Learn me: Collapsible mountain bikes

My fiancée is currently deployed to the middle east. She has a long walk to work through some sketch ass parts of the base. Her options are to walk, bike, or catch a ride. Unfortunately their way of buying bicycles on base has a 3 month backlog (sounds about military). And with sexual assault being a huge issue in our military and at her current location I'm not too keen on her walking especially at night. 

I'm trying to find a bike I can ship to her. I think a collapsible one is ideal in regards to shipping and it not getting stolen at work. She's all of about 5ft 1 inches tall.  

Any suggestions? 

It's not going to be a mountain bike in the modern sense of the word. 

The questions to be answered would be: 

What is the terrain like? Flat? Rolling? Huge hills along the way? 

What's the surface like? Sidewalks and streets? Gravel paths? Trails?

You can find fat tire folding bikes, and folding bikes with disc brakes, but ultimately, the biggest improvement in control comes from handlebar width. A downhill bike, even at the pro level, would be near unrideable with little 500mm wide bars. 

If the terrain is mostly flat, a single speed or internal gear hub folder would be simple, reliable, and easy to learn. Maybe upgrade to wider bars later on.

If you just ship a regular bike that has not been unboxed and "assembled," yet, you may be just a easy and save a few bills. Then, when she comes back, you can more easily justify giving the buke to the next lady in line that could use it.

Would a more regular looking bike be a higher theft target or lower?

In reply to yupididit :

oh no. collapsible mtb... im afraid i don''t have any good advice...

pheller said:

It's not going to be a mountain bike in the modern sense of the word. 

The questions to be answered would be: 

What is the terrain like? Flat? Rolling? Huge hills along the way? 

What's the surface like? Sidewalks and streets? Gravel paths? Trails?

You can find fat tire folding bikes, and folding bikes with disc brakes, but ultimately, the biggest improvement in control comes from handlebar width. A downhill bike, even at the pro level, would be near unrideable with little 500mm wide bars. 

If the terrain is mostly flat, a single speed or internal gear hub folder would be simple, reliable, and easy to learn. Maybe upgrade to wider bars later on.

Terrain is flat some slight hills.

Surface: all of the above to be honest. 

matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:

If you just ship a regular bike that has not been unboxed and "assembled," yet, you may be just a easy and save a few bills. Then, when she comes back, you can more easily justify giving the buke to the next lady in line that could use it.

Would a more regular looking bike be a higher theft target or lower?

I think there's shipping size restraints but i could probably break it down into two different shippinh boxes.

Nah bikes can get snatch just for being bikes lol. 

Sounds like she needs a folding bike for security so she can fold it up and take it to her desk at work?

This might help?

Price range or max budget?  Like anything bike related, prices vary a lot. 

For a moderate commuter, this one seems good and pretty compact.  Although not cheap, it looks pretty versatile with a cargo rack, arrives assembled, e-bike means being able to pedal to work at a decent speed without breaking a sweat.

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

Sounds like she needs a folding bike for security so she can fold it up and take it to her desk at work?

This might help?

Price range or max budget?  Like anything bike related, prices vary a lot. 

For a moderate commuter, this one seems good and pretty compact.  Although not cheap, it looks pretty versatile with a cargo rack, arrives assembled, e-bike means being able to pedal to work at a decent speed without breaking a sweat.

I'll have to see with the battery restrictions are as far as things getting shipped in. These countries dont play around with E36 M3 we bring in that isn't through DOD logistics. I haven't thought of budget but over 1k seems unnecessary. I assumed you could buy full-size collapsible manual pedal bikes but it seems more complicated than that lol. 

Brompton is kind of the gold standard of folding bikes but they aren't cheap.

Another option would be a mini velo. http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/nano.htm

You can buy a full sized collapsible pedal bike, but they get so big its not worth it. It's basically just a full size bike that folds in half which means its still way too big to lug around with you. 

Montegue makes a few full size folding bikes. The Allston is nice, but expensive, the Paratrooper is crude, simple and cheap. I'm not sure I'd take one of these over a smaller folder from Citizen http://www.citizenbike.com/default.asp

Sorry the link I posted previously in error is for some brand I had never heard of before. 

In reply to yupididit :

As cool as a folding e-bike would be, it probably would be a logistical PITA.

Maybe something that could almost be considered disposable or easily sold for cheap to someone else there when the deployment ends vs. shipping it home would be good.  Maybe one of these? (same one pheller linked).

pheller said:

You can buy a full sized collapsible pedal bike, but they get so big its not worth it. It's basically just a full size bike that folds in half which means its still way too big to lug around with you. 

 

Montegue makes a few full size folding bikes. The Allston is nice, but expensive, the Paratrooper is crude, simple and cheap.

A full size that folds in half sounds fine. She just needs to ride to and from work and to and from the gym. Not much lugging than pulling it inside the building. She's a rather muscular and strong woman so she can do that. 

The Montegue Paratrooper looks perfect to be honest! 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

When you redeploy home, spending a few hundred bucks to ship back everything you brought is  so worth it. Every last one of my deployments I shipped everything home in those plastic gorilla boxes and only traveled home with backpack with 3 days worth of clothes in it. She'll be doing the same. 

Thinking outside the box here, but what about an electric scooter?

Just an example - no idea on quality or performance

You still have the same issues as an e-bike to sort out around the batteries, but it may be easier to ship, store, and secure. 

Just as FYI, the Paratrooper is pretty crappy by most bike standards. Even their top end $2500 model is still quite shippy for that price. 

In reply to pheller :

Wym crappy? Like worse than a $200 mountain bike I could buy from Dicks?

Since someone mentioned electric scooters, what about something even more outside the box:  https://onewheel.com/products/pint?gclid=CjwKCAiAkan9BRAqEiwAP9X6UYc34ZvuW8A-DO4nSaoiiA1ojryS6qHisjGXkmtOPEVrvDjuxHr29RoC2I8QAvD_BwE

I saw a father and son on these at a local mountian bike trail.  It was an easy section nad they were picking their way slowly, but still.  I haave seen various youths riding these things or similar and they seem to average a pretty decent pace.  Full disclosure, I am shocked by the price point of the product I linked.

You mention that one goal is to keep her safe in a sketchy part of the base.  I'm not sure that adding in some cool piece of hardware (folding bike) would help much with drawing less attention to her.  It seems to me that the answer here is just some basic bike bought of Amazon which will then ship in a box.  Some slight assembly required; handlebars, pedals, air, etc.  If you want even less attention then plastidip the bike to hide what might be flashy graphics or colors.  Sell bike to someone else on base before leaving so simple bike stays behind. 

At 5' 1" you could go with a 20" BMXer style if you need some dessert durability.   A girl style bike might reduce some of the theft desirability from the young males.  Warpping some black electrical tape on the tubes can also be a cheap alternative to painting the bike to hide the flashy colors.   

John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:

You mention that one goal is to keep her safe in a sketchy part of the base.  I'm not sure that adding in some cool piece of hardware (folding bike) would help much with drawing less attention to her.  It seems to me that the answer here is just some basic bike bought of Amazon which will then ship in a box.  Some slight assembly required; handlebars, pedals, air, etc.  If you want even less attention then plastidip the bike to hide what might be flashy graphics or colors.  Sell bike to someone else on base before leaving so simple bike stays behind. 

At 5' 1" you could go with a 20" BMXer style if you need some dessert durability.   A girl style bike might reduce some of the theft desirability from the young males.  Warpping some black electrical tape on the tubes can also be a cheap alternative to painting the bike to hide the flashy colors.   

this. buy a very inconspicuous bike (not from walmart)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3eUfZuo5Bg