Which folding bike?

[Dr Chopper]

Hi
Just looking for a bit of advice. I need a folder to help with the daily commute - only about a mile or so. My local choices appear to be either a Dawes Kingpin or Tern C8 link. Both are priced about the same. Does anyone have any advice as to which might be better?
Thanks

 

[Aristotle Kristatos]

Hi
Just looking for a bit of advice. I need a folder to help with the daily commute - only about a mile or so. My local choices appear to be either a Dawes Kingpin or Tern C8 link. Both are priced about the same. Does anyone have any advice as to which might be better?
Thanks

Do you have an unlimited budget?

 

[EltonFrog]

I wouldn’t bother with a bike for that distance, I’d walk. If you really want a folding bike either of those would do the job but I’d consider one of the Decathlon folders as well.

 

[bonzobanana]

Carrera Transit at Halfords is a very good option. Hub gears make a lot of sense on a folding bike, more robust, less maintenance, easy up/down gear selection at any time ideal for urban traffic. Helps with the fold too. Yes a 3 speed hub doesn't give a huge gear range its something like 186% but the small wheels means the bike is relatively low geared anyway and not the ideal type of bike for fast gearing anyway. The trouble with derailleur gears on folding bikes is they are so close to the ground so pick up a lot of crap and they are easy to damage if you hit pavement etc. I think the classic folding bikes like Dawes Kingpin and Raleigh Twenty showed how hub gears were ideal for folding bikes and really derailleurs are less than ideal for this application.

Looking at the Tern its just a basic Tourney drivetrain but with cassette rather than freewheel. The Carrera Intercity seems a better folding bike at Halfords it is also 8 speed with V brakes but uses a higher quality Altus rear derailleur taken from Shimano's mountain bike range so it will operate better when dirty and cacked in mud, it has a greater spring force. I prefer the hub gear option to a derailleur on a folding bike but the intercity is a better derailleur based folding bike option.

I had a quick look at the decathlon folding bike range and most of the entry level models look awful to me but when you get to the btwin 900 at £499 that looks decent with 9 speeds and a Sora rear derailleur. I still prefer the Intercity as I think its a better configured design and cheaper but the btwin 900 is still a good option and looks very nice.

 

[kingrollo]

I had a tern link and loved it. There are a few issues to consider

1.)how quickly does it fold

2.) how small does it fold

3.) how does it ride.

The tern scored well on points 1&3 - point 2 didn't matter as it was going in the back of my car - if I was lugging on public transport I would have broke the bank for a Brompton.

 

[KneesUp]

I have a Dahon that looks very similar to the Tern C8. As @kingrollo says it folds quite well and is small enough to be usefully small on trains. It rides ok - a small wheeled bike is not going to ride as well as a 'proper bike' but it's fine. I've no experience of the Kingpin, sorry.

 

[bonzobanana]

I had a tern link and loved it. There are a few issues to consider

1.)how quickly does it fold

2.) how small does it fold

3.) how does it ride.

The tern scored well on points 1&3 - point 2 didn't matter as it was going in the back of my car - if I was lugging on public transport I would have broke the bank for a Brompton.

My issue with the Tern Link is they quote a full price of £850 and its got a basic Tourney rear derailleur which you see on bikes costing less than £100 sometimes. In fact I have two of them myself which I bought a while back when Amazon had them on offer for £4 each. Seems such unbelievable poor value and Tern are another brand that don't really make anything themselves because when Tern had that huge recall with failing frames you could see it was caused by one of the factories they had used to make their bikes who obviously weren't very good quality. Other factory production was not effected. I think some of their good production was from Fuji-ta who are a huge OEM supplier of folding bikes and folding bike frames and forks. In fact both Halfords and Decathlon have used them for many of their folding bikes. I think the current Carrera Transit and Intercity (non disc) are from Fuji-ta. I'm not sure about current Decathlon models but some of their earlier models were. I have a bikes4u paris folding bike which is one of theirs which I bought for £30 secondhand. I just feel you get much better value with the shop brands like Halfords, Decathlon and Go Outdoors as its a factory to retailer direct business model which cuts out so many people from needing to make a margin. I'd rather have the Carrera Intercity than the Tern even if they were the same price. I guess if you are determined to support your local bike shop and that is all they have fair enough. I'm also pretty sure the modern Dawes Kingpin is also fuji-ta last time I looked unless they have more recently changed it. To be honest that also looked a very poor spec for the money with a basic generic fuji-ta frame that has also been used for cheap Argos folding bikes and low end components including a freewheel.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015020...ections/folding-bikes/products/paris-explorer

https://www.tianjinfujita.com/bicycle/

 

[biketrailerguy]

I need a folder to help with the daily commute - only about a mile or so

Help - in what way?
Cut commute time?
Carry more stuff?
Exercise different bits of body?
Choice?

Considering the distance and the times involved between walking and cycling, any bike related faffing will probably erode a significant % of actual journey time saving.

But if you must, has a used Brompton been ruled out for some reason?