My wife and I are preparing to go island hopping in Southern Japan after embracing the BPL principles. Regular touring bikes seem inconvenient for public transport so started investigating foldups and came across this last night.

http://pathlesspedaled.com/2011/07/video-backpacks-on-bromptons/

http://pathlesspedaled.com/2011/09/zen-and-the-art-of-brompton-touring/

As a beginner, I am curious what others more experienced might think.

I've toured on a folding trike ;-)

But in all seriousness, go for it. There are quite a few good folders out there now, Bromptons, Bike Fridays are probably the best, followed by Dahons.

If you are carrying an UL load, then a brompton is great, or a Bike Friday Tikit. If you were doing the more traditional cycle tourist thing of four panniers a handlebar bag and a racktoo bag then you'd want one of the more substantial Bike Friday Models (Eg new world tourist).

There are lots of journals of people touring with folding bikes on crazy guy on a bike. Look here for ideas...

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/categories/?o=1&category_id=315&doctype=journal

337 journals to be exact. You'd probably be lucky to find more than a dozen with an ultralight load, but that's not the issue, you can read about their experiences with transport, handling etc etc. Pictures of set-ups mean a lot for ideas.

The main downside to folders as far as I'm concerned is the small wheels. This means its harder to find spares (tyres, rims, tubes, spokes) so you have to potentially carry more of your own in some areas-Japan bike shops are probably pretty good though. Also, smaller wheels like that feel road noise and bumps more easily. My trike was 16 inch 349 ERTO, and there were plenty of times when I wished they were a bit bigger.

You can't really go wrong though. If you decide you don't like touring on it after your first trip, you've got a great commuting bike/spare bike.

Also, I just realised you want some advice on their backpack setups on the bromptons. To be honest, looking at the pictures of their set ups scares me a little. Its a lot of gear, not secured fantastically well on the back, and the centre of gravity is pretty high. This makes handling the bike unweildy, which might be fine most of the time, but when you don't want it to could be dangerous. You don't want your backpack helping you build up a speed wobble on a descent. Better to keep it low and tight, use a couple of small panniers on the sides of a rack, etc. You probably won't have as much gear or weight as them though so its much less of an issue.

I'd probably go with a solid front rack and put most of the weight there. On the back I'd fit something like a Revelate designs seatpack with another ~14L of gear-lighter less dense stuff like sleeping bag and clothes. If you are under 10lbs of gear, I would then prioritise saving volume over weight-aerodynamics and handling will have a bigger impact on your speed than losing more weight.

Thanks for the advise. Seems they address many of concerns about loading stability and handling vs loaded panniers in the links I posted. I like the idea of just a backpack, since we have them already, and a front bag. To travel the southern islands we will be going by air, sea, and perhaps bus. Having just 3 pieces of kit to carry seems manageable. My wife is a small woman too, and even this may be too much for her.

I have seen the Dahon brand here in Japan but don't recall Bike Friday or Brompton. My concern is I might be a little too big, 187cm and ~100kg. Don't really want to spend alot on a full blown touring bike either as we will probably just give them away after we are done and leave Japan for good in the Fall.

Edited by rmjapan on 02/28/2012 18:49:03 MST.

Hi Rick, I've been touring for 37 years, 14 of those with my Bike Friday New World Tourist. In Japan, using trains and ferries and sometimes planes, the folding aspect definitely makes a big difference (I used to do "rinko" cycling... bagging a full-wheel bike, too) . Bike Fridays as custom made and you can get them in Japan from the fantastic Bike Friday main representative Cycletech-IKD in Takasaki (with mail order very easy to do and a great staff who a very friendly to non-Japanese) or the Tokyo Bike Friday store Amanda Cycle, who I've heard are good, too. If you're not going to be doing huge distances and folding is the most important concern, than I recommend the Bike Friday Tikit, the Brompton (smallest folder), or the German-made Birdy BD-1. The Tikit has the best ride here. For longer distances I'd recommend the Bike Friday New World Tourist for it's better handling and touring geometry.

