The Folding Society

Letters from America

2008-05-09T08:51:00.001Z

The Los Angeles Times has an article on Bike to Work Week in the USA (12-16th May) with a chance to win a folding bike.

Velonews has noticed that Trophy Bikes in Philadelphia is sponsoring a folding bike class in the CSC Amateur hillclimb (6th June). The Folding Society had of course already mentioned it as part of ROUND UP USA, the folding bike festival.

London Strida Ride

2008-05-08T15:30:00.001Z

There is going to be a London meeting of riders on Saturday 21st June. It will be in Dulwich Park, London SE22. Meet at 10:00 by the tea rooms for a ride to Crystal Palace park. This will be, as you would guess, at a leisurely pace. All Strida riders are welcome.
Our thanks go to Julian Kowalewski for this news.

Birdy World Meeting Berlin

2008-05-08T06:44:00.000Z

The Birdy World Meeting Berlin will be held on the weekend of 13-15 june 2008. You can find out more at http://www.flickr.com/groups/birdy-berlin/.

Bicycle Backlash?

2008-05-06T13:06:00.000Z

The BBC magazine has a rant about the combination of crowded trains and folding bike commuters here.

Special Bike Show at Germersheim

2008-05-04T06:05:00.001Z

Jan Berkelder has sent us the following:

Last weekend we had the Special Bike Show in Germany, at Germersheim. I made a photoreport on it.
There were two origami rides. One on Friday April 24 from Mannheim to Germersheim. The second one was on Saturday April 25, which was a short night ride. On the night ride we had about 12 Brits with us. Both origamirides are documented here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janbeeldrijk/sets/72157604814024032/detail/
Apart from that I made a folding bike report on Germersheim, to be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janbeeldrijk/sets/72157604797751156/detail/
And especially for Birdy friends there is this report:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janbeeldrijk/sets/72157604826391769/detail/
All the texts are in English, although I might make a mistake or two.

Many thanks to Jan for these reports.

.citycycling

2008-05-01T13:22:00.001Z

The latest citycycling is up. Apart from the usual excellent photos, articles and the continuing pursuit of the elusive Bromptonaut, a folding bike is the bike of the month.

May 10th Origami ride - Oswestry

2008-04-29T20:20:00.000Z

Our 10th May Origami ride will start at the wonderful Cambrian Visitor Centre in Oswestry, on the Welsh borders. More details are here.

Magic Bus

2008-04-26T00:17:00.001Z

The Italian bike and component maker Cinelli has a long involvement with racing but has been branching out into other styles recently. The Magic Bus from the Bootleg range is their version of a folding bike, seemingly a rebranded Dahon with a Sturmer Archer 5sp hub.

London Time Out

2008-04-23T11:19:00.000Z

The current London Time Out magazine has a 24 page bicycle section. Non-Londoners can get an idea of the contents from BikeBiz's report

Watford Spokes Group First London folding bike ride Saturday 26 April

2008-04-22T16:06:00.000Z

As this is rather late notification, we are posting this on the News page rather than putting it on the Events page:
"Meeting point 11:30 BT Tower, 60 Cleveland Street (tour possible)
Approximately 20 miles around London from Oxford Street to Hyde Park. Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace, The Mall, Parliament Square, South Bank, Tower Bridge, Embankment, Trafalgar Square with possible stops for lunch and tea at places of interest.
All are welcome preferably with a folding bicycle.
Further details from David Turner 020-8429 2882 or 07745018288 on the day."

ITERA Sighting II

2008-04-05T23:59:00.001Z

During a visit to Coventry Transport Museum today we spotted another Itera plastic bike (refer to Steve's post 22/03/08) in the Cylopedia gallery. Here is a picture of the Itera amongst the other bikes, including folders, on show.

We can report that further work to the museum has improved the showing of both the bikes and cars. Details here

April 12th 2008 Origami - Moira

2008-04-05T16:41:00.000Z

Our April 12th Origami ride starts in the national Forest Conkers Discovery Centre in Moira, East Midlands, which is close to Burton-on-Trent. Details are here.

Note that the ride starts from the Discovery Centre, NOT Waterside as previously advertised.

Smithfield Nocturne Folding Bike Race

2008-04-03T20:40:00.001Z

Entries are now open for the Smithfield Nocturne Folding Bike Race, to be held on Saturday July 7th 2008 and sponsored by Halfords Cycle2Work.

Brompton tweaks their brakes

2008-04-03T10:19:00.001Z

BikeBiz reports that Bromptons will be fitted with Fibrax brake pads. Fibrax have been around for 105 years, a little longer than the London-based bike maker.

An unusual sighting

2008-03-22T07:37:00.001Z

The Itera of the 1980's was an attempt to produce a bicycle largely made from plastic. It was not a great success, and I can't recall ever seeing one on the road here in the UK at the time, so it was a considerable surprise to see one parked outside Marks & Spencer in the centre of Wolverhapton yesterday. The Itera was certainly not a folder, so this posting is really just for the curiosity value! the bike seemed fully operational and apparently in regular use.

Taipei Show

2008-03-22T07:20:00.001Z

Strida designer Mark Sanders has sent us a report on his recent visit to the Taipei Show. However, Peter Eland of Velo Vision was quicker off the mark (no pun intended) than I was and has already published the report. As might be expected, Mark's report concentrates on the Strida (made by Ming Cycles) and on Pacific Cycles, who have taken over Mark's new design concept from Ming. The pictures in the report show examples of that concept applied not only to a conventional large-wheeled folder, but also to a derivative of the Pacific Reach (which uses 20 inch wheels), which should serve to make it significantly more portable than before. By the way, he name 'Swivel-head' has not been dropped in favour of 'IF' (Integrated Folding). Don't miss the report on the Velo Vision web site.

