What Is the Best Foldable Bike for Commuting?
The Hummingbird single speed is the lightest collapsible bicycle on the market. And it’s pretty cool-looking, too.
Hummingbird single-speed flax folding bike (£3,995).
Photographer: Christina Poku for Bloomberg Businessweek
To be successful, a foldable commuter bike has three requirements: It must be lightweight enough to carry; it must quickly collapse small enough to fit under a desk or dinner table; and it must zip you along the street, almost like a bike with wheels twice as big. If it’s lovely, all the better—but you’re not riding a foldable bicycle to look cool. At a little less than 15 pounds, the lightest option on the market is the Hummingbird, and it meets all three standards while being beautiful to boot. The bike boasts 16-inch wheels and a carbon-fiber frame, and it’s plenty zippy. The single-speed version (£3,495, or $4,260) comes in yellow, black or carbon. ( A flax-based plant-fiber frame is pictured here.) The company also makes multispeed and battery-powered versions, all of which fold down to the size of an airplane carry-on.
THE COMPETITION