A cool foldable bike by puma, vexed and biomega.

I would agree, the geometry is a little funky, dont think its designed for cyclists as much as it is for people who just want to ride a bike. It looks nice. I find it ironic that the there isnt a quick release on the seat post!

HA! I didn’t even notice that…

its way too much work to fold the bike and adjust the seat at the same time…

This bike is definitely NOT for cyclists!
The (missing) downtube is the backbone of the bicycle - it gives it all it’s stability, rigidity, and torsion resistance (when you apply pressure to the pedals)… and this bike doesn’t have one!
Now that we got real cyclists out of the way as potential customers, why are they increasing the price tag of this thing (and decreasing it’s marketability) by giving it disk brakes? That’s an extra $100-$200.
Yes, you do want a quick-release on the seatpost… one component arguably useless on 99% of bikes they can be found on, but on a folding bike it is an incontournable must! Of course, that might jack up the price by an extra $1 or so… but you can take that from the savings on the brakes overkill.
And since we have the non-expert buyer in mind, might want to give this thing a few more speeds… because the average consumer is more impressed with ‘‘wow! 24 speeds’’ than they are by disk brakes they might not even take notice of.
In all, some overkill on some components, some lacks with others, bad structural design, and overpriced for it’s target market.
For these reasons, this bike misses the mark.

Actually it looks like it takes a big cue from the old Allsop Soft-Ride.

:)ensen.

it doesnt take that much effort to go to your local machine shop and ask’em to forge you a nice torsion bar to replace the light one. you just have to make some modifications. another few hundred bucks maximum. but you must know what you’re doing kinda like the harley bikes!

this is nothing new-
and oh btw, the down tube is not the main part of the bike…it’s about the sum of parts. the top tube is also very important, if not more so.

also- it was a good idea not to put a quick release on the seat, who wants to constantly adjust the seat to the correct heght every time the bike is folded and unfolded?

My place is small. Subways are crowded. Buses are crowded. I definitely need a quick release for the seat.

Even for now when I take my mt bike to the trails, I have to put the seat down everytime I put it in the car. Quick release is a brillant design that has became essential on most bikes.

The bike looks cool… that’s all I have to say.

How does a quick release seat save space?

And it was my error… the slingshot is the one I meant (not soft-ride).

:)ensen.

How does quick release save space?

If the space is too tight to accomodate my bike with the seat in its position, I undo the seat to make it more compact! Or simply shorten it.

24 speeds? please. 30 speeds are standard on price point bikes.

Disc brakes on city bikes are like rear aerofoil style spoilers on Honda Civics, you’re never gonna get to the point where they really make much of a difference beyond the coolness factor. That coolness factor makes it worth paying $700 for an amalgam of knocked off innovations and selective brand attachment on a over built BMX bike.

Sure its for Cyclists. Anyone who rides a bike is a cyclist. now add an “e” to the end of that word and you may be correct.

It looks like the Slingshot was engineered to flex with the tensioned cable replacing the downtube. they have a “proprietary” fiberglass fitting that attaches the cable to the frame limiting the flex to one direction and defeating the cable stretch one typically gets with steel cables when they are flexed too many times. so therefore the flex is designed into to the performance of the bike.

Think that the Biomega has that? I seriously doubt it.

Furthermore While it looks excactly like the same top tube frame geometry as the Slingshot, the Biomega is Aluminium, the slingshot is Steel. there is no memory flex in Aluminium, there is memory flex in steel.

Forget about high speed turns or rapid acceleration, the biomega will be a pig to ride.

it would be interesting to see a high speed turn with a foldable sligshot!

Until you ride the pig, you’ll never know how much of a dog it is.

A lot of its behaviour will depend on the strength of the top tube connection. It seems to be bolted in place when locked. If the pin were also tightened, that might be more than plenty for sidewalk and relatively smooth road. Provided that connection is good, much of the actualy handling will be a function of the tire quality and the pressure they are run at, rather than the frame. The 24" wheels will help smooth the ride, but I would have much preferred to add a suspension fork.

Must be a bunch of fair-weathered cyclistes here or it would relatively obvious that disc brakes are great on bikes that have to run in the rain. Especially when you have to keep buying new rims worn down by gritty V-brake pads.

Continuing along the (in)experienced rider route, seat skewers are one of the fastest ways to get your expensive saddle ripped off and forcing you to stand on the pedals all the way home. On most properly set-up bikes, the seat won’t be much different in ride height to the stem so sliding the seat post doesn’t make much difference in overall volume.

