Small wheel groups / knowledge centres

[pjclinch]

Depending on the stile/gate/obstacle a folding bike may be easier to lift over, but not necessarily.

A year or so ago I tried to get through a kissing gate with my Brom in various states of fold, real Laurel and Stanley stuff, I'd have been much better lifting it over!

Pete.

[Biospace]

A year or so ago I tried to get through a kissing gate with my Brom in various states of fold, real Laurel and Stanley stuff, I'd have been much better lifting it over!

Pete.

Yes, up and over is usually the best way - although some obstacles have been negotiated fine by wheeling the tandem vertically, on its back wheel. This summer while stopped for lunch we watched a couple unload their bikes, pass the luggage over the gate then struggle lifting their (hired) e-bikes in the air. Only once they were over did my son ask why they hadn't opened the five-bar gate - turned out he already knew it wasn't locked

[PH]

I think that Arriva run in the (your) Derby area, carriage should still be possible but they’re not quite as generous

Derby is a mis mash of operators:
Ariva - On the luggage rack, which might be a struggle with a 20", both space and (For me) lifting it up there. Or, third priority for the wheelchair/buggy space, with the possibility of being evicted mid ride (I've seen that happen several times to buggies)
Notts & Derby - must fit on the luggage rack. They had some services, linking the many university campuses, with bike racks on the back, but I haven't seen one for a while, so suspect that didn't work out.
Trent Barton - Take bikes, including full, at the drivers discretion. No experience, but heard both success and failure stories in equal measure.
Red Arrow (Direct bus Derby <> Nottingham) - Bagged and on luggage rack only. They used to put bikes, full and folded, in the storage under the bus, but barriers make them inaccessible in the Derby Bus station.
Skylink - Anything goes. Service runs to the airport as the name suggests and has the luggage capacity to cater for that. It also serves a lot of useful places between Derby and Leicester.

I don't point this out to put you off, but the idea that any folder on any bus is going to be OK, might be optimistic. The frequent bus users I know choose Bromptons (Or there's some obscure makes of similar size), one also carries an Ikea laundry bag which is the right size for a good fit, at which point it's hard to argue that the bike isn't simply luggage.

[Carlton green]

Depending on the stile/gate/obstacle a folding bike may be easier to lift over, but not necessarily.

A year or so ago I tried to get through a kissing gate with my Brom in various states of fold, real Laurel and Stanley stuff, I'd have been much better lifting it over!

Pete.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. I’d have thought a Brompton would go through a kissing gate as easy as anything but am glad to hear (rather than learn for myself) that that’s not the case. Oh well, ease of transport in my car and on public transport are the key issues and any other benefit is secondary.

[pjclinch]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

Oh blimey, how did I not notice I'd got that wrong?

I’d have thought a Brompton would go through a kissing gate as easy as anything but am glad to hear (rather than learn for myself) that that’s not the case.

I thought that too... It was a pretty tight gate, to be fair, but I did go in with "a Brompton fits anywhere!" thoughts which proved to be my undoing.

Pete.

[Carlton green]

I don't point this out to put you off, but the idea that any folder on any bus is going to be OK, might be optimistic. The frequent bus users I know choose Bromptons (Or there's some obscure makes of similar size), one also carries an Ikea laundry bag which is the right size for a good fit, at which point it's hard to argue that the bike isn't simply luggage.

Not to worry, for me it’s a case of a folder is going to go in my car much easier than a non-folder and public transport is likely to accept a folder but (buses certainly) won’t accept non-folders. During lockdown I wanted to get on an empty bus with my bike, to carry me just a few miles home, but the driver wouldn’t hear of it … if it had been a folder then I’m pretty sure he’d have let me on. The cycle ride home was fine, but much longer (mileage) as I chose to take minor roads rather than use the main road.

The thought of being turfed off a bus with bike, due to the arrival of a more needy passenger, doesn’t concern me that much. It’s unlikely to happen and if it does then I’ll simply try to make the best of things - well that or lock the bike up and get back on the bus. Better to risk loosing a cheap bike than be forced to ride home in particularly difficult or dangerous circumstances.

A Brompton is out of the question, well certainly beyond my budget. I’ll take my chances with a twenty inch wheel first and only if it doesn’t work out well enough will I consider splashing the cash.

