On Wednesday, November 20, 2013 8:20:30 AM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
A good friend who lives on a 35 ft. catamaran is asking about a new
bicycle. He currently has a mountain bike of some sort and is lusting
after a folding bike and asked me what was best.

Since I know nothing about folding bikes does anyone have any words of
wisdom that I might pass on?

I have heard that some makes have a weakness in the steering but
nothing beyond that.

Choosing a folding bike is significantly more complicated than choosing a non-folding bike (and even choosing a non-folder isn't necessarily easy). With folders, one has to balance many aspects of ride quality vs. speed of folding vs. compactness of fold vs. price vs. reliability & repairability, and probably other factors. Also, weight is often more important with a folder, because you typically end up carrying it quite a bit.

Also, there's much greater diversity in design of folding bikes. Some are so close to conventional bikes that you have to look twice to realize they fold. Others are spit out by the "Innovation!" wing of the artsy product design world, and barely qualify as bicycles.

I test rode many before I bought two Bikes Friday. I also own an old, old Dahon. I have a friend who owns a modern Dahon (bought when she was driving long-haul trucks, to keep in the cab for when she wanted to explore cities). And I once had a long conversation with two boaters who bought their folders for precisely your friend's reasons, and detested the ones they ended up with!

If he's not interested in doing long rides our touring with the bike, I'd recommend staying away from the Bike Friday New World Tourists that we bought. They're very nice bikes and ride very well (including for long tours), but the fold function is secondary to the ride quality. The folded bike is a loose, rattly package - at least as we configured ours, with drop bars. Straight bars make it a bit better at folding.

Bromptons are very well regarded, and fold amazingly quickly. I didn't like the ride as well as that of the Friday NWT, but that may not matter to your friend. People tour on Bromptons, but they seem to be best at city work..

Dahon makes an amazingly wide range of bikes, and makes them under license for lots of other companies. Some are quite good. Their ride quality (and general quality) has greatly improved over the years.

I should mention, Bike Friday (or Green Gear) has other models. Their quick folding street bike is the Tikit, and folds at least as fast as a Brompton. There were some Tikit reliability problems for a while, but they seem to have been resolved. They also do sport bikes, and their bikes are made to order, so you get precisely the fit and accessories you want.

Here's a source for lots of reading material:
http://www.atob.org.uk/folding-bikes/

- Frank Krygowski