Interbike Expo - Foldable Bikes

Las Vegas, NV - Foldable, and therefore portable, bikes have actually been around for quite some time now. Two of the bike companies featured below actually started production in the 1980’s. But unless you worked with, or for that matter are, the stereotypical environmentally conscious, earthy-crunchy, professorial type that sees beauty in functionality, these bikes have gone relatively unnoticed.

That is, until now.

With the growing number of commuters in the United States, these bikes are not only seen as practical but they are starting to become fashionable as well (even US Criterium National Champion, Rahsaan Bahati, has been seen on one). We’ll take a look at two of the original companies, Dahon and Brompton, and also show you a foldable that some might view as a contemporary art piece.

Dahon
It’s been said that “necessity is the mother of invention.” For Dr. David Hon, the solution to weakening the world's dependence on oil was the foldable bike.

The Dahon story begins in 1975. At the time, Dr. David Hon, our founder, was a physicist at Hughes Aircraft Corporation, in California, working on highly classified government research projects.

Brain-storming for solutions to weaken the world's dependence on oil, Dr. Hon ended up going back to his primary mode of transportation in college - the bicycle. Totally clean, and just as important, cheap enough for people around the world to access, Dr. Hon considered the bicycle to be a good candidate as a solution. However, the bicycle as it existed at that time was not without shortcomings. While the bicycle was perfect for short trips, it was not practical for longer trips, for example, if you lived 30 miles from work. The bicycle needed to be improved, transformed, to make it more broadly functional. It needed to integrate more readily with other forms of more environmentally sustainable transport, like trains and subways. Dr. Hon's solution - a portable folding bicycle.

The first Dahon folding bicycle was introduced to worldwide acclaim in 1982. But even though it won award after award, none of big bicycle manufacturing companies were interested in such a revolutionary new idea. On a proverbial "wing and a prayer," Dr. Hon quit his job, gathered $3 million dollars in venture funding, re-located to Taiwan, and built a factory. By 1983, Dahon folding bicycles were rolling off the assembly line. And for lack of deeper vernacular, the rest as they say is history.

Today, the Los Angeles, California based company has factories in Taiwan, Macau, the Czech Republic and China with parts sourced from the leading component manufacturers from around the world.

Dahon's are sold in over 30 countries. In the US alone, Dahon sells 24 different models under four separate categories: Urban Utility, Urban Performance, Road and Mountain.

The full-suspension Jetstream P8

And yes, they fold up quite well

Brompton
Brompton Bicycles was similarly founded in the 1980’s, but on a different coast.

Andrew Ritchie left university in 1968 with a degree in Engineering. He first applied this hard-won knowledge in the nascent field of computing but soon realized he preferred the idea of being self-employed and before long, found himself working as a landscape gardener in London. In 1975, while plying his green trade out of the back of an ancient Morris 1000 van, a chance meeting with a backer of the fledgling Bickerton folding bicycle changed the direction of his career again. Looking at the Bickerton’s design, Ritchie thought he could do better and came up with a fresh approach to the challenge of designing a folding bike.

Several prototypes later, Ritchie emerged from the cramped confines of his bedroom overlooking the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, London, and thus Brompton Bicycle was born.

All Bromptons are still designed and built in England, in a West London factory to be precise. Brompton is one of only two major frame manufacturers still based in the UK, and they have been in full production since 1988.

And though Andrew Ritchie no longer runs the company, he has continued on as Technical Director. Bromptons are currently sold in 27 export markets.

They come in 3 standard models, M, P, and S, with each offered in a superlight (X) version as well. New f0r 2009 is a beefier hub (not shown).

One of the original Brompton's

Unfolding is as easy as, 1...

...2,

...3! Ready for my quick spin through the expo.

It also fits nicely in a bag.

STRiDA
The STRiDA is a foldable bike that I first saw in a design magazine. Invented in the United Kingdom as an elegant form of transportation, the bike truly rest at that intersection of art meets function.

The flagship single-speed aluminum 5.0 weighs in at 22 lbs. and its drive train consist of a greaseless Kevlar belt that is good for 50,000 miles. The STRiDA is easily foldable (see inset), which makes it ultra portable, and comes 5 different models and in nine different colors.

It is distributed in the United States by Areaware and can be found in bicycle shops, and none-to-surprisingly, in design and art stores near you.


Photo: Leonard Basobas