the 1890s and it was found that if the bike is folding, it’s easier for infantry use.  The folding bicycle was also used in between the periods of 1939 and 1945 by British paratroopers.  For its size, a paratrooper is able to bring the bicycle with him on parachute jumps.

Everything Folding Bike

Folding bikes come in a variety of sizes and have a wider range of adjustments than regular bikes.  For this matter, folding bikes can accommodate a great variety of riders even with a frame that’s made in only one size.  Folding bikes have handlebars and seat posts that extend higher than regular bikes.  You can also get after market stems and posts for your folding bicycle if you want to have more choices for adjustment.

While unfolded, a folding bicycle can be greatly similar in geometry and riding position to bikes like racing bikes and road bikes even if they’re made smaller in overall size than regular bikes.  If you look at the distance between the saddle top, the bottom bracket center, and the handlebars, you can see that it’s almost the same as that of the convention bicycle.  With more developments to the folding bicycle, it’s now possible to utilize 26” wheels on folding bikes.

When we’re talking about performance, folding bikes are made for utility and commuter purposes.  Therefore, a big focus on design with regard to comfort, convenience and ruggedness is looked at.  There are even high end folding bike models that emphasize on speed.  Remember that folding bikes most commonly work with smaller parts.  So for example, with the shorter wheelbase and smaller wheels, the folding bike ride can be a bit rough and twitchy.  To compensate for this, the tires on the folding bike are made wider and some models even have suspension on the front wheels or rear wheels.

With convenience and portability for the folding bikes, you also have to deal with some challenges with regard to structure.  Folding at the midpoint of the frame can weaken the structure and elongated stems and seat posts can have greater bending stresses.  To make up for this, more weight might be put on folding bikes for the additional frame members on the bike.

There is a plethora of ways folding bikes can fold.  Depending on the mechanism, you can fold your bike with the triangle hinge mechanism, the half or mid fold mechanism or the breakaway mechanism.  For the triangle hinged folding bike, a hinge on the frame is made to allow the rear triangle and the wheel to be folded and flipped forward.  All this can be done under the main frame tube.  For the half or mid fold, the hinge point allows a bicycle made in the diamond frame to be folded in half.  Folding bikes that use this mechanism can have larger wheels to cater to the needs of those who like a good ride as well as compactness.

Bikes can be folded and bikes and also be partly disassembled to facilitate compactness and portability.  With breakaway folding bikes, there are variations where a connector system can be used to retrofit the bicycle torque to a standard frame.  There are even bikes that fold like an umbrella.