Reached 100 km mark

[Stevbike]

After a month of use, I got to the one hundred km mark on the bike. Some small things had to be changed and replaced but the bike frame is holding up well. For some reason, my past posts where taken off the forum. Just wondering why?

Steve

[190E.sg]

I have been following your discussion and found it very interesting and helpful. The site is now full of mobile phone sales, no more A-Bike interest.

Anyway, I have just bought a 8" wheel A-Bike. It looks great and it's fun to ride. Now I'm looking at changing the seat.

[Stevbike]

The 8" wheel version I have has the solid plactic wheels. The ride is very hard on rough paved surfaces. The build quality is OK but lacks the finer fit of the of the original A-bike in key areas. If the bike holds up for at least a year of regular use figure I got my moneys worth out of it. For traveling, this style of bike makes a great way to extend your traveling distances over short hauls if a bus, plane or train is used. I would like to see some reports on longer term users and see how well the bike is holding up. Given the fact that is been three years since it was introduced, there should be at least a few people on this forum having seen both the good and bad side of this design.

Lets get some more A-bike users interested in getting back on this site. It would be nice to see some support given to this site again.

Steve Robson

[gganio]

If the bike holds up for at least a year of regular use figure I got my moneys worth out of it. For traveling, this style of bike makes a great way to extend your traveling distances over short hauls if a bus, plane or train is used. Steve Robson

I did a small calculation: If you value your time about £10 pound/hour and then consider that people normally walks at 5 kmh while by bike it is about 15 kmph. You will save about 8 min per km (riding the A-bike instead of walking). If you account for bike folding and unfolding and maintenance you will end up saving about £1 pound/km. Therefore after a month you have already saved £100.
Me too with my portable bicycle I have run errands downtown in a few minutes that would have taken half a day by walking/bus.

Please, somebody stop all of those consumer electronic posting!

[Stevbike]

I was using a costing factor using the base cost of the bike divided by the mileage of the mile. The higher the mileage divided by all the costs put on to the bike equals the overall lower cost per km traveled. The higher the mileage and the lower the cost of the bike (repairs, replacement parts, etc.) means that you get a great low cost way of getting around.

Combinied with the math you have put forward about makes for a good way to promote cycling in general. Bikes like the A-bike and there copy versions make travelling around by bike safer due to the fact that it does not need locking up like a full sized bike does.

Nice to see at least a bit of new posts related to the A-bike, not cell phones!

Steve Robson

[gganio]

Yes.
After saving money because of saving time , an other saving is when you do not take the bus or the car to reach your train/subway station.
This saving is a little more diffcult to be tranformed into an amount of money by calculation.
In my case it is an additional Pound over the one that I save each km that I do not walk.
All in all the savings for micro bicycles are more into the first mile of the trip, when you ride to the station, parking lot, ....
While for big size folding bicycles the saving are more into the last miles, when you ride 3 additional miles after your train ride.