Subway bike

I love road biking, when you can pedal down a smooth, paved road with little interruption. In fact, on the road or not, I'd rather cycle to wherever I'm going if possible. Unfortunately, in China and many other places, the option of a smooth, safe road isn't always available. Sometimes you need to hop in a bus, or subway, or go up an elevator somewhere along the way. This is very difficult with a full-size bike in tow, but clever designers have come up with a few good solutions.

This is one of Dahon's folding models. It's got 8 gears in a decent spread, a smallish rear rack, fenders and 20-inch wheels. Inside that long seat tube, there is also a very nice built-in tire pump. To fold it down to hand-carry size, you first collapse the seat tube and fold down the handlebar assembly. This takes 10-20 seconds.

The seat should go down a little further than in the photo, but I didn't want to undo the taillight for the photo. The next step in folding it up is merely to release the lock on the big middle hinge and swing around the front part until it meets the magnet latch in the rear. There's your package to haul onto the subway or into the taxi:

I like it just fine. It's not the ride of a full-size road bike: the small wheels are a little skittery. But the 1 1/2 inch tires absorb road shock without much rolling resistance, the gearing makes it relatively easy to ride fast, or climb hills. My colleague Dave makes rather long loaded tours on his, but I use mine mainly for scooting to work and back. I've thrown it into a taxi and hauled it onto the bus when I need to have it in other places. Yes, people stare a bit, but often it's in admiriation. I've gotten several comments on what a good idea it is.

Note: In other posts you may see an "I" who doesn't like bikes. There is more than one person writing on this blog, and agreement is not required.