Roller wheel(s)

Brief comments on some existing designs for attaching a third wheel to a side-folded folding bicycle for easy rolling.

a) Adding a hinged or pivoted leg with a wheel at the end, allowing it to be lowered when folded and raised when riding. E.g. early model of Dahon folding bicycle.

Pros:

Does not affect the seatpost adjustment.

Easy maneuvering.

Cons:

Only on folding bicycles that come with it.

Significant extra weight.

Hinge and pivot performance tends to deteriorate.

Need to lower and raise the leg when folded and unfolded.

b) Replacing the seatpost with one that has another tube at the lowerend with a wheel fixed at the bottom. E.g. JSK Folded Bike Moving Caster Seatpost.

Pros:

Does not affect the seatpost adjustment.

Can be implemented on different folding bicycles

Does not need extra tasks to use it.

Easy maneuvering.

Cons:

Need to replace the existing seatpost.

Must match the seat tube dimensions.

Significant extra weight.

Significant lower clearance between wheel and floor when riding.

c) Mounting a wheel at the end of the seatpost. E.g. Qbicle folding bike roller.

Pros:

Little extra weight.

May not affect the seatpost adjustment.

Can be implemented on different folding bicycles.

May not need extra tasks to use it.

Cons:

Need to remove if end of seatpost goes into the seat tube for riding.

Need to roughly match the seatpost diameter.

Slightly lower clearance between wheel and floor when riding.

Need to align the wheel direction during each installation.

Difficult maneuvering.

d) Dahon D-Walker.

Pros and Cons: I think picture says a thousand words. I say it is over engineered but not much added value.
Correction: After having experiencing folding bikes with the N-fold design, I guess the above design is to help tackle the unbalance "problem" in N-fold design.

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From here, I came across these after I have come up with my version.

e) Another implementation, away from seat post/tube: The clip talks about the magnet but the wheel appeared in it.

f) Dahon Landing Gear
Only for certain Dahon frame that allow it to be mounted at the BB.

g) mo:Rack
A Singapore product.

h) "Imitation" of the Qbicle Folding Bike Roller

i) Another Japanese kinda over engineered version. This one has almost the same concept as my current version.

j) The best design I have come across so far. Easy installation, rotatable, no need to be removed, light, cheap! 

My cycling in Singapore experiences - Why not ride to work?

I read a new nicely written e-book, LET’S BIKE TO WORK, SINGAPORE: A QUICK START GUIDE by Calvin Boo. In it there is a list of reasons why many cyclists think they cannot cycle to work. I would like to share my views on them here.

Why [Not] Ride To Work?

Ten and more reasons …

Start a conversation with any cyclist and most can churn up at least ten reasons why they cannot cycle to work: 

How far can a five year old ride on a balancing bike?

Our family made the following cycling (not all) trip on Sunday. My couple and our five year old son. I am on a Tern Link C7. Wife on a Polygon Urbano 3.0. Son is on a loopfiets or balancing bike, or kid training bike.

My cycling in Singapore experiences - How I learned mounting/dismounting on the move

Recently saw someone trying to learn this trick. This is one of the tricks I managed to self-learned. So, I would just like to briefly share my experience.

Reason for learning this skill is because I am short, but using an old hybrid 26" bike. Thus, the mounting and dismounting is inconvenient and time consuming. Seeing how most old uncles do it gracefully on their Flying Pigeon like 28 or 29 inch bikes inspire me to acquire this skill.

Initially I tried to learn the mounting. I guess this is the very natural and intuitive approach, since mounting comes before dismounting. However, after many attempts without much progress, I started thinking, maybe I should learn the dismounting first. So true, I managed to dismount while the bike is rolling soon enough. After that, it didn't take long for me to pick up the mounting skill.

The logic is quite obvious. For mounting, one needs to balance a slow moving bicycle while standing on one of the pedal and trying to cross over to seat on the saddle. Trying to execute a couple of new moves at the same time is not helpful. However, for dismounting, one starts off riding the bicycle, then start to try out each of the following steps a little by a little: