More on Moultons

A couple of Moulton bicycle blogs caught our eye recently.

One we mentioned near the beginning of the year. The Participation Ride saw Simon Berry riding a Pashley Moulton TSR30 from Lands End to John O'Groats in early September with several others, mostly on Sustrans' National Cycle Network, to raise money for ruralnet.

The other only began six months ago but Moulton Buzz has worthwhile entries and some interesting scoops.

Just the .....

Bike Friday's new Tikit model has received very positive reviews from ourselves, A to B and Velo Vision. Now they have added to the range - initially it was available only in a 'standard' specification in 3 frame sizes, but now they are offering a much wider range of options. Visit http://www.bikefriday.com for more information.

November 10th Origami ride - Hagley

November's Origami ride starts from Hagley, in the West Midlands, and visits the Severn Valley Railway station at Kidderminster for lunch. More details are here.
All are welcome on this moderately paced ride.

Swivelhead to Pacific

Bike Biz report that Mark Saunder's Swivelhead design will be made by Pacific Cycles, builder of CarryMe and Reach folders and manufacturer for Birdy, Greenspeed, ICE and others. The press release containing the news can be found HERE.

Crete with a bike in a suitcase

We have now added a report by Peter Wilson of his trip to Crete with an Airnimal Chameleon. Our thanks go to Peter for this report. Peter also sent a report on a visit to Australia, which we should be adding to the web site in the next few days.

The Hawk, and videos of folders

The Hawk is a mountain-bike-style folder with 26 inch wheels which is sold by OnyerBike in Australia. You can see a video of it on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdcwvW8W13U. The way that the handlebars can be removed and put into a locator where they serve to hold the bike together when folded is rather nice, though the removal of the seatpost and simply fitting it between the folded frame parts is less admirable (we suspect that many people would probably opt just to lower the saddle, even if it is not quite as compact). Our thanks go to Steve Goodwin for bringing the Hawk to our attention.

There are a number of videos about folders on YouTube, and we may add links to such videos in future bike tests - we have added the one for the Mezzo to the recent Mezzo test report.

The ON concept from Cannondale

Described as Cannondales Quantum Leap in bicycle design: the ON concept, there is some information about a new folder, currently only in prototype form, with no set production plans, at http://www.gizmag.com/go/8128 on the Gizmag web site. This is a 26 inch wheeled machine which utilises the SRAM imotion-9 9-speed hub gear. Our thanks go to Richard Milne for bringing it to our attention.

The Mezzo d9 - an owner's view

We originally tested the Mezzo back in 2005, soon after the d9 model became available (test report here). Some improvements have been made since then, so we are delighted to be able to publish a new report by owner Kristian Gustafson, which you can find HERE on the web site.

Connect2

Connect2 is a Sustrans project which is competing for £50 million of funding from the Big Lottery Fund's "Living Landmark: The People's Millions". Sustrans is competing with five other projects for the funding, which will be decided by public television vote in December this year. Connect2 seeks to connect people to local places by foot and bike, and will benefit 79 communities all over the UK. To have any chance of success Sustran needs your support. To find out more about Connect2, please visit the web site at http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk.

October Origami Ride at Kenilworth

The Cromford Origami Ride was always going to be a hard act to follow, but despite dreary weather, the October Ride from Kenilworth succeeded (not perhaps surpassed, but certainly no disappointment either!) The weather forecast had suggested early mist and generally grey conditions, but on the day it was really quite wet (penetrating drizzle) all the way to the start, and though this eased for the ride, it remained a bit damp, though quite warm (which meant it was unpleasant to wear waterfproofs).
After the usual refreshements at the start, we set out in better conditions, stopping quite soon for the first of several interesting briefings on the local countryside and history, at Kenilworth Castle. Our lunch stop was at The Navigation at Lapworth, which provided one of the most substantial sandwich lunches I have encountered. Much of the morning ride had been in country I'm familiar with, but the return ride followed lanes that were new to me, and well worth riding. Perhaps the highlight was the unplanned stop for afternoon tea at a church which was celebrating Harvest Festival - St Mary The Virgin at Haseley - a delightful small church with many interesting features, which was beautifully decorated for the occasion. The influx of cyclists must have been a bit of surprise for the organisers, but they proved excellent hosts, and we enjoyed the stop, and I hope they enjoyed our support too.
Thanks as usual to the organisers of the ride - a great success, and it was great to see some new riders, and some who aren't able to join us very frequently. Dick Hanson rode all the way from Cheltenham, and rode all the way back after lunch (around 90 miles), though regrettably on this occasion he was not on a folder!

Dahon-based folding electric bike

C H White in Malmesbury have created their own electric folding bicycle, based on the Dahon Ciao P5 (the model with the very low frame). You can find details on their web site at http://www.chwhite.btinternet.co.uk/html/electric_bikes.html. Many thanks to Mike Roberts for this news.

Greenspeed GT3 updated

Greenspeed have updated their GT3 folding recumbent tricycle - the new model is known (rather unimaginatively!) as the GT3 Series II. There are a number of significant changes and improvements, of which the most significant is probably the Negative Scrub Radius (NSR) steering. You can find out more HERE on the Greenspeed web site, or HERE at 'BentRiderOnline.

Folding pedals

Bikesthatfold.com has a REPORT on many of the folding pedals that are currently available. These are stricly folding pedals - the rather nice detachable MKS type are not included.

Folders in Velo Vision 27

As usual, the latest issue of Velo Vision (number 27, the escapist issue) contains a number of items of interest to folder enthusiasts. The report on Eurobike 2007 shows a number of new and potential new folders, and there are also full test reports on the Mobiky Genius and the Strida 3. The reports on these two are quite favourable - the Mobiky seems alarmingly heavy at 14Kg though. The findings on the Strida are very similar to those in our own report, which you can read HERE. Velo Vision is also reporting on its web site that a new version of the 14-speed Rohloff hub gear is expected to appear in prototype form next year, with a slightly wider overall gear range and a reduction in weight.

Strida back in the USA

After about a year out of the US market Strida has just got a US distributor - Areaware STRIDA (http://www.areaware.com), and they launched themselves, and were exhibiting, at Interbike.

A New Folder?

Mercedes Benz look to be releasing a new folding bike in April 2008, according to the AUTO Spectator. Usually this type of press release would be based around a rebadged Dahon or some AutoCADed piece of vapourware but the accompanying photograph shows a real bike of a design I've not seen before. Not too many conclusions can be drawn but it appears to have full suspension, an integral rear rack and use Capreo gears and disc brakes. It reportedly folds to 800x800x280 mm in 2 steps. Any additional information would be welcome.

Origami ride Saturday 13th October

Octobers Origami ride will start in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Details are here.
All welcome on these friendly rides.