In a world where Dahon now produces the lightest folders and Oyama can sell a reasonable sports machine for just £350, you’d think the traditional Western manufacturers – Brompton, Birdy and Bike Friday – would be watching their backs. No doubt they are, and we know new products are under development, but the ‘old world’ bikes are starting to look a little jaded.

Why should anyone bother buying a heavier and much more expensive product from Europe or the USA when the Chinese are making similar things for a third of the price? That all depends on what the pricier bikes have to offer.The Brompton is still unbeatably compact and the Bike Friday and Airnimal provide a quality ‘big bike’ feel that would be hard to match, but what of the Birdy? We’ll run through the pros and cons of spending £1,250 on a bike that’s essentially unchanged, after a production run of ten years or so.

Birdy Black

For those unfamiliar with the genre, the Birdy was launched in late 1994 as a competitor to the already long-established Brompton. Designed and marketed by Riese & Müller in Germany, the bikes are manufactured by Pacific in Taiwan – hardly a cut- price producer these days, of course, so all those sea-miles and middle-men add what economists laughingly call ‘value’.To buy our Birdy Black, with a few modest accessories, would cost the innocent consumer no less than £1,323.

The Birdy frame is of chunkily-crafted aluminium throughout, and almost everything hung off it is light alloy too, with the exception of nuts and bolts, saddle rails, and a few other bits. It might come as something of a surprise then, to find that our test bike weighs 11.7kg (25.8lb) – almost as much as the Oyama featured on page 20. Admittedly, the Black is fitted with the optional rear rack and mudguards, but it’s also a relatively expensive model and generally considered to be the lightest in the range. By way of comparison, the much cheaper (well, £830) Birdy Red weighed 12kg when we tested it back in December 1999 with much the same accessory pack.The Black weighs a little less than the similarly equipped Brompton ‘T’ type, and probably a little more than a Bike Friday built to this sort of spec. Obviously, it’s no heavyweight, but it wins no special awards in the weight department either.

On the road, the bars are very low, a feature you will either love or hate. More comfortable riding upright bikes, we hated it, but anyone familiar with drop bars and head-down white line chasing will feel right at home. Birdy does offer a taller, height-adjustable ‘comfort’ stem as an option, but it adds weight, cost and folding complication, so if you really don’t like the ‘bum in the air’ position, a Birdy probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, the bike has many loyal converts – mostly occasional rail users who simply can’t live with the more upright Brompton.We suspect you will know very quickly whether the Birdy is for you.

Specification

One of the reasons for the Birdy’s loyal following is the suspension – arguably the cleverest and most effective system fitted to any folding bike. It’s pretty conventional at the rear, with a pivot down by the bottom bracket and polymer suspension bungee, but in place of conventional forks at the front, the Birdy has an odd-looking swinging arm and combined bungee/steel coil spring apparently better than Deore, but arrangement.This suspension is ‘anti-dive’ (unlike suspension forks, the front of the we’re not competent to judge…” bike won’t dip down under braking), but compliant enough to absorb lumps, bumps and even climb small kerbs.

The result of all this sophistication is a smooth ride (we suggest choosing the softest ‘yellow’ rear polymer of the three options) and quite a lot of weight and complication. The rigid frame and compliant suspension make fast cornering safe and secure, although the front end of the bike feels a bit light and lacking in directional stability.This may be entirely a matter of personal preference, but for carrying a long heavy object under your arm, as one does, we prefer the more upright Brompton which puts less weight on your arms. Similarly with hand signals – you may disagree, but we find the Brompton a little less jittery riding one-handed.

Gears vary across the Birdy range, from the cheaper 8-speed Shimano Deore on the Red to £700 worth of 14-speed Rohloff hub on the Grey. Our Black has Deore XT, which is apparently better than Deore, but we’re not competent enough to judge. It all seems to work well enough, giving a slightly low gear range of 30″ – 87″ and a nice reliable change, once you’ve mastered the space-age Meg-9 shifter, which has one lever to go up and another very similar one to go down.The Black is also fitted with Shimano 105 ‘Hollowform’ bottom-bracket and cranks, which are claimed to be stiff yet light, something that, once again, we can’t verify.

Brakes are Avid, which will either make you jump up and down with excitement or not, according to taste.They certainly work well enough, but the Birdy’s rather short 101cm wheelbase makes the bike a bit ‘tail-light’ under braking, reducing the effectiveness of the rear brake. Using our high-tech G-force meter, the best stop proved to be only .34G before the wheel locked up.The front brake works well, provided you have the strength to give it a mighty heave.We managed reliable stops in the region of .6G and even saw .66G on one occasion, but thanks to the short wheelbase and extreme difference in lever pressure required, it’s difficult to improve on this with both brakes. In fact, we never saw .66G again.

