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Gears – range and spacing are far more important than number. Ease of changing gear. Recognise that on many bikes it is relatively easy to raise or lower the whole gear range by using a different chainwheel. The Brompton for example is listed with a low gear options – the experience of most riders incidentally is that with the Brompton it is better to go for one of the lower options than the standard. On the Birdy, however, it would not be easy to change to a smaller chainwheel, as special chain retention devices are fitted to the chainwheel, and are not available to suit other sizes; personally I find the gearing of all the Birdy models is too high overall, so the difficulty of lowering it is a real drawback for me. The ability to modify the gearing to suit your individual prefernces may be an issue for enthusiasts - very difficult with the Brompton, for example, due to the unusually narrow forks, and also difficult with the Birdy, as described earlier.
Brakes – not usually one of the best features of small-wheeled folders, and although better brake shoes may help to some degree, other changes are not always easy to carry out.
Accessories are in some respects less important – pumps etc are easily available in all sorts of forms, and are quite cheap. However, it’s worth commenting that with some folders it’s difficult to find anywhere to carry them. The Birdy, for example, has no obvious points for mounting a pump or a bottle cage, and personally I’m not keen on the pump mounted in the seat tube, where it gets dirty, and also rattles. The Brompton has no mounting points, but the small pockets in the front bag are ideal for bottles, tools, pump etc, or these items can be put in the small saddle bag which holds the cover. I really wish that more folder manufacturers would provide bottle/pump mounting bosses - Bike Friday are generally the best in this respect, and I was very pleased to see that the modestly priced Downtube that was tested in late 2006 was also fitted with bosses.
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