A portable bicycle is a bicycle that has been designed to be small and light enough for easy carrying. It is usually dismantled to make a convenient bundle and the frame often has a folding action to facilitate this. The design of a portable bicycle involves a trade-off between ease of carrying and ease of riding.

History

The first popular bicycles were the large penny-farthings. The pioneering inventor, W. H. J. Grout of Stoke Newington, invented a portable version in which the large front wheel could be dismantled into four pieces so that they would fit into a carrying bag. In the 1890s, Captain Gérard of the 87th Regiment of French Infantry was an advocate of bicycles for military use. To enable his troops to operate in rough terrain, he devised a bicycle which could be folded in two and carried on the soldiers' backs; the weight was "between 22 and 26¼ lbs" (10–12 kg). The first time the Gérard portable bicycle was used, it "gave complete satisfaction and justified all expectations". The bicycles were manufactured by Charles Morel who commercialised the type. In 1919, Charles Haskell Clark of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

filed a patent (granted in 1921) (patent US1381281) for a portable bicycle that was easy to carry onto trains or street cars. Additional advantages of small wheels, described in the patent, were the reduced interference with skirts and the ability to dodge in and out among the crowd.Google Patents
Charles Haskell Clark velocipede. The December 1919 issue of

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

had an article describing Mr. Clark's "city bicycle".

Riding performance

The riding performance of portable bicycles is challenged by the need to make the bike as small and as light as possible. Rider body weight and size, and road conditions have a strong impact on design and on performance. Typically, portable bicycles intended for the

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

market (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, ...) can be designed for riders lighter than 80 kg and shorter than 174 cm. Northern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and America require designs for riders up to 120 kg and 200 cm. City roads are generally smoother in Asian cities, but the bicycle has to be able to ride in crowded city

sidewalks A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick, stone ...

. Many European city streets are paved with cobblestone, so portable bicycles marketed in Europe need to cope with such a pavement. The smaller the diameter of a

bicycle wheel A bicycle wheel is a wheel, most commonly a wire wheel, designed for a bicycle. A pair is often called a wheelset, especially in the context of ready built "off the shelf" performance-oriented wheels. Bicycle wheels are typically designed ...

, the higher the rolling friction and the rougher the ride, which is a challenge for portable bicycles as well as for

kick scooter A kick scooter (also referred to as a push-scooter or scooter) is a human-powered street vehicle with a handlebar, deck, and wheels propelled by a rider pushing off the ground with their leg. Today the most common scooters are made of aluminum, ...

s. New technological solutions are being studied to offer the same rolling friction at smaller wheel diameters.

Carrying and folding

The point at which a folding bicycle can be considered a portable bicycle is not precisely defined, and depends on the user. A benchmark for portability are the

Brompton Bicycle Brompton Bicycle is a British manufacturer of folding bicycles based in Greenford, London. The Brompton folding bicycle and accessories are the company's core product, noted for its self-supporting compact size when stored. All available model ...

s, medium-size bicycles that fold well and are the world's most numerous built on a single design. A bicycle easier to carry than the Brompton C3 can be considered portable. Many portable bicycles weigh below 6 kg and fold in less than 20 seconds. Above these figures the risk is that the bicycle is too heavy for easy carrying, or takes an inconveniently long time to fold. Folding and unfolding has to be easier than is needed for ordinary full-size folding bicycles, because portable bicycles are used for shorter trips than full-size folding bikes. Image:Zerobike_01.jpg, Zerobike Image:Zerobike_02.jpg, Zerobike folded Image:Mini125 02.jpg, Mini 125 Image:CarryMe riding SCP jeh.jpg,

Pacific Cycles Pacific Cycles is a Taiwan, Taiwanese bicycle designing and manufacturing company headquartered in Xinwu District, Taoyuan, Xinwu District, Taoyuan, Taiwan, Taoyuan City. The company manufactures its self designed cycles including Folding bicycle ...

CarryMe Image:Mobiky Gov Island jeh.jpg, Mobiky

Use

Frequent uses for a portable bicycle include: * last mile scooting from a far away parking lot * city district riding * subway or

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

station shuttle * family fun *

pit bike A pit bike is a small recreation, stunt or motocross racing motorcycle. Usually defined as having a horizontal air cooled engine and an open cradle frame. Pit bike history The pit bike evolved from the use of custom-built motorized two wheeled m ...

* short distance travel Bicycles can reduce

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

by shortening or eliminating car trips, and by extending the reach of

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

as part of a mixed-mode commute. Portable bicycles often can be used also by children and so can be kept for a lifetime.

List of portable bicycles, commercially available (present and past)

Many portable bicycles are or have been commercially available; they include: *

A-bike The A-bike is a folding bicycle released by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2006. It was designed by Hong Kong design agency Daka, in collaboration with Sinclair Research, over a 5-year period. It was announced to the publi ...

Mini125 The Mini125 is a design of portable bicycle. The current production features four models that have the same frame design but different wheels. The standard model weighs 5.9 kg, folds into a 73 cm × 36 cm × 22 cm package an ...

* BikeaPack * Bickerton portable
Carry-Me
* Handybike * Handybike 8 * Zero Bike * Bridgestone ** Transit Compact ** Transit Super Lite * Frog * Kahenseki ** Koma ** Kallima * Cocolofoo CB-2E *

Moulton Moulton may refer to: Places in the United Kingdom ;In England *Moulton, Cheshire * Moulton, Lincolnshire **Moulton Windmill * Moulton St Mary, Norfolk * Moulton, Northamptonshire ** Moulton College, agricultural college ** Moulton Park, indus ...

* 17bicycle EX Walker * Panasonic Traincle 6500, 7500 *

Strida Strida is a portable belt-driven folding bicycle with a distinctive 'A'-shaped collapsible frame, designed by British engineer and designer Mark Sanders. The first model, Strida 1, was released in 1987 and the latest, Strida 5.2, in 2009. ...

* Skoot *

Bike Friday Bike Friday is a manufacturer of folding, small-wheeled bicycles that is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The company was founded in 1992 by brothers Alan Scholz and Hanz Scholz. By 2018, it employed 22 people and manufactured fra ...

(Oregon) * Alessandro Belli Bike * Piccolino, UGO * Vikkino P * Cherubim Ultramini * JD Bike RB300, R100 * Giatex * Mobiky

References

External links

cafe.daum.net/MINIVELO

5 of the best folding bikes

{{Human-powered vehicles Portable bicycle de:Faltrad it:Bicicletta pieghevole nl:Vouwfiets ja:折り畳み自転車 pl:Rower składany sv:Hopfällbar cykel zh:折叠车