Who Should Buy a Folding Bike?
Folks who commute by BART, bus, ferry or train. People who want a bike in their car, not on their car for parking then riding around for errands. Travelers who want a bike that is easy to carry, doesn't cost extra to take on a plane (like full size bikes), and fits easily in a rental car. People with limited space in their boats or planes that need transportation when they get from “A” to “B”. Almost anyone, really.

Our take on folding bikes is they are excellent, so long as they are used as folding bikes. In other words, if you want a $300 city bike but think you might need it to be a folding bike once or twice a year, buy a $300 city bike and walk those couple times where you'd need a folder. Why? Because while folding bikes are excellent at doing what they do best, fold, they are not going to ride like a city bike that has more gears and bigger wheels. What about folding bikes with bigger wheels? We don't stock them for one reason: When you fold them, they are still quite big, thereby defeating their usefulness much of the time.

What Size Folding Bike Do I Want?
Most of the time we recommend folding bikes with 20” wheels. While they sacrifice a bit of ride quality and efficiency over the bigger 26” and 700c wheels, they offer the best ride-quality-to-practicality ratio since they fold up nice and small. Even smaller wheels like 14” and 16” really start to suffer from efficiency and from terrain related issues; you feel every bump. The only reason to go smaller than 20” is for shorter riders and people with major space restrictions.

Will I Fit a Folding Bike? They Look Tiny!
The folding bikes we sell at Solano Avenue Cyclery are designed to fit a wide range of people. Many models will accommodate riders between 4’ 8” and 6’ 4”, with certain models fitting even smaller riders. Dahon also makes a telescoping seat post to help fit very tall riders, or folks with long legs. Many of the bikes will also carry riders in excess of 200 pounds.