louisthedog

hiya, I've been wondering whether anyone has done some bike trekking on a 20" folding bike - I've just bought one to replace my beloved Paratrouper which was vandalised by the Cromer youth on Easter. However, this Dahon Vybe D7 seems to have a very poor low gear... hard to get up anything, and I dread to think what it would do with additional luggage.
I would be grateful if anyone with touring experience on a 20" could give some advice - also on how to wheel the thing into a train/ boat etc. Are there any bags/coverings that allow one to wheel the bike whilst it is covered up and folded? I have seen one bag for sale with drawstrings on the bottom, but I don't know if it allows one to actually wheel the bike along rather than carrying it.
thanks for your advice!

Reddleman

Sorry to hear about your losses at the hands of scrotes in Norfolk.

You can regear folders for better range - it’s easier if your back wheel has a cassette hub. If that’s the case, I would sling on a Microshift Advent super short setup to begin with (it’s designed for kids 20” wheeled MTBs) and maybe change the chainring for something smaller than 52 teeth.

From memory, Tern makes a bike cover that can allow folders to be wheeled. I’ve either bagged mine completely for travel or just not bothered so I can’t help you much there I’m afraid.

Join us in the Folding Bikes subforum and you may have more luck with answers - there’s only a couple of us who seem to lurk in both!

axolotl

I've got a Bike Friday NWT folder which has 20" wheels. I've toured on it a lot, but I'm guessing that by "trekking" you mean something more akin to a mountain bike tour. Some of my touring has been on unpaved trails, but it wasn't really mountain biking.

I've got a large nylon square-shaped bag with a zipper on 3 of the 4 sides which I've used on trains. I got it from Bike Friday. I can roll it up when not in use but it takes up about 30% of one rear pannier, though it doesn't weigh a lot. Lately, I've carried a large black plastic garbage bag on tours when I expect to be taking a train which might not have dedicated space for bikes. That has worked well on French trains which didn't accept regular bikes, but the garbage bag isn't nearly as sturdy as the nylon bag. It is much less bulky, however. I remember folding my bike without a bag to put it in, and it was accepted on small buses which had minimal baggage areas, in Thailand and Colombia.

My Bike Friday NWT isn't a quick-fold like a Bromptom, so I've found it easier to put my folded bike in the plastic trash bag if I remove the pedals. The Bike Friday NWT is a very good touring bike. My newer one has triple chain rings. My older one has a Sachs internal rear hub shifter which acts like a triple crankset. Both bikes are fine for touring in mountainous areas. I'm not at all familiar with a Paratrouper or a Dahon Vybe D7. I tried riding a couple of older Dahon models and was not impressed.

tcs

The Dahon Vybe D7 is a low-cost folding bike - NTTAWWT. Can you tour with it? Certainly - folks have ridden around the world on far less capable machines. Will the bike have limitations? Certainly - it's a low-cost folding bike, not an all-singing, all-dancing touring bike.

Where a touring-optimised bike might have 27 or 36 gear ratios and a gear inch range of 20 inches [or lower (smaller)] to 100 gear inches [or higher (larger)], your Dahon Vybe D7 has seven ratios from 34 to 68.

Dahon says this bike has a cassette, and that's possibly correct - or it might be a freewheel. Either way, you might replace your 14-tooth to 28-tooth gearing with a 13-tooth to 34-tooth gearing, increasing your gear range to 28 to 74. You would also need a rear derailleur with greater capacity - which will hang down closer to the ground (probably not a problem, but something to keep in mind with 20" wheels). This modification would not be too expensive. This low-cost bike does not have a replaceable chainwheel.

There are a great deal more modifications one might make to expand the gear range. The cost of the parts and the work will exceed the bike's initial purchase price.

A number of suppliers offer carry bags, including Dahon.



There are videos on YouTube showing how to roll a folded 'fold-in-half' bike.

tcs

The Vincita B132 might do.

tcs

Our OP is based in the UK.

"Trekking" seems to be the English (language) translation of whatever word they use for 'mucking about the countryside on a bicycle for multiple days' in Germany, Scandinavia and the Low Countries. "Trekking" bicycle models in those markets are touring bikes, generally with high (not drop) handlebars. There's even a special 'trekking' handlebar bend - we'd probably call it a butterfly bar in America.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

greatbasin

This one doesn't answer whether the folder can tour, but whether it can climb:


The Brompton's low gearing wasn't the issue, but it fell a bit flat on the flats owing to the lack of tall gearing which is inherent to the small wheel sizes. With the rear sprocket limited from being any smaller than something like 11 teeth and the front sprocket not practical to make huge, the small wheels make the folder well-suited for low gears but not tall ones unless it uses something else like an internal hub gearset or pinion gearbox, which have their own limitations. Now if the folder is just rubbish to begin with, then it's not well-suited for anything. A good folder would have meaningful advantages in touring, particularly where one flies or goes by car, perhaps rental car, to the area where they tour.

As for weight, some people put 60 pounds of parcels on their bike -- so what? Plenty of riders are 60 pounds heavier than you are. Other tourers just put the proverbial credit-card in their lycra pocket and go.

john m flores 

This fellow tours the world on cheap folding bikes.

Ron Damon

I've toured on 20" and 16" wheel folders in South Korea, Taiwan and Bali. Whether you can bring your bike in ferries, buses, trains, etc. is location specific. Bags? Yeah, those can be rather common, though in done places like South Korea they are not required. Heck I was allowed on the bullet train in South Korea with my folder simply folded.
.
Regarding gearing, well it depends on your own strength, the weight you carry and the terrain. I reckon an 11-36T corset would be sufficient in some places.


Bali 16"

South Korea

Taiwan

A bit of warning. There's quite a bit of elitism here. You will encounter folks that will intimate and hint, hint that you need a fancy 'swinging and dancing' touring bike (that costs megabucks). You don't need to buy a Brompton or a Bike Friday to have a good, competent folding touring bike.

Ron Damon

Gearing is not a problem for folding bikes for touring where you are loaded with weight and the object is distance rather than speed. Shimano used to make or makes the Capreo cogset with a 9t small sprocket. You can buy a 60t chainring if you'd like. I used to have a folder with 18-116 gear-inches with a SRAM dual-drive. In fact, I got rid of it because it had too much range. Once again, gearing is not an issue for folders when it comes to touring.
.

Tourist in MSN

My only suggestion is to do better planning than a couple I met in Iceland. They planned to backpack, but when they got there they decided to buy a cheap pair of folding bikes instead. She thought that there would be nothing wrong with using one strap to strap her backpack to the rack that was on the bike. I had just finished my tour, I gave her a strap that I no longer needed, thus there are two straps holding her backpack to her bike rack.



I left to go home soon after I met them, so I have no clue how things worked out for them.

tcs

As do SunRace, some boutique houses and a little Italian company called Campagnolo. Shimano and SRAM both offer 10T.

The thought that "small wheels make the folder well-suited for low gears but not tall ones" does not comport with the evolved component market of 2023.

"The Brompton's low gearing wasn't the issue, but it fell a bit flat on the flats owing to the lack of tall gearing which is inherent to the small wheel sizes."

In that video, the rider was indeed handicapped by the lack of taller gears. GNC chose, for whatever reason, a folding bike brand with odd, limited drivetrains, and then chose the two-speed model from that brand. It was a specific rather than generic representation.

tcs

On YouTube one can find videotravelogs of all manner of cycletours long and short, well-planned and thoughfully executed upon small wheel folding bikes. Hours of entertainment & educational for others that might be so inclined.