Daily Commuting Tips: Reason #324 why you should get a folding bike
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OK, I haven't really come up with 323 previous reasons to get a folding bike, but you get the idea. The truth is if you're the sort of person who likes to use a bike as their primary means of transport, it really should be a folding one. Why? Let's take the other day.
08:30: I walk my 9yr old son to school. When I say walk, I mean that I drop the saddle and stem on my folding bike and he rides along as I walk (avoiding the Dreaded Daily Dawdle - all parents are familiar with this?). I'm 6' 0", he's 4' 10". Try doing that on a normal bike.
08:45: Son dropped off at school I ride 15 minutes to the railway station, jump on the train, fold the bike neatly into the luggage rack and enjoy my train journey. No worries about full bike spaces or locking the bike up outside. Again, try doing that with a normal bike (this will get tedious)
10:00: Arrive at my destination, unfold the bike and I'm off towards work along the canal. Bike behaves just like a normal bike on the towpath, apart from a few quirky glances from the locals.
10:15: Arrive at work and stash the bike under my desk. Another busy working day flies by, largely unnoticed. My bike sits there, largely unnoticed. Try parking a normal bike under your desk.
18:00: Ride to the station and catch my train with similar lack of drama as detailed earlier. My phone rings. It's my wife - she wants to meet me at a pub in town and then get a meal. My brain does this: "O no can't I've got my bike oh no wait a minute of course you can you've got a folding bike." I say, "Yep no probs, that's great, see you at 7", breezy as you like.
19:00: Arrive in town, ride to pub. Fold up bike. Take it inside. No-one notices. Drink a beer with my bike beside the pub table. Ever dreamt of doing that with a normal bike?
19:45: Walk to restaurant pushing bike along happily, fold up bike, walk in. Ask the waiter if I can stash the bike under the stairs. He's so bemused at what the tangled mess of wheels, gears and tubing is, he says, "of course". We sit down and have our meal.
21:00: Meal over, we call a cab. A few minutes later the cab arrives. The bike goes in the boot of the cab. We drive home. The bike is stashed under the stairs, out of the way, ready for another ‘ordinary day'.
NB: I'm not sponsored by a consortium of folding bike manufacturers. Thing is, folders allow you to do normal life, ‘harder, better, faster, stronger', as Daft Punk would have it.
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