Business Breezing

A Breezer folding bike get a mention in the Bicycle Retailer (an American bicycle trade magazine), referring to a favourable article in the BusinessWeek Weekend.

York Ride Photos

I am trying out FlickR to show photo's as a slide show. (captions to follow) View here

July 8th Origami ride from Malvern

Details for the July 8th Origami ride from Great Malvern railway station are here. As usual, all are welcome to join us for a sociable ride.

Good Publicist

Sir Clive is getting good press recently with his 'to be released next month' A-bike mentioned in the Australian gizmag. Despite some slightly dubious statements such as "the first viable foldable bike for those who wish to mix modes of transport", the claimed 5.5 kg weight is intriguing.

London to Brighton 2006 by Brompton

A Brompton team entered the London to Brighton Ride this year, and greatly enjoyed this popular annual event. Les Roberts has supplied a report and some pictures, which you can find here on the web site.
PS: Two additional photographs now added.

On the Streets

Downtube, a relatively new brand of folding bike gets a mention here, originally in the Bucks County Courier Times.

On the other side of the Atlantic, it seems that the release of Sir Clive Sinclair's A-bike is getting closer, according to the Independent.

York Origami Ride Update 24th June

The response for the additional origami ride suggested and organised by Charlotte has been excellent. Meeting information update:

York Railway Station 10.30am
Meet by platform 3 at the bottom of the stairs, to the left as you come down them, by the AMT / coffee stand. I plan to be at the station for 10.30am (latest) to lead riders to the next meeting point and York Race Course. Look out for Birdy Red or maybe two.

CTC Event Venue 11.00am York Race Course
At the knavesmire, we have a bus stop style ride starting point with our name (Origami Folding Society) on it. Look for it on the section known as Ebor Way. Start Point Number One

For any one who had not seen the info before here is the plan for the day:
June 24th - York. Meet at York Railway station. (Station Road, York Y01 7HB)
This is an addition to our 2006 programme. A ride from York has been planned to coincide with the CTC York rally. Several members will be staying in York for the weekend to enjoy the many events.
The Origami ride will start from York Railway Station at 10.30. There will be a short ride to York Racecourse to meet up with other riders from the CTC rally at 11.00am, and then on to Selby using the Sustrans NCN route. The “Solar System” can be seen along the route – Lunch at “Pluto” Approximate ride length 25 easy miles.

Trice QNT 800Km report

The Trice QNT is a recumbent tricycle which folds and separates. We tested it in January, and I like it so much that I bought one. Here is the report of the first 800Km (500 miles) with the Trice - I like it even more now I own one! Included in this report on the Trice is a more detailed report of the 100Km Brevet Populaire from Cheswick Green which was mentioned recently - you can go direct to the ride report here.

Folding in Philadelphia

Folding bikes get a good write-up here in the Philadelphia Inquirer, complete with a fairly accurate (though short) history of folding bikes.

The Towsure Lightweight Folding Bike

It's sad that very few of our members provide reports on their folders, and also that we don't hear much about the more modestly priced machines. Happily Suzi Jones has sent us her impressions of her new folder, a Towsure, which at £129 seems remarkably cheap.You can read her report here on our web site.

Cheswick Green 100Km on a folder

In 2005 Susan Barlow, Dave Minter, Tony Hadland, Paul Evans and Dick Hanson formed a 'folder team' and took part in a 100Km Brevet Populaire from Cheswick Green. The organisation of the event was superb, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Sadly (for the UK) Susan and Dave have returned to Australia, but I took part in the corresponding ride this year. The event is very popular, and had been extended this year to provide TWO rides of 100Km (some entries had to be rejected last year as it was over subscribed), plus longer rides as well. Despite the large number of people at the event, almost everyone was riding a conventional diamond framed bike - I only saw one small wheeler, one folder, one recumbent and one tricycle, and I was riding it! There were several conventional tandems though. The Trice QNT performed very well on this ride, the first time I've used it for a Brevet Populaire, and it went into the Smart reasonably easily (wish the Smart had performed as well - the battery was almost dead when I got back from the ride, and the engine only just started). This ride brought the distance on the QNT up to 750Km, and I will be producing a detailed report on it in the next couple of weeks, including more details of the Cheswick Green ride.

Cyclefeast 2006 - only a month to go

Don't forget that Cyclefeast runs from 14 - 21 July 2006 at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The inaugural event in 2005 was a great success, and we hope to see some of you again at this year's event. Folders were well represented last year. Full details can be found on the Cyclefeast web site.

Sixth National Velocipede Rally - 23 July 2006

Steve Kay writes:

"As secretary of the National Velocipede Rally, and an active and committed folding bike rider, can I invite you to this year's rally at Hampton Loade Station (on the Severn Valley Railway) on 23rd July. Velocipedes have to be folders, though they aren't as technically elegant as my Brompton!"
For more details, please see the events section of the web pages.

100Km Brevet Populaire at Stanton under Bardon

As usual at 100Km BPs, folders and separables were not very well represented at this ride today. At least I was riding one myself this time, after the exceptional Ellesmere ride where I used a conventional diamond frame (and still managed to get it inside the Smart for travelling to and from the event)! At first I thought the only folder/separable present was my Airnimal Chameleon, but riding for a while with a couple on a very nice Mercian tandem it turned out that this was a separable as well, and they also own a Bike Friday tandem. Bike Friday seem to have identified quite a good market niche with their folding tandems - in fact the most common folders I encounter on one of these events are Friday tandems, whether in Family Tandem or Tandem Twosday form. Most people travel to and from these events by car, but of course with a tandem this is till a problem, and the Bike Fridays are almost unique in providing a solution.

The ride itself was most enjoyable, with a very good route, first class route sheet and beatiful weather. Although I'll continue to use other folders (and non-folders!) for such rides for variety, the Chameleon remains my preferred choice - very easy to fit in the Smart for travel, and an ideal ride in terms of comfort, range of gears, general enjoyment etc.

The Folding Business

A Business Week reporter has written an article in the current issue comparing eight folding bikes. You can read the online version of the article here.

Origami ride June 10th from Tring

Some details for the Origami ride on June 10th from Tring station are here. All are welcome to join us for this sociable ride.