For the previous few weeks, I’ve been pedaling around the globe’s tiniest folding Bosch ebike as my youngsters (8 and 10) regard me with mingled delight and disgust. My son tried to experience away on it, with the convincing argument that this isn’t an grownup bike, it’s a child’s bike. I lock it up on the identical rack subsequent to my daughter’s mountain bike, and he or she notes that her bike is taller than mine. I ignore all of them. I really like this tiny bike.
Oregon-based Bike Friday hand-builds folding bikes of each selection, however as a small particular person (I’m 5’2”), I’m a selected fan of the corporate’s tiny, mild, folding bicycles. The bikes have gone up in value significantly since I first reviewed the Haul-A-Day in 2020 as one of many extra reasonably priced household electrical bikes. Since then, the corporate has been slowly repositioning itself as a premium, custom-fitted ebike producer, at a corresponding value. The All-Day is much more costly than the electrical Brompton G Line.
Nonetheless, the motor is highly effective, it’s lighter than the Brompton, and you possibly can customise it in each method—together with in a wide range of playful colours and cables! I’m an enormous advocate for a tiny bike you can carry, fold, and lock up wherever. This one feels as huge as you might want.
No matter You Need
{Photograph}: Adrienne So
As befits a custom-built bike, Bike Friday consulted with me beforehand on what choices I most well-liked. Not solely are you able to decide what shade you need your bike to be, however it’s also possible to decide the elements (flat or drop handlebars? Primary 9-speed? Shimano hub or Rohloff belt drive?). Be warned, nonetheless, that selecting your coronary heart’s delight will add as much as a staggering value. I requested the 14-speed Rohloff hub with the belt drive, and it added a cool $3,290 to the $5,200 value.
It has a 600-watt Bosch Efficiency SX mid-drive motor with slightly Purion show that’s appropriate with the Bosch eBike Movement app. Total, it is a shockingly highly effective motor and long-lived battery for a motorcycle this measurement (as compared, the Brompton G-line has a 250-watt motor).
It arrived swaddled in lots of layers of paper stuffing and bubble wrap. Whereas Bike Friday is direct-to-customer, that buyer shouldn’t be exactly the identical particular person because the one who may purchase, say, a direct-to-consumer Lectric or an Aventon. Bike Friday is a specialty model for bike folks, and I did must know what I used to be doing, in addition to have entry to my very own Allen and pedal wrenches. For those who had been much less assured in your bike-building abilities, I might counsel contracting with a store.
{Photograph}: Adrienne So
