Today I finally got a round tuit. The long-awaited expedition
to test-drive the folding bikes.
After an early breakfast, I headed into town for the 7:25 bus.
Arrived Plymouth station about 8:30 and took the 8:34 train to
Bristol, where I again had to wait only a few minutes for the 11:00
to Bath, arriving at Avon Valley Cyclery around 11:15-ish.
Wandering in with a "looking for service" air, I managed to attract
the attention of staff member Dave, who dealt very pleasantly and
helpfully with me while I went on several test rides and made up
my mind.
First exercise was to look at some folded specimens. The birdy
and the brompton were particularly compact. Of the two, the birdy
was much lighter, and Dave explained it was the better bike for
riding any distance.
So my first test ride was their demo birdy-black. An impressively
light bike, that handled beautifully in the city traffic, nipping
everywhere with an easy acceleration and manoueverability that
belied its rider's paunch. But on the uphill it was hard work,
and by the time I was up Combe Down I was dripping sweat and
knackered. The descent felt scary: the liveliness that was so
great in traffic translated to being hard work to keep it on
course, and I felt compelled to move my weight a long way back
even for gentle braking. And a couple of other problems: it
left my hands in some discomfort from the bars, and the available
space to grip was too small for my hands - especially on the right
where the gear-shifters got in the way.
After that I tried the Brompton 6-gear effort. The bars were more
comfortable than the birdy to hold, but apart from that it had all
the same drawbacks. And it lacked the traffic-handling advantage:
OK it could nip, but had none of the effortless ease of the birdy.
Worse, it took constant concentration just to go where I wanted,
even on the flat, with a tendency to w-w-wobble if I tried to relax.
When I expressed my reservations about the birdy, Dave got the demo
Bike Friday out - a 24-speed model. That was my third test ride,
and was a total contrast. Unlike the others, it felt like riding
a decent-quality normal bike. The test ride was such a pleasure
I extended it to include an uphill (not at all the struggle it had
been on the birdy - despite being a heavier bike), a downhill,
and an extended fast flattish section. Not as lively in traffic as
the birdy, but that's not an issue for me, as I live in a rural area,
and even our local big city (Plymouth) has very little traffic
of the kind one needs to nip around.
My dream folding bike? Not quite. Though a lovely ride, folding it
is much more of a faff than the others, and involves taking the bars
off (and into pieces to fold compactly). Not really the purpose of
getting a folder. And I could just see myself constantly worrying
about losing the bars, until the inevitable day when it really happened.
By now it was past lunchtime, and having ridden hard on an empty
stomach I went for some lunch, and to look over the brochures for
the birdy, bike friday, and dahon (next on the menu). Lunch was,
alas, a substandard tourist ripoff, the place I had hoped to go
being no longer there. But at least it stopped me feeling
lightheaded.
Back to the shop, and Dave lets me out on the Dahon Impulse. It's
got a longer wheelbase than the others, yet folds pretty compactly
and with less faff than the Bike Friday. Like the Bike Friday, it
felt like riding a normal bike. The uphill was again a struggle,
and a lower gear would have helped.
As it happens, they have also a 21-gear version of the same bike,
with hub gears in addition to the deraileurs. The gears didn't
respond quite as well as they should, and the ride felt distinctly
bumpy as it seemed to take delight in tranmitting every blemish
in the road up to me, so the equivalent normal bike is not such
high quality as the bike friday, but is neverthess acceptable.
And folding/carrying it is less faff. The ultra-low rack is a
bit of a problem - it's too small to attach panniers - but Dave
ascertains we can fit a bigger rack without harming foldability,
so that's OK.
I took one more test-ride, this final time on a white birdy,
having more space for the hands, and more gears to deal with
the hills, than its black cousin. This one I probably could
have got used to. But I still felt its principal strength
was the (largely irrelevant to me) performance in traffic,
and that it certainly couldn't justify double the price
of the dahon.
The conclusion I reached was that there is, alas, no ideal folder
that'll meet all my aspirations. But the Dahon was something I
could live with, at a far more reasonable price than any birdy
or bike friday. So I ordered the 21-speed version of it, and
a few relevant accessories. And my only regret is that, because
it's a cheaper model than some of the others, the chancellor's
contribution to the cost will be reduced. But then, so will
mine, so that's good:-)
The nightmare was yet to come. I had a wait of twentysomething
minutes for my train at Bath, followed by an hour each at
Bristol and Plymouth, due to [censored]-poor connections on the
homeward journey. I took advantage of the Bristol wait to
nip round to the nearby Wetherspoons pub and indulge in some
much-needed beer, some food, and some more beer. Finally
the bloody bus from Plymouth didn't turn up at all, so when it
was half an hour late I gave up and took a minicab home. Bah:-(
Delivery of the new toy is on Wednesday, and I have a use for
it on Thursday:-)
--
Nick Kew