https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQscBxx7wLE

But Bike Friday no longer manufactures it: the frame design is so exotic and weird that they had a number of frame issues and failures they had to overcome in the field, and Bike Friday has a lifetime frame warranty. It was a very popular bike, but by the time they had worked out all the kinks the value of them continuing to sell the bike had probably gone negative. The Tikit was just too bleeding edge for its time.

The Tikit relies on a special part in order to be ridden: its hyperfold cable. This cable is no longer being manufactured for Bike Friday and cannot be obtained anywhere. When my cable gives out, and it'll happen sometime soon, my Tikit will probably wind up on the display wall of a bike store. And I'll be searching for something to replace it. But there is no folder even close to the Tikit in sheer engineering prowess, which depresses me to no end as a tech guy. Bike Friday itself replaced the model with the Pakit, a decidedly inferior bike. I'm not sure what to do.

Like "Rediscovering the Handcart"

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2026/04/rediscovering-the-...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47873192

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870694

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47862913

I went through an extended project to make it faster and wound up with a loop handlebar for body position, replaced the wheelset to move from 355 to 406 for tire selection and did the drivetrain at the same time to accommodate a 9-32 cassette. Between the wheels and the sub-11 tooth sprockets I can pedal up to ~26mph instead of ~20mph on the stock setup (good enough) and the low end is about the same. It doesn't perform like a race bike but it's pretty close to an endurance road bike. I do 20 mile rides a couple times a week on it and I've done a couple centuries.

The Birdy is my main bike but I'm a folding and recumbent enthusiast in general. The addition of the fold or moving the cranks in front of the rider means the obvious solution diamond frame doesn't work and I like seeing the creativity of the solutions. I've also owned a Xootr Swift that I gave away to my nephews, a Bike Friday Sat-R-Day folding recumbent for riding slowly in the parks, and a Baron Optima lowracer recumbent that I prefer for rides over 90 minutes.

Besides rides in the city, I take it on long 100+km rides on the road, on gravel, forests, rocks, mountains.

It has taken me on every street of Barcelona and around it many times over. I've had it for 14 years.

Because of the small wheels it's extremely agile and allows you to go really slow without losing balance. This makes it like a sharp knife in the city but also off road on rocky trails, steep climbs, eg. in places where you'd never think of going with a Brompton.

If the trail is impossible, I can just lift it up and climb with it on my shoulder. Or I can fold it and carry it like a bag, on the metro, trains or in the trunk of the car.

As I understand, I'm not the only one using the Brompton as a gravel/mountain bike, so they released the G-line, which I still haven't checked out, but it's on my bucket list.

If I were to write one eulogoy for a piece of equipment in my life, the Brompton is definitely it :).

I can easily fit my folding bike into my car trunk, and very easily fit another one in the back seat. This enables you to drive to the start of a distant cycling route without having to deal with bike racks behind or on top of your car. So much less friction to you just going somewhere and cycling around.

And the small size means I can skip the common bike storage in my complex and store it in my apartment and it doesn't take up as much space as a full-sized bike. In my city, like most major cities, bike thievery is rampant. And if they can't steal your bike, they strip it of parts.

There are some drawbacks though. You can't really use them for hauling heavy loads, so forget bicycle touring or pulling a little trailer for kids or other things. They are also quite slow. And maybe some models have lots of gears, but the ones I checked out (in my admittedly limited search) did not, so they are not suited for very hilly routes.

I got mine used for $200 off FB Marketplace, it was in great condition and ready to ride. It is some generic brand that was sold in Walmarts a few years ago and I could not find any other information on it. I don't really care though. It got me out and cycling again!

The biggest downsides are speed and climbing ability. 80k or so has been a reasonable max distance on tour (I've done one 100k day, it was long) and I wouldn't take it to the Alps.

Like the OP, I run Schwalbe Marathon Plus which has been good. But I have had one catastrophic puncture after riding over a particularly nasty piece of glass that cut straight through the tire. After that I bring a folding backup tire.

For general use, they are in theory thief-proof because you can take them everywhere with you. The downside is they're expensive so you HAVE to take them everywhere with you. Leave them out and they'll get stolen. For that reason I think the happiest I've been is with a dirt cheap bike in Japan. Didn't even lock it properly (just a key built into the frame) and could park it outside any old shop or restaurant for hours. Super convenient.

The Brompton luggage system (its mount and low, forward position) is amazing. Bags can be massive and carry a lot of weight and the bike still feels great to ride.

For pedals, I use MKS EZY Superior Lambda pedals with street shoes. Long but not wide metal platform. And they're quick release. The stock Brompton pedals are clever, but not awesome for long distance or hammering. I've spun SPD clipless pedals on for spirited riding and those are, of course, a joy.

The Brompton design is genius but if I could improve one thing, it would be to allow slightly wider tires into the frame.

I'm 15 years into owning a Brompton and I know I'll never get rid of it. and I'm still finding useful and/or hilarious new places to take that might otherwise not allow for a bike. e.g. I had to ride a cargo bike across town for service last week and taking the Brommy in the box so I could ride something home was just so nice

https://www.montaguebikes.com/

Where do I keep it is the problem Brompton’s solve really really really well. And incidentally, if you don’t ride a Brompton, the tires don’t get flat spots because when folded the tires don’t touch the ground.

They are amazing pieces of engineering.

