Is a folding electric bike worth it?

Gucky — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:47:52 -0800

Folding electric bike to supplement my BART commute - genius or folly? I am sick of driving to work (from San Francisco to Fremont - a suburb about an hour away by car), but my work is far enough away from the two closest stations that this proves difficult without a $12 cab ride each way.

I am not an active person, nor skilled with the biking. There are also slight hills and winds between BART and work that would be challenging.

But a folding electric bike, I could bring it on transport even during commute hours and the electric could get me there with some assistance, right?

Experience with electric bikes - are they worth it?
Experience with folding bikes - are *they* worth it?
Any recommends as to which to buy or avoid? (A Google search yielded the eZee Quando as the most likely option. The one electric folding bike mentioned on askme seems to be unavailable in the states.)

Are there solutions that I'm completely missing here?

What's the best way to buy a second hand folding bicycle

munchbunch — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:58:40 -0800

What's the best way to buy a second hand folding bicycle? I'm not looking for a place to get an under the counter type deal, I just want to make sure I have as good an idea of what it's fair to expect from a bike in my price range. I'm moving into the city next year and I want to buy a folding bicycle that I can take on the tube, and fit in my meagre apartment.

Having done a bit of research already, I think I want to buy a Brompton, since I've heard them to be reliable and popular; thus also easy to service, get parts for and *might* retain some resale value. Unfortunately a brand new one is way out of my price range (which is £240 max), but having never spent any kind of money on a bike before I'm looking for some advice on where to get a good second hand one and what things (positive and negative) to look out for before I hand over the cash.

Two older threads What folding bike should I get and Folding are interesting, but don't help my question about getting one second hand, now that I (pretty much) know that I want.

So far I've looked on ebay and gumtree. Ebay has plenty, but for all kinds of reasons I don't like using it that much anymore. I think it’s too easy to over pay, and whatever tactics there might be to it all, I just can't be arsed with it frankly. I want to see my bike and the person selling it to me, before I pay for it (is this so wrong?). Gumtree has Bromptons with a really wide price distribution £80 - £575, but before I go out and have a look at some of them I want to know more about what I'm looking for and should be expecting to pay.

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Is a folding electric bike worth it?

What's the best way to buy a second hand folding bicycle