You’re better off folding your handlebars to shrink the bike, especially if you’ve one of those Dutch style rides. Of course, one of the problems with the new AheadSet stems is that you can’t easily turn the handlebars 90deg to get them in line with the front wheel. Makes it hard to store the bike in slim apartment hallways or on the wall.

Thus, packing the car is mostly an exercise in removing the front wheel, making the front q/r a convenient luxury. Either that, or hang part of the thing out the trunk, another time-honoured method.

The thing that makes we look again is the key in the front gusset. Why? Could this be a way to “lock” the beast up by (un)folding the frame and wrapping the cable around some urban fixture? If so, what’s with the open hook at the bottom bracket? Besides, a good thief has a cutter.

:)ensen.

One more thing… that hinge was originally designed by Montague and showed up first on a Schwinn. It has proven highly effective for 20 years. Heavy, but effective. Not racing performance, but good utility for bikes that need to fold-up. They should have borrowed from Alex Moulton. His space frame bikes are some of the best handling bikes I’ve ever tried and they also split into two pieces. Of course, he’s notorious for never licensing anything.

:)ensen.

[quote="purplepeopledesign

The thing that makes we look again is the key in the front gusset. Why? Could this be a way to “lock” the beast up by (un)folding the frame and wrapping the cable around some urban fixture? If so, what’s with the open hook at the bottom bracket? Besides, a good thief has a cutter.

:)ensen.[/quote]

I think the key locks the hook in the BB to the frame at the headtube…(?!)then you use the cable to connect it to an urban fixture. so even if it the cable is cut and the theif gets away with it, they cant unfold it and use it.

Thats smart. you really even don’t need to lock it up to something.

My opinion of this has turned from one of complete scorn to one of respect. I’ll assume it will turn into ambivalence soon…

This a great post because regardless of the things we would have all done differently, This might just be a product that shouldnt have been. Puma makes a great shoe, they have no use in turning out a folding bicycle. Seems like an attempt to extend themselves further in the Urban market but it seems to me like a bad idea.

When we speak of “real cyclists” there will be those of us who consider ourselves cyclists because weve got a bike and like to ride it sometimes, and those who are Cyclists (yes with a capital C), some people just dont get it. Personnally my commuter bike is a 1970s Spanish road frame with a bunch of random old Campy parts I have collected, single speed - fixed gear, second hand selle italia seat et et (No Brakes - oh Ya). That is a Cyclists bike, the Puma is not, it is a novelty product. I think that if Puma were to produce a bike it would be wise to collaborate with a bicycle maufacturer, say specialized, who has some good stuff out right now for the urban commuter market. So the designer collaborates with the bicycle company, who could provide superior production, and it is baged PUMA, understood to have the design connected to that company, and the quality and credibility of a Bicycle by bicycle people.

P.s. Saying that quick releases on seats are essential is like saying that everyone uses a kickstand, take that crap off. If you need to drop the seat keep an allen key in your bag.

yeah it kinda suprised me when the bike they release with Biomega has nothing to do with their sponsorships of an Alleycat team of Messengers from NYC…

Be much more appropriate to co-brand a a Specialized Langster

or an IRO
http://www.irocycle.com/

I’d not only Ccapitalize the “C” in Cyclist but I’d also add an “e” to the end. looks and sounds better when you desfcribe the few of us who are nutty enough to eschew deraileurs, brakes and modern space age frames for steel lugged frames with funny and hard to pronounce names while parting traffic at rush hour,…

I have ridden a Slingshot bike and they are quite nice. The technology is there and the bike felt stiff and responsive (however, it was an older, non-foldable version). I would say the biggest issue with it was when I originally rode the bike and looked down to see no downtube. Its unnerving. However, thats how I felt when I rode my first Cannondale with the Lefty Fork. It took a little getting used to.

A point on city riding, the idea of putting disk brakes on a city bike if just silly. Mountain bike disk brakes are very valuable and have saved me several times but on a city bike, where most of the world is flat and paved they seem like overkill and are there just for the look.

For real city bikes, ask the bike couriers. They all ride single speed fixed gear bikes.

In a city with no hills and no rain, maybe rim brakes are fine. Ever try to Vbrake in the rain… hah! Forget NY or other places, Vancouver is the hardest testing ground for bikes. Even the street people here know their bikes.

As for couriers, reason most ride minimal because they don’t want to lug around the weight for 8 hours. Yet here in YVR, the couriers all sport a rear fender… must be the rain and many are beginning to have a disk or two.

With disk brakes approaching the low weight of calipers, it is beginning to make sense to spec them. Notice that almost all new mtn bikes of any quality have disks. It’s the price/weight/performance equation all over again.

:)ensen.