Folders as means to get out of Russia
 

In the visual reports from all kinds of disasters, the bikes seem to play an amplified role compared to the everyday life. Now the folding bikes seem to help to get out of the draft in Russia, in this set of shots fleeing into Georgia:

Ajazeera

Citrus County Chronicle

itv News (scroll down)

One of the articles states that crossing on foot at one border crossing is illegal, and describes a pile of discarded bicycles, perhaps suggesting that "on bicycle" may be similarly prohibited. A folding bicycle might allow packing the bike along as one traveled by car or bus over the border, where a conventional full sized bike might need to be discarded.

Folders are the best for multi-mode travel. I bought mine when working as a contractor, specifically so I could run small errands without losing a coveted urban parking space close to a work site. It could live inside my work vehicle without the huge space penalty I'd get with a conventional bike.

Is there any hope we can leave this thread open without getting into politics? Politics is only allowed in the P&R forum. Some people need to review the forum rules.

It is not necessarily about politics. It's about escapism. In this case it's from or inspired by Russia, but who knows what the future brings. It could be a natural disaster and having a folding bike, maybe in the trunk of a car.

It's politics adjacent, no doubt.

Interesting stories. Thanks for posting them.

My bikes and trailers are my bug out solution in case of a big earthquake here in Ca. If there's no gas and no electricity, then human meat power on bikes will be the answer. Bikes are always the answer, lol. Helping the planet one rotation at a time.

Folding bikes = emergency evac solution

I have used my folder in a similar manner. When I had to take a car to work, but could only park many blocks away from my building, I would take the folder along to close the gap. Now I hardly ever use a car, but if I need to join my family for an event straight out of work, I would ride the folder to work rather than a full-size bike. However, Russia is an enormous country and many people crossing the border might have driven for days to get there. Did they anticipate the situation early on and took their folders along in the cars? Did they fly with their folders? The stories brought up in the articles are too few to cover this. Maybe, as you mention, the full-size bikes may need to be abandoned, filtering out the folders, so they stick out.

Honestly, this topic seems like a bit of a stretcher.

Some of the bikes are discarded AFTER the border is crossed.

A couple of years back some folks were trying to escape the horror of the Syrian civil war and get to a Western European country. They could get a tourist visa to Russia. They'd travel south to north to north to north some more in Russia, to the Norwegian border. (Yes, Norway shares a border with Russia. This will be on the test.)

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1e02391edb.png

But you couldn't cross the border on foot, so they'd buy the cheapest bicycle available in Russia - which was a single-speed Chinese manufactured folding bike - and ride the few kilometers to the border, show their papers, and plead for refugee status. Allowed to cross into Norway, they'd ditch the bike.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...46ece082ab.png


But this isn't everyone. Props to the guy in the OP's middle article with the Strida! Bet he owned it already and that he hangs onto it. Convenient, multi-modal capable, fuel-independent, license-free, untaxed transportation is a handy thing to have in 195 countries.

BTW, lots of YouTube Strida videos from Russian owners/riders. When world peace breaks out, hope to unfold and ride with you!

This makes more sense than my original suggestion, and jives with the image of young men on bikes after crossing the border.

It's interesting that crossing on a bicycle would be legal, while crossing on foot would not be. Never having been an immigrant, the only personal experience I can offer that seems at all relevant are auto queues. For example, It felt very inappropriate to stand as a pedestrian in the line of cars waiting for a covid test, but astride a bicycle, it not only felt fine, but the worker managing the line waved me up to the front.

Oddly enough, a couple of years ago I did find out there was a folding bike scene in Russia when searching for more information about a Chinese-made folder that was being imported at the time into NZ. Turned out it was a brand also sold there and some folks were doing the usual mods and upgrades that we all do around the world.

There are certain land borders out there where you can’t just walk across, sometimes it’s because there’s a distance between either countries’ border controls. Combine that with queues and the hassle of exporting motor vehicles, I could see the temptation of dumping your car and proceeding by bike across the border in this situation if the usual taxis aren’t running or charging a small fortune.

If you have a problem with an action the moderation team took like deleting your homophobic slurs, then please message me.

It seems obvious to me what's going on here: this is a highly sophistimacated scheme to smuggle folding bicycles out of Russia.

just look at all the bicycles on the road!

I wander of there would be an update as people now run back from Georgia to Russia.
Any folders used for return trip?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...36971a035.jpeg