[slowster]

CycleChat has a dedicated board for folding bikes. A lot of the threads are about Bromptons, but there are also posters who own various other folders like Tern and Dahon.

https://www.cyclechat.net/forums/folding-bikes.51/

[PH]

The thought of being turfed off a bus with bike, due to the arrival of a more needy passenger, doesn’t concern me that much. It’s unlikely to happen and if it does then I’ll simply try to make the best of things - well that or lock the bike up and get back on the bus.

The services I've seen buggies need to get off, or not allowed on, are the sorts of services where there's at least 4 buses an hour, so it's just a question of waiting for the next.

[Carlton green]

www.bikeforums.net has a pretty active folding bike subforum with international coverage, and is less North American than other parts of that site. It can get a bit ‘lively’ at times but nothing out of the ordinary. It errs away from wall to wall Bromptons compared to other parts of the folding bike online universe.

CycleChat has a dedicated board for folding bikes. A lot of the threads are about Bromptons, but there are also posters who own various other folders like Tern and Dahon.

https://www.cyclechat.net/forums/folding-bikes.51/

Thank you both, after being pointed towards those sites I spent some time looking at them.

The services I've seen buggies need to get off, or not allowed on, are the sorts of services where there's at least 4 buses an hour, so it's just a question of waiting for the next.

I’ve lived in a City with such frequent services and (back then) thought fifteen minutes an age to wait. Last night I was looking at a local (rural) bus timetable, you can wait two hours for the next bus. Whatever, ask to be carried with your bike and if refused then ride the thing. How wide is the average city? Cities are big but the distances across them are nothing much to cyclists - just ride, road safety allowing.

[simonineaston]

There's the Moulton Bicycle Club that has a mailing list and you don't have to be in the club to join the list.
Of course, Moultons are not folders but many models are separable (i.e., a couple of minutes with tools rather than tens of seconds without tools), but that actually can make them easier to stow if you have two separate crannies.

The sundry ways to discuss the various Moultons are much reduced, in my view. When I first owned, restored & enjoyed them, the Yahoo mailing list was cohesive, multinational and highly effective. Contributors were knowledgable and numerous and, much like this forum, a useful reply to any given question usually came within minutes. Now activity is much watered down, as there's various fb groups, the official website (MoultonBuzz) forum pretty much ignored and the poor old Yahoo group a shadow of its former self.
The situation that we all recognise too, that a large section of previously active enthusiasts are growing older. Some have given up their hobby, some have passed away and in doing so, have taken their knowledge with them. In some cases, their loss has been irreplaceable, for example dear Michael Woolf, who single handedly ran Moulton Preservation for decades and left us far too early.

[rogerzilla]

The trend to host groups on Facebook (because it's trivially easy) is a curse. Not everyone is on Facebook. I'm not any more. I miss the Moulton groups but I don't trust Zuckerberg as far as I can throw him and some seriously creepy stuff was going on, like Facebook emails with accurate personal info arriving at an email address I know I've never given them.

[slowster]

Maybe there should be a separate board on this forum for such bikes?

[rotavator]

Maybe there should be a separate board on this forum for such bikes?

That sounds like a good idea to me

[Carlton green]

Maybe there should be a separate board on this forum for such bikes?

I’m not sure if the members are being offered such a separate place within the site or not, but perhaps the first question should be what do the moderation and admin team think of the idea?

Overall I’m inclined to think that having a section for small wheelers would a relatively reasonable thing to do. Why so? Well, there are already sections devoted to ‘special interests’ and some of those groups will only be of interest to a small percentage of forum members. I could well be wrong but small wheel bikes are, maybe amongst other sizes, owned by many members. Why not centralise the expertise that they have to share and provide a focal point for questions?

Of course this is all a diversion away from my original post, but it’s (imho) a worthy idea that’s worth exploration and a thread if it’s own .

Original post:

Does anyone have any suggestions of places to learn more about small wheel bikes (with folding variants) from enthusiastic users of popular models?

[Carlton green]

Maybe there should be a separate board on this forum for such bikes?

I’m not sure if the members are being offered such a separate place within the site or not, but perhaps the first question should be what do the moderation and admin team think of the idea?

Just a friendly prompt .

Having thought on this for a few weeks I’m sure that having a place on this forum that’s centred on small wheel and folding bikes would have value to the members. Folders and small wheel bikes aren’t quite ‘main stream’, but they’re a long standing and great enabler that get folk cycling and using active transport. These compact (easier to store and easier to transport) bikes have a wide range of uses: commuting and shopping spring to mind, but the list is much longer and people have even toured on them too.