Comment by russellbeattie
11 hours ago
What I've always thought was interesting about folding bikes is that it doesn't seem like it's possible for it to be done elegantly. It's been 150 years since the "safety bicycle" was invented, yet folding bikes are the exception and not the norm - even though it would be really handy if every bike could be easily shrunk down and packed up as easily as a baby stroller or a wheel chair.
Maybe it's just my experience, but every folded bike I've seen in the wild looked more or less like a bundle of bike parts, with bits sticking out here and there. You'll never look at a folded bike and think, "Hey, what's that?", because it always looks exactly like what it is.
It seems like there's something about a bike's geometry and mechanism which doesn't lend itself to symmetry and easy compaction.
As a user of a folding bike, I don't care that parts stick out of it, but I'll agree it's on the limits of geometry, and folding isn't elegant -- and when it's folded, it's still quite big.