The Dahon Ciao P8

2008-03-22T07:16:00.001Z

With its exceptionally low step-over height, the Dahon Ciao is a most unusual design. William Reid has sent us a brief report on his experience with the Ciao, and you can read it HERE.

Mike Ives Goes Grand Touring

2008-03-05T20:50:00.000Z

Cycling Weekly reports that Mike Ives this year will be raising money for the SPARKS charity, by riding the routes of the three Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana) in fewer days than the professionals. Ives has previously won 5 UCI world championships and 62 British championships and ridden the route of the 2005 Tour de France one day faster than the professionals. He is pictured on his Airnimal folder.

A S Bikes Explorer

2008-03-02T17:16:00.000Z

Most of our test reports cover higher specification and performance folders, so it was interesting to have the opportunity to try a more basic machine from the low-price end of the market. The A S Bikes Explorer is aimed at the leisure user rather than the serious cyclist, and might typically be used for short shopping trips, towpath rides, and use in conjunction with caravanning, motorhoming or canal boating. The bike acquitted itself quite well for these sorts of application - you can read the full report HERE.

Photo Gallery for Folding Bikes

2008-02-29T20:30:00.001Z

We hear that a new gallery has been set up for photos of folding bikes - see http://www.bikesTHATfold.com for more information (no connection with The Folding Society).

"All change at Strida UK"

2008-02-29T20:11:00.000Z

We hear from Mark Sanders that there have been major changes in the way that the Strida will be distributed in the UK - one result being that the latest Strida 5 will now be available here. The main points from the press release that Mark sent are:
"From February 28th 2008 Strida BV will be the new distributor for the redesigned Strida folding bike in the UK. All existing business affairs of Strida Ltd will officially end at this date. Strida BV, the Dutch company that successfully imported the original English folding bikes in The Netherlands and Belgium over the past five years, will be responsible for all Sales and Distribution activities in Europe.
In the UK this change of strategy will have considerable effect. The selling of Strida folding bikes used to be exclusively through the Internet, but starting from February 28th a selected group of dealers will also be responsible for Sales and Service of Strida bikes to UK customers. One of the benefits of creating these new outlets is the opportunity for customers to test-ride their Strida folding bike before purchasing it. Next to this, Strida BV plans to appoint flagship-stores that sell the complete Strida product line, including all models, accessories and novelties. Strida BV’s corporate headquarters in the Netherlands will definitely continue the existing service and shipping terms. 'The level of service and ease of doing business will be upgraded to a much higher level', says Ties Carlier, co-owner of Strida BV.
For further information, please contact:
Strida BV.
Marjoleine van den Ende,
Wibautstraat 125,
1091 GL Amsterdam
T: +31 (0) 20 3307401
F: +31 (0) 20 3305132
info@strida.co.uk
www.strida.com
www.strida.nl
rik@strida.nl"

Origami Ride - March 8th - Solihull

2008-02-28T16:54:00.000Z

Our March 8th 2008 Origami ride is from Solihull, West Midlands - more details are here. All welcome to join us on a friendly leisure ride.

"Smart Move" - a brief review of the book

2008-02-18T08:06:00.000Z

Just before Christmas we reported on the Austrian Embacher Collection of bicycles. In that report we referred to the fact that a book of the collection is available, and subsequently we were sent a copy of the book (many thanks for that).
The book is in A4 landscape format, and is beatifully produced. The photographs are of a very high standard, all showing the individual machines against a paper white background, with no undesirable shadows, colour casts or reflections. For most of the machines there is a single side view, plus several more detailed shots. The machines covered are naturally limited to some of those in the Embacher Collection. As far as folders and small-wheelers are concerened, there are quite a number included, though not really a representative collection. There are two Moultons (an F-frame Speedsix and spaceframe Speed S), and a Bickerton and Mk I Strida, plus some more unusual folders such as the Skoot.
There is not much information provided about any of the machines - typically a single paragraph of descriptive text plus a date and weight; all the text is in both German and English.
I think folder enthusiasts will class this as a "coffee table book" - very attractive photographs, but not many facts, and covering only machines in the collection. It is nevertheless a superb production, and just looking at the pictures gives great pleasure. Please see the web site at http://www.smart-move.at for more information about the book.

Cyclefeast 2008

2008-02-17T07:03:00.000Z

2008 is a Cyclefeast year. As mentioned a few weeks ago, this year's event at Berwick-upon-Tweed takes place from 4 to 11 July, and is aimed specifically at recumbent tricycles and their owners. Arrangements have now been completed to allow those who want to attend, but don't own a tricumbent, to hire a suitable machine for the event. The hire arrangements cover Greenspeed, KMX and Kettweisel. For more information about the event, and how you can arrange to hire one of these machines, please see the Cyclefeast web site.

Brompton maintenance

2008-02-08T07:38:00.000Z

Life cycle UK is a cycling promotion charity based in Bristol. They run occasional short introductory ('bite size') Brompton bike maintenance courses - details can be found on their website. The next of these courses is on 27th February - more information on this particular evening course is at http://www.lifecycleuk.org.uk/events.php?id=207.