"Tern" brand folding bikes

[Arzosah]

Thanks jansman - good to hear folding bikes feel useful to you. By next year, I'd hope to be using it twice a week or so, to go to a few different places in my town - but having read a bit of bikeradar, and comments on other purchase sites (Halfords ) its obvious that nowadays cycling isn't just buy it and ride it ... I cycled from when I was 7 years old, until my early 20s, plus cycling holidays in France, and I don't remember doing any adjustments at all ... if bikes need tweaking the way all the sites are suggesting, I need to know *much* more about bikes, what I want, what I can do, everything. Maybe I even need to juggle what I fit into my front porch - see whether I even *need* to fold a bike to get it in there.

I do think its important to have *something* - if I had to get to my sister's under my own power, a bike might mean the difference between managing it and not managing it.

This is a bit more long term than I realised!

[Yorkshire Andy]

To be fair modern basic bikes don't need much tweeking get a bike with Shimano gears and shifters and providing it's looked after they don't need much TLC


You will find mountain bikers spend more time stripping and servicing their iron horses as the mud and grit gets into everything ... Get it in the gear cables they stick and the gears don't shift very well

Tootling round town its much less an issue .

New bikes do "settle in" as the gear cables stretch also the rider weight can influence the gears.. you can set them up spot on in the workshop stand but then ride it and they rattle and grind. due to the frame flexing due to rider weight (more an issue on road aka racer bikes ) .. Most time providing the H and L stop screws are set up it's a half turn of the cable adjuster to get them back in order. Aka indexed .

Same with V brakes they occasionally go off kilter again 30 seconds with a screwdriver and you adjust the tension to square them up

Biggest utter total complete and utter swines are in my eyes front derailleurs as they are very finniky to set up bang on
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-he ... a%5B%5D=52

[sniper 55]

To be fair modern basic bikes don't need much tweeking get a bike with Shimano gears and shifters and providing it's looked after they don't need much TLC


You will find mountain bikers spend more time stripping and servicing their iron horses as the mud and grit gets into everything ... Get it in the gear cables they stick and the gears don't shift very well

Tootling round town its much less an issue .

New bikes do "settle in" as the gear cables stretch also the rider weight can influence the gears.. you can set them up spot on in the workshop stand but then ride it and they rattle and grind. due to the frame flexing due to rider weight (more an issue on road aka racer bikes ) .. Most time providing the H and L stop screws are set up it's a half turn of the cable adjuster to get them back in order. Aka indexed .

Same with V brakes they occasionally go off kilter again 30 seconds with a screwdriver and you adjust the tension to square them up

Biggest utter total complete and utter swines are in my eyes front derailleurs as they are very finniky to set up bang on
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-he ... a%5B%5D=52

Not helped IMHO by the "oval" front sprockets that were popular a while back (don't know if they are still used) and if the bottom bracket bearing is a bit loose as well you've had it getting them right.

[featherstick]

Lots of good advice on this thread.

I will add a few points (long-term cyclist, community cycling volunteer, proud owner of 8-10 bikes):

- Cheap bikes are always a false economy - ppl buy them on the basis that "I don't know whether I'll like it so I don't want to spend lots of money" but buying a £99.99 Bike-Shaped Object guarantees you WON'T like it.
- Folding bikes are more expensive than ordinary bikes - there's more engineering in them. A cheap folding bike is awful to ride, it will creak and sway and the critical bits will start failing very soon.
- Avoid Halfords for anything other than components that someone else will fit. They don't look after bikes properly. I have seen with my own eyes a chain crank fall off just before a busy roundabout; a chain tensioner about to fall off; and handlebars move, all immediately after a Halfords "service".
- If you do start cycling, get friendly with a nice Local Bike Shop (LBS)
- Don't get sucked into the techy, kit-obsessed rabbit hole - there are many good, functional bikes out there that will pootle along with minimal care. It is worth learning some basic maintenance though, for my money that includes: changing a tube at the side of the road; adjusting brake tension; adjusting gear tension; proper tyre pressure; and oiling a chain.

[Arzosah]

Andy, sniper, featherstick with that listing of points - thank you. Lots of information here.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Sniper "bio pace" were Shimanios name for the egg shaped rings allong with knackered knees


The modern external bottom brackets are much easier to set up as long as the BB shell is faced




And featerstick you can't beat xtr with super shiny titanium bling

[jansman]

Thanks jansman - good to hear folding bikes feel useful to you. By next year, I'd hope to be using it twice a week or so, to go to a few different places in my town - but having read a bit of bikeradar, and comments on other purchase sites (Halfords ) its obvious that nowadays cycling isn't just buy it and ride it ... I cycled from when I was 7 years old, until my early 20s, plus cycling holidays in France, and I don't remember doing any adjustments at all ... if bikes need tweaking the way all the sites are suggesting, I need to know *much* more about bikes, what I want, what I can do, everything. Maybe I even need to juggle what I fit into my front porch - see whether I even *need* to fold a bike to get it in there.

I do think its important to have *something* - if I had to get to my sister's under my own power, a bike might mean the difference between managing it and not managing it.

This is a bit more long term than I realised!

The tweaking and messing,I mitigated with the Brompton as it is a hub gear and simple caliper brakes.When I was commuting hard,I rode fixed wheel,with just a front brake.But that is a bit hardcore! Now if I cycle,I love the folder.

[Arzosah]

Good to hear. I'm definitely going to get a couple of library books out, and subscribe to that bikeradar site, before I make any purchase.

[sniper 55]

Sniper "bio pace" were Shimanios name for the egg shaped rings allong with knackered knees


The modern external bottom brackets are much easier to set up as long as the BB shell is faced




And featerstick you can't beat xtr with super shiny titanium bling

Bio pace. Yes those were the ones, I wouldn't have remembered the name though.
I always fancied the old style campagnolo hooded brakes (tour de France), never had them though, they were supposed to be rubbish (I was told) looked cool all the same.

[Yorkshire Andy]

There's way too much evolution in the bike world gone are the 26" mountain bike 700c road bikes

Unless you now want a 69er ohhherrr

Complex bikes = more problems be it suspension pivots or suspension forks pissing oil out all over hydraulic disc brakes





I've got a couple of mountain bikes but the full suspension is nothing but agro and grease bloody thing creaks and grates ( we are talking £1,500 worth of bike not a £120 catalogue special)

Unless your plugging mud there's nothing wrong with the humble v-brake and decent pads they will still love my 14stone fat ass over the handle bars