Compact Folding Bicycle Enhancement

[Slacter]

I live in a small town sort of in the middle of nowhere. It's a great little town--kinda stuck in the 70's for the most part but for a few bright spots of modern technology such as free city-wide WiFi and one solar powered EV charging station. This charging station currently services the only two EV cars in town, and they are both Volts. It is a rigid solar array (not sun tracking), but otherwise it is similar to this...

MAGE Solar Sun Tracking EV Charging Station at GM

A further surch of the web, and here is the actual charging station I am talking about, with the first Volt owner's car plugged in...

Dublin, Georgia's First EV Charging Station

This charging station is at the Mage Solar headquarters, which is a ten minute walk from where I work. I would love to plug in during the afternoon and get to and from work as efficiently as possible, but the lack of good sidewalks or walking trails makes it difficult. This town isn't the most accommodating of its pedestrians, and could learn a thing or two from Grand Haven and Holland, MI, where walking trails are a-plenty...but I digress.

So, anyone know of a good quality folding bicycle they would recommend that would fit nicely inside the Volt trunk while leaving some room for other things?

[frankydude]

Nice, to charge from solar!

There is this aluminium folding bike on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/110814070655
and some cheaper steel frame folding bikes also on Ebay, if that helps you!

[DCFusor]

I had to transport two full size regular bikes right after I got my Volt. Eyeing the back, I judged they'd fit, and they did, so I didn't take my truck to move them. I did take off the front wheels - most modern bikes make that a no tool proposition, but it was no big deal, they fit in there fine with the Volt back seats folded down. I had to be careful not to put scratches in the car, but otherwise, no big deal.

[Joule Thief]

So, anyone know of a good quality folding bicycle they would recommend that would fit nicely inside the Volt trunk while leaving some room for other things?

Slacter, welcome to the forum! I never posted a thread on this, but came close a few times and have some pics of my Montague Boston8 folding bike in the back of my Volt in my picture album here http://gm-volt.com/forum/album.php?albumid=54&page=2

Like you, I sometimes park at my building where the charge stations are located, but then bike about 2.2 miles to another building I work out of most days.





As you can see it fits in the back of the Volt, but does require the seats to be folded down. I like the Montague bikes for 2 reasons. First, they are full sized (mine is 700c) so you get less of the circus bike look. Second they have the only folding system that doesn't break the frame integrity. They have several models, mine includes an integrated 8-speed Shimano internal hub.

If you really want compact foldup size so you don't have the fold the seats down in the Volt, consider a Brompton. They are some of the best around and very popular in Europe. Also check out Dahon and Citizen. Here are some links, NYCEWheels sells several folding bikes and is a great resource:

http://www.montaguebikes.com/
http://www.nycewheels.com/folding-bike.html
http://www.dahon.com/
http://www.citizenbike.com/
http://www.brompton.co.uk/

One last thought, if you haven't already you should check out this thread on an option to add a hitch to your Volt. With this you could easily mount a bike rack and carry a regular bike as an alternative to the folding route. Granted it will probably have a big impact on your wind drag and therefore fuel economy.

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....-about-2-weeks

Good luck!

-JT

[Prius2Volt]

Florida Based (though bikes are technically Chinese), good prices, good product:

http://www.citizenbike.com/


$169, most compact folder they sell. Can't really go wrong at that price, eh?

[Gonzalju]

I have a Dahon P8 that fits perfectly on the Volt. No need to fold the rear seat. I also use a carrying bag from Dahon to avoid direct contact with the cargo area walls.