Jipe

Look at the Birdy!

Duragrouch

I think the way a Brompton locks together (fold, put the seatpost down, that locks the fold together) is one of its better features and very well thought-out.

Duragrouch

If compact fold and ease of transport are priorities, the Brompton seems still the king, even for travel it folds in 15 seconds, and easily meets checked luggage size limits. The drivetrain folds to the inside so it's less likely to get things oily, even if not carried in a bag. It's very easy to put inside a boat compartment or light plane back seat. It's drawbacks are the very small wheels for ride and handling, and pannier transport is difficult, plus a taller rack for such goofs up the fold. (EDIT: And it's expensive.) Most Brompton loaded-tourers used a large Brompton bag on the handlebars and a medium volume backpack resting on the rear standard rack and tied to the seatpost.

Perhaps a close second is the Helix, which folds almost as small with larger, more capable tires, but they are 24" so very limited selection. I think a Helix will also fit checked luggage limits, I'm sure someone here knows, there's a big Helix thread.

A Bike Friday is a lot more trouble to travel with, it goes fairly small but is a more messy folded package and requires a good amount of disassembly to get small, like 30-45 minutes to pack or unpack. However it is designed for loaded touring if you want.

A bifold like my Dahon Speed, does not fold nearly as compact, it will be a challenge to fit for checked luggage, disassembly of wheels, handlebar stem, and seatpost from frame, and may still need to be packed into two parcels to meet size limits. However I have been able to set it up like a Bike Friday (at much lower cost) and it is a capable tourer, and transport on train is a breeze, just take off panniers, do standard fold (a lot less messy than a Bike Friday), and it fits easily in train car luggage rack and Amtrak regs specifically allow folders in the luggage rack.

Fentuz

if you re handy, any old dahon (2nd hand) would do. Then, you swap parts to your liking.
i had a curve which was ok for little commutes and once folded fitted in the elise… dahon curve = recovery vehicle

then a jetsteam which was good to mess about but heavy…

and in the end, i kept the old helios fitted with parts from the speed tt and mu sl because easy and strong…

Duragrouch

But wouldn't a British Brompton be a more appropriate recovery vehicle for the infamous British car reliability?

"Lucas three-position switch; on, off, and flicker."

Fentuz

the car was not bad in term of reliability, did 130000 miles on 1 tuned engine (half of the mileage on track), and another 20000 on a full race engine.
but at the time, a dahon curve d3 cost £300 new and a brompton was over £700…. So difference in price was a full set of slicks for the elise…

Duragrouch

I think British electronics got better after Ford acquired Jaguar in 1990, and later Land Rover in 2000. Mundane stuff like that, HVAC systems, power window motors, etc, Ford knew how to design and test, whether in-house or outsourced, and I'll bet that established a pool of knowledge of those things in the UK, just like Toyota and Honda manufacturing and suppliers in the USA has greatly improved supplier quality. Lotus and Land Rover contributed design talent at the macro scale.

In the 1990s, I would see ads for Lotus Esprit turbos from earlier than that, 20,000 miles, "New engine!" The later Esprit S4 and V8, loved the styling, especially in sunflower yellow, perfect rounding of the previous crisp lines.

Fentuz

well the electronic was still “interesting” due to various acquisitions. Ford got involved, honda got involved, bmw got involved all resulting in a mix of connector and sensor from an engine loom point of view. Then with small manufacturer, the cockpit was another mix of part, rover, opel, peugeot… hvac was for the old MG B…
but the big issue was the earthing because anodized aluminium chassis. i fixed it by replacing the oem earth cable adding some earth cables (engine chassis/gearbox chassis/ rear chassis to front chassis) and adding a starter to alternator cable as oem was too small…. May electric was good, gearbox amazing, engine was good as long as the heat management was sorted (in race condition @ 8000rpm, it stayed as cool as it was when driving on motorway.

sweeks

"Lucas - Prince of Darkness"
(I have friends who own Vincent motorcycles.)