I used to ride a Specialized Rockhopper 89 for a couple of years, so I’d like to think I know what I am talking about.
Folding bikes for long distance is a wasted effort. The big wheels on the Matrix are good for touring, but the hinges destroy the rigidity in the frame, so that nice drive train and the disk brakes are wasted. Because of the big wheels, this ain’t so small anyway.
As for the Speed TR, because of the small wheels, unless you are talking about sub-5Km rides, forget about long distance and comfortable.
Get a car rack, and a couple of decent bike to go with it.
My problem isn’t so much with car racks as I have a very decent car rack, but still a hassle to setup. The biggest problem is storage space at home.
I have a 11 year old Cannondale M-1000 which cost only CAN$1K but would have cost over HKD$15K in Hong Kong at that time! The problem with that bike is that while the size was OK for riding all over Vancouver which I have done many over 10Km rides, it is way too big for Hong Kong. City riding is much more dangerous here but I miss city riding. The 16″er is OK for park rides but the wheels are too small for city rides over not so smooth roads….
I used to ride a Specialized Rockhopper 89 for a couple of years, so I’d like to think I know what I am talking about.
Folding bikes for long distance is a wasted effort. The big wheels on the Matrix are good for touring, but the hinges destroy the rigidity in the frame, so that nice drive train and the disk brakes are wasted. Because of the big wheels, this ain’t so small anyway.
As for the Speed TR, because of the small wheels, unless you are talking about sub-5Km rides, forget about long distance and comfortable.
Get a car rack, and a couple of decent bike to go with it.
My problem isn’t so much with car racks as I have a very decent car rack, but still a hassle to setup. The biggest problem is storage space at home.
I have a 11 year old Cannondale M-1000 which cost only CAN$1K but would have cost over HKD$15K in Hong Kong at that time! The problem with that bike is that while the size was OK for riding all over Vancouver which I have done many over 10Km rides, it is way too big for Hong Kong. City riding is much more dangerous here but I miss city riding. The 16″er is OK for park rides but the wheels are too small for city rides over not so smooth roads….
Hang your full-size bikes up on your walls.
Walls are for photos….
Besides, Melinda would never approve of that.