Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/02/the-montague-paratrooper-pro-i.html
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Do you have any experience with their other bikes? I’m probably moving to Europe by the end of the year, and don’t think I’ll have room in my new digs for my beloved Surly Cross-check (sigh…). This bike is really cool, but the Montague “Urban” looks like it would be a better fit for where I’ll be and what I’ll mostly be doing on my bike.
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As a (relatively tolerant) bike snob, I’m not a fan of folding bikes unless they are absolutely necessary. RV-bike seems like a pretty legit call for one though.
One of the main unstated benefits of this bike is that it uses pretty standard parts for just about everything. If you wanted to drop a few pounds pretty easily, an open-mold carbon fork would do the job pretty darn well. 26" tires are the most widely available tire size in the world (any decent hardware store probably has a few if you’re in a pinch), despite what the current mtb market would have you believe.
Materials-wise, I think you’d be hard-pressed to make a bike with this same structure work as well with steel. That giant top-tube-only design would be pretty hard to pull off with steel, if for no other reason than it’s a lot more expensive to get custom steel formation like that.
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“… or scout out questionable roads to make sure that they’re fit to drive our RV on to.”
That sounds like something out of the goddarn Apocalypse. Where do you live…?
I’ve never owned a bike with more than 4 gears. I guess that 24 allows for some more finesse when selecting your level of effort.
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Price on the bike isn’t bad, and i like that it doesn’t look gimmicky. I’ve seen other foldable bikes and they didn’t look like standard bikes (smaller wheels, odd frames, etc). I’m not currently in the market to buy a bike but i’ll definitely keep an eye on this when i can afford to buy one.
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I don’t think steel would be a good choice for you. As noted by Aeroplane it would be somewhat heavier, but if you are scraping off the paint all the time rust will be inevitable.
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I wonder how easy it would be to convert to electric while keeping what makes the bike practical, i.e. portability/storage space.
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!!!
I’m not sure what your reference point is there. That seems heavy to me. Long ago I had a normal (city) bike, and I was annoyed by storing it in my apartment, so I thought “I know! I’ll get one of those full-size folding bikes!”. But I soon regretted it, because the Dahon I got weighed twice as much as the old bike, and living on the third floor, that got old remarkably quickly. And the internet says that Dahon only weighed 27lbs.
But if traversing stairs never came up, I guess I wouldn’t care about the weight and might be interested in this.
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Thou speakst with the cock of foolhardiness, knave! Verily and with most swift wheeling, my Capulet Frogman Amateur shall win the day!
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I live in Stockholm and have had a Montague here for about 15 years. I upgraded the fork, put touring handlebars, a Thudbuster seatpost, and some skinny tires on it. I love it. It does great for the local conditions: 85% pavement, 15% gravel & cobblestones. I can also fold it up and take it on trains and subways that don’t ordinarily allow bicycles.
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I’ve seen RVs with bike racks in the back. But sure.
The real question is: how well does it handle when skydiving?
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Its doable depending on what features you want. One low effort way is to substitute the wheel for one that has an electric motor built in.
There are various examples but here’s a random one i found. I don’t have experience with these so i don’t know how practical or efficient they are.
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I wonder if anyone has designed a fold-up bike that can utilize the wheels while it’s folded, so one could push-guide it instead of carrying it in restrictive areas?
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One way might be to convert it to a kind of 2 wheeled cart and you can put your backpack on it. Kind of like those wheeled cart things people use to lug around their groceries and whatnot.
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For my purposes it would be most beneficial to be as slim as possible, to fit in a roomier minivan taxi or the like, but yeah, that’s a cool idea, too.
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Most of the smaller foldable bikes I have seen do exactly that. But these are not full sized bikes, wheels are smaller too.
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Cool! Which model do you have?
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Which fork did you go with, and why upgrade?
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As others here have mentioned, I can see how this would offer significant advantages over the other folding bikes favored by commuters (e.g. Brompton). Namely, cheaper, and uses standard parts so easier to service.
Weight is a bit on the heavy side, but they (Montague) do appear to offer a range of different models, some of which come in below 30lbs (e.g. https://www.montaguebikes.com/product/navigator/)
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If you love it that much, you could probably get it converted to a folder with S&S couplings for less than the price of a Montague bike.
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