Folding Bike

Hi everyone, I am new here.

Saw lovecylingsg featured in the papers and decided to come in here and pick up some tips from biking experts here.

I have a cheap Aleoco 20" folding bike. I bought it for the purpose of running errands nearby my home. So it is grossly under utilised. Recently, I decided to bring it to the parks for leisurely rides. This is also a good form of exercise for my aging frame as I hardly exercise after incurring injuries to my legs couple of years ago. Mostly through regular runs I had few times a week.

I have since brought my smallish bike to East Coast Park and the PCN near Punggol. Riding to Lorong Halus wetland and back to my home. I have ridden full sized mountain bikes rented from ECP before and they require much lesser efforts to pedal. Is it normal for my 6 speeder to drain more energy from the rider? Is there anything I can do to make it smoother and faster?

I saw some folding bikes that are able to go much faster than mine. Like Dahon's. I may consider changing to a better folding bike if it is normal that my Aleoca is heavier to pedal.

Anyway, I am middle age man and I am picking up cycling for leisure and also doing some exercise. Just hoping to me able to cover longer distances so that I am able to enjoy more scenery as well.

Cheers

Sir

Welcome to LovecyclingSG. All bikes are welcome to join our rides.

i suggest you to join our rides to find out from the riders and try out different types of folding bike before your purchase.

24.3.12 World Water Day event is a good chance to join our ride since it is at punngol area.

and you may wish to join LovecyclingSG facebook for bike discussion, other ride events organise in FB and other bike information/news.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lovecyclingsg

Thank you.

hi guys
im new to this thread.
was wondering around looking for a group so i dun feel so weird.
sadly still deciding on a foldable.
just wondering that the outing is always on sat?
i tour alittle when i was in Malaysia, hardly anymore since i started working.
hope i can have time for my interest.
thanks.

unless there are special events on Sat.. else our rides are usually on Sun morning..

hello, i m new to this forum, jus joined. :-) i was browsing this forum n came across this thread, i m new to cycling too. i jus pick up cycling in March this year (last i cycled was prob 10+ years ago :p). i hadnt been confident to start off, so i bought a cheap Aleoca 20" folding bicycle & like what bonestock post above, i had been finding it very taxing to cycle on the aleoca, especially on upslopes, i can pant...! need advise if it is the bike problem... i tried changing gears and not much help, even going downhill, the free cruise is slow. i am now thinking if i need to oil the bike, i m totally lost!

I usually cycle alone on Sunday am on Punggol pcn, for some exercise & buy breakfast for the family, not very exciting. i hope one day i can be confident enough to join the rides :0)

it could be the gear range that cause going upslopes tiring or could be you lose touch to riding after so many years
this are just my assumptions since i have not seen the bike or cycle with u before
no confident needed to join our rides, we even have kids riding with us
hope to see you soon

ztcc78, I notice you have been very responsive and that is very good for people like me that wanted to start this hobby. Both zzprincess and TS have experienced difficulties with their Aleoca although the bike does equip with the shimano gears.

I remember my previous Dahon also use shimano gear and riding also not so easy as compared to the normal bike. Maybe that was the older system?

I do understand it is not convenient to mention brands but can you advise the acceptable range for beginner like us? I saw some Taiwanese brand that are well designed and reasonable priced but not sure they match up in term of quality.

i would properly not say it is due to shimano or the bike brand but the gear range
the numbers of teeth of the crankset and cassette play a part in riding up a slope
therefore there are different categories of bikes like road bike and mountain bike
but me aint expert to explain indepth on these

Almost 2 weeks into my search and I am still without a bike I have made a few enquires but was uncertain.

I believe all newbies face the same questions I had. When someone asks $ for their used bike, we are not sure what is the market value of that bike. I tried to google but there were so many similar models of the same bike.

There were also China made Hummer, Aleoca version of Dahon, etc. so confusing. I thought to be safe, go for Dahon a mid range brand. Then you have Dahon eco 7, Vtesse 7, D7 etc.

Is there a web site with the various brand and model price guide? Of course for used bike, it is very difficult to put a value to that bike. With the new cost, we will have to decide if the discount is worth it.

I start looking into folding bike for 3 weeks, and I finally bought a Tern Link P9. It was a gd bike and I am very happy with it.

Hope u can find a bike soon.