As TFA notes, they're allowed on trains even during rush hour when full-size bikes are not. They fold effortlessly; folding and unfolding a couple times a day at the station is no hassle at all. They ride much like a full size bike, with the exception of the fact that if you pedal through a turn, you're much more likely to strike a pedal into the ground.

The only downside is that the 16" tires are murder on bumpy roads, of which Boston has many.

Start: "I paid over two thousand dollars for this, used! Why are they so expensive? Other folding bikes are half the price and offer more, the gear shift is confusing and doesn't work properly, all the parts are overcomplicated and proprietary, >:-("

End: "I really like this bike. I'm so impressed with the build quality."

Comment a year later: "I've owned my Brompton for well over a year now, and absolutely love it. It's one bike I will absolutely never sell. The gear shifting was indeed a point of confusion for me, as there were two variables. 1. I had zero experience with Sturmey Archer hubs 2. The cable needed tightening. .. I'll often choose to bring my Brompton places not because it's portable, but rather because the bag and rack are so functional. Having your cargo down low makes it really stable, and being able to remove the bag so easily is super convenient."

Then again, taking the front wheel of my road bike takes an extra minute. Then i can put it on the train as well. That’s when I start questioning my decisions no matter whether I took the foldable one or non foldable one.

I remember having mountain bikes and the lycra cyclist fashion norms -- like no road bicycle fenders, no basket -- it looks ridiculous in retrospect. When I lived in a 80K ppl town with fields 5 min ride away, and almost never used bikes as a transport -- almost exclusively for leisure.

We had a couple of issues finding replacement tyres, but only two days out of 80 where we had any issues - and both were avoidable/our fault.

Here's a short showing off the bike if anyone's interested. (one day we'll make a full length video!)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AJlo3Jbaxk0

If I ever learn to ride a bike... I'm pretty sure it will be on a folding one.

Brompton is probably the #1 brand bike thieves will target though, everyone I know who has one never leaves it out of their sight. That's way too stressful for me, I don't want to take it with me in the supermarket or watch over it at the pub. I just got a cheap Decathlon with very low thief appeal.

Those Brompton P-lines were expensive even used (around $2000), but thanks to the brand value, we believe that we wouldn't lose too much money if we ended up not liking the hobby and wanted to resell. It's more a question of: do you want to lock up cash and get most of it back when you sell, or do you want to spend less now but lose more on the sale? Typical dilemma with high brand-value products.

What I appreciate about Brompton is there is a well-established hacking culture. This is true for bikes in general, but because the design is so specific, it's great to know there is a strong community on Reddit, YouTube, etc. to get inspired and ask questions.

The Brompton community seems to have no shame in using unofficial AliExpress parts, especially if they are better in some way (lighter, better roller rack balance, etc.). This is additionally true because many official parts are expensive and often out of stock.

There are a bunch of Brompton clones out there, especially copying the old-school C-line. I have mixed feelings about clones in general, especially when they are straight knockoffs. With that said, if I really got into the hobby, perhaps I'd try to hack together an ultralight custom "BrompNot," something like the T-line but customized to my own needs.

One more thing: if you ever take the EuroStar, get a bag for your folding bike! We saw someone almost miss the train in London because they didn't have a bag for their Brompton. I assume this may also apply in some transit scenarios where bikes are not allowed; even folding bikes might be gray area. The IKEA DIMPA bag is cheap and works well for this purpose.

1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle#/media/File:...]

Maybe it's just my experience, but every folded bike I've seen in the wild looked more or less like a bundle of bike parts, with bits sticking out here and there. You'll never look at a folded bike and think, "Hey, what's that?", because it always looks exactly like what it is.

It seems like there's something about a bike's geometry and mechanism which doesn't lend itself to symmetry and easy compaction.

Tokyo also has a couple of great Brompton shops for maintenance and parts.

I have upgraded the Tern. The original FSA crank would come loose and so I replaced it with a Shimano 105 part which required a Wheels Mfg 386 EVO Adaptor. I've never had a problem with it since. I also replaced the front derailleur with an SRAM Yaw which is just perfection.

It's great out to about 20 miles and you can't go up anything really steep because the shorter wheelbase just pops a wheelie. Tires and tubes are hard to find. But it's an awesome bike to have around.

It's his bike, he loves it, it's not an unbiased independent review.

The only "gotcha" is how you deal with luggage. I've used a seatpost rack, but I've also had a seatpost rack fail on me one time.

Glad to hear biking has gone mainstream. Don't forget to pay respects to many of us pioneers, some whom survived some who didn't.

It paid for itself in saved fuel and parking fees in the first year I had it.

Still, even though I've had it for years, I always feel awkward about bringing it in to a cafe or similar, and almost never do it.

Folding bikes always seem to push engineering into very unusual directions compared to regular bikes.

I’ve been eyeing up Bromptons for years, especially the new G (gravel) line which has 20” wheels up from 16” and chunkier tires (for ride comfort on potholes and rough asphalt, and being able to ride down a trail). But I have no need for one, and they’re not cheap to buy on a whim.

I’d really like to try a Kwiggle folding bike, too, just for fun. The standing-riding position might feel less like riding a bike and more like ‘accelerated walking’. And it folds smaller than a Brompton tri-fold.

[1] https://www.kwigglebike.com/en_US/

What are the more legitimate reasons for little wheels on bikes? I guess the goal like with this one is to have the least amount of bike as necessary?

I've been eyeing an Urtopia Carbon Fold 2 as my next folding bike. It's electric but I prefer those nowadays.