Small wheels have problems and pluses. Like was said they ride more harshly and are more squirrelly to handle. However, the are also much stronger than larger wheels and accelerate better. I tone down the road rattle buy using fatter tires kept at a slightly lower pressure, so the tires absorb some of the road roughness. You can easily find 20" tires at children's bike shops, which is why the Bike Friday New World Tourist has an advantage here. The others all use unusual smaller wheels.

I wouldn't recommend putting too much weight on the front rack because small-wheeled bicycles already have overly quickly front wheel handling. Keep the weight down low (as near the axels of the wheels as you can), and back. Unlike mountain bikes using the Revelate Designs and Carousel Designs bike packing bags, which have much bigger wheels and a better gyroscopic effect, small wheels will be more unstable if you keep the weight too high. So it's best to keep most of your camping gear in panniers low down in the rear. Just make sure the panniers are far enough to the rear that your heels don't hit them when you pedal.

In Japan women tend to favor the Brompton because of it's design and second to that, the Tikit. Both are easier for women to carry than the New World Tourist or BD-1, especially small women. This includes the problem of weight, but also the size for when you do things like carry the bikes down train station stairs.

Here is a site with suggestions for cycling routes in Japan. He mostly uses a Bike Friday New World Tourist recently.

Edited by butuki on 02/28/2012 19:44:43 MST.

Pacific Cycles iF Mode
http://www.pacific-cycles.com/product3.asp?cat1=1&cat2=4&pid=1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/feb/15/cycling-pacific-mode-folding-bike

Thanks for the tips and links. Looks like it easy to spend way more $$$ on a bike than UL hiking gear! But this will be a 6 week tour at most and then I will probably just give the bikes away so I really not keen to spend alot for these, like under US$500ea. Otherwise, I can just hire a car or rent a bike when I get to an island.

Hi Rick: I also posted to your post in gear section but also want to add about a cyclist size. I am 6'1" and had issues with the overall size of my bike. If I decided to make my Dahon work I would have had to replace the seat post and stem to increase their size. Since the bike felt squirrley as is I figured adding to stem length would acerbate the situation. Charlie

Thanks for the incites Charlie. Being big/tall in Japan makes everything just a wee bit harder and inconvenient for me here.

I have done a lot of touring, but have not toured on my folder. Personally I do not find my Dahon (Helios) suitable for serious touring. Even unloaded the long stem and seat post are way too noodley and I can only assume it would be worse with a load. It could possibly be pleasant enough for a leisurely flat tour with a very light load.

Other folders may be better, but any bike with a long mast for a stem, I'd be suspicious of it and want to try before buying especially if expecting to carry a load on climbs. I really don't like the Dahon even for unloaded climbing. It is OK for short errands around town, but I wouldn't be too likely to use it for more than that.

Bottom line... Don't assume a folder will suit your needs without trying one, preferably with a similar load to what you will be carrying on tour.

I gave up on this idea. My wife wisely pointed out that for what a pair of Bromptons cost (or any touring bike), we could buy a car, travel safer with less hassle and have a lot more fun.

Have a lot more fun than touring by bicycle? personally I can't think of a better way to travel on roads. It travels at just a slow enough clip that you can actually see and smell and feel things, but fast enough to cover big distances in a reasonable amount of time, you meet people very easily because people tend to be curious about bicycle travelers, plus bicycles are less intimidating than cars, plus you're getting in great shape just by moving along.

My wife and I, 2 folding bikes and our baby girl in her trailer. I've done a lot
of bike touring before on a "full size" bike and I was sceptical at first about
getting on a trip with folding bikes. But we did and honestly it was really nice.
We were traveling in Southern France in summer, so it was possible to travel quite
light and it helped the setup on the bikes. As in hiking, biking light is much more
fun.

Edited by jffortier on 08/21/2012 06:18:40 MDT.