page_title: Folding bicycle
section_title: Folding methods
hierarchical_section_title: Folding bicycle / Folding methods
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking west at Tern Verge bike, folded on a sunny morning.
context_page_description: A folding bicycle is a bicycle designed to fold into a compact form, facilitating transport and storage. When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings, on public transportation, and more easily stored in compact living quarters or aboard a car, boat or plane.
  Folding mechanisms vary, with each offering a distinct combination of folding speed, folding ease, compactness, ride, weight, durability, and price. Distinguished by the complexities of their folding mechanism, more demanding structural requirements, greater number of parts, and more specialized market appeal, folding bikes may be more expensive than comparable non-folding models. The choice of model, apart from cost considerations, is a matter of resolving the various practical requirements: a quick, easy fold, a compact folded size, or a faster but less compact model.
  There are also bicycles that provide similar advantages by separating into pieces rather than folding.
context_section_description: Folding mechanisms are highly variable.
  Half- or mid-fold
  Many folding frames follow the classic frame pattern of the safety bicycle's diamond frame, but feature a hinge point (with single or double hinges) allowing the bicycle to fold approximately in half.  Quick-release clamps enable raising or lowering steering and seat columns.  A similar swing hinge may be combined with a folding steering column.  Fold designs may use larger wheels, even the same size as in non-folders, for users prioritizing ride over fold compactness. Bikes that use this kind of fold include, Dahon, and Montague, and Tern.
  Vertical Fold
  Instead of folding horizontally, this style of bike has one or two hinges along the main tube and/or chain and seat stays that allow the bike to fold vertically. The result leaves the two wheels side by side but is often more compact than a horizontally hinged design. The Brompton and Dahon Qix D8 both feature vertical folding.
  Triangle hinge
  A hinge in the frame may allow the rear triangle and wheel to be folded down and flipped forward, under the main frame tube, as in the Bike Friday, Brompton Mezzo Folder, and Swift Folder.  Such a flip hinge may be combined with a folding front fork, as in the Birdy. Swing and flip hinges may be combined on the same frame, as in the Brompton Mezzo Folder and Dahon, which use a folding steering column. Folding mechanisms typically involve latches and quick releases, which affect the speed of the fold/unfold. Bike Friday offers a model, the Tikit, featuring a cable-activated folding mechanism requiring no quick releases or latches, for increased folding speed.
  Magnet folding and suspension system
  A magnet combined with a rear shock absorber forms the folding mechanism. The magnet connects and locks the back wheel section to the frame. To fold the bike in half, the magnet disconnects with one movement and in a second, and without having to use one's hands, the rear wheel rotates forward, and the bike folds vertically. This mechanism also enables one to roll the half-folded bike on its rear wheel.
  Break away and other styles
  Bikes may partly fold and partly disassemble for packing into a standard or custom sized suitcase for air travel (e.g., Airnimal and Bike Friday). Other variations include: Bicycle Torque Coupling, a proprietary connector system that can be retrofitted to a standard frame; the Gekko, which folds from the seat tube like an upside down umbrella; the Giatex, which folds and retracts, adjusting to the size of the rider; the iXi, which literally breaks into two-halves; and the Strida, which has a triangular frame and folds to resemble a unicycle.
  Folding mechanisms may incur more cost and weight, allow folding smaller, and they tend to use smaller wheels. 24 inch wheels are the largest for which flip hinges are generally used, but smaller wheels, typically 16 or 20 inches, are more common.
  Smaller size does not mean lighter weight, as most of these designs forgo the bracing benefits of the diamond frame and must compensate as a step-through frame does, with thicker metal. The step-through design is a boon to a wider range of rider size, age, and physical ability.
  Another system found on folders, such as Montague Bikes, utilizes the seat tube as a pivot point for the frame to fold. This system uses a tube within a tube design to give the bike more torsional stiffness. It allows the user to fold the bike without "breaking" any vital tubes down, thus preserving the structural integrity of the diamond frame. This system is operated by a single quick release found along the top tube of the bike.
caption: The Tern Verge X10 is an example of a half-fold bike.
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