Tyre Problems

Riese & Müller has had its share of tyre problems over the years. The 355mm tyres fitted to the Birdy are designated 18-inch, but are actually about 17-inches in diameter, so only marginally bigger than Brompton’s nominally 16-inch 347mm tyre (see Letters, page 14 for more). With such small tyres, the odd millimetre here and there really does matter, but the 18-inch size has always been let down by poor quality.Things have improved a bit – you can now buy a Schwalbe Marathon in this size (not that we rate the Marathon particularly highly), but the bikes are shod as standard with R&M’s own tyre, produced by Maxxis. These look great, but they’re heavy (400g apiece) and distinctly ‘old- tech’ in design.This all conspires to make the Birdy feel more slothful than it looks. On this occasion our Birdy Black failed to complete the roll-down test (see below), but when we last tried a roll-down test with the Maxxis, the bike managed only 11.7mph, which is about as bad as it gets.To put that in perspective, early Bromptons and Bickertons, with historic Raleigh Record tyres, rolled further and faster.The Birdy really does deserve better. More positively, the Birdy is a great convertor of pedal energy into forward motion, so rolling resistance is less significant than it might be.

 …The tyre began to distort… bulging far enough to stop the wheel rotating…

The serious stuff involves tyres exploding off the rims, due to poor tolerances. Soon after we inflated our front tyre beyond a modest 60psi (they’re rated at 90psi), the tyre began to distort and lift off the rim, bulging far enough to stop the wheel rotating. Had someone been riding at speed, the result would almost certainly have been an unpleasant over-handlebar incident. Even worse, after releasing the air and repositioning the tyre, we found it had developed a permanent set, so we had to complete our test very gingerly, with less than 30psi in the front tyre to keep the bulge at bay.

We’ve checked with a cross-section of Birdy owners on the A to B database and five have experienced similar failures – four in Germany and one in the UK. Some mentioned the opposite problem; tyres that were too tight on the rims. But loose or tight, we would expect better quality control on a bicycle costing well into four figures. Until it’s fixed, our advice is to limit pressure to 50 or 60psi.

Equipment

The list of options is quite long, but we’ll try to keep it simple. Our bike came with mudguards, a side stand and the latest rear rack. Birdy racks seem to change with the seasons – we think we’ve seen three distinct designs over the years.The latest SL rack is darned clever, suspended on a sort of cantilever, which allows it to hinge down as the wheel folds away, a la Brompton. Unlike the Brompton, the rack doesn’t end up quite under the bike, but it goes far enough for the bike to stand on two little rollers in a part-folded ‘parked’ position. For £36 (if originally equipped), the rack is an extremely useful accessory.

Mudguards have improved a great deal too. Once a flippy-floppy afterthought, the Birdy can now be said to have proper mudguards for an extra £22, sensibly mounted and protected from scuffing by little plastic pads. Our bike was also equipped with a stand, although we’re not sure how useful this is in practice, and don’t forget the extra weight – odd grams here and there can be critical on a folding bike.

Other options include Lowrider clips to fit panniers either side of the front wheel (a neat idea at £29), Expedition Carrier (at £53, a pricey way of fitting rear panniers), lights (dynamo or battery), Pump (should be standard, surely?), Frame Bag (£25 – an expensive way of carrying a toothbrush), and three cover options.The £29 Cover, like the Brompton cover, really only disguises the bike, but for more serious travel, you can specify a Bag for £70, or hard-sided Suitcase at £180.

Folding

The Birdy is a distinctly odd bike to fold, and if you get it wrong you can end up mud wrestling with chains, tyres and other grubby things, while the mudguards get scraped and bashed, hence the plastic pads. Now, we know some people find it easy, but despite being reasonably adept with Dahons, Bike Fridays, Bromptons and Micros, we usually get in a grubby tangle with the Birdy. Our primary problem comes right at the start, because it’s essential to put the left-hand pedal in the down position and the bike in a high gear. Most folding bikes prefer the pedals to be broadly in the right place, but with this Birdy/Brompton style ‘compound’ fold, derailleur gears can cause problems.The Brompton, Birdy Green and Birdy Grey have hub gears, which are fine, but the other Birdys are derailleur. Sorry, but we just could not get used to this. It’s a damn nuisance.

The rear frame unclips, folding down and round, to end up beside the frame, locked in place by the descending seat post.Then the front wheel and unclipped front suspension rotates round and lock into place behind the headset. Unlike the ‘loose’ Brompton rear wheel, both wheels on the Birdy must be unclipped before folding, which is either an advantage or a hindrance, depending on your point of view. Pedals are of a conventional non-folding design, but the folded package is so wide, they do not protrude.

On this occasion, we produced a package measuring 82cm long, 63cm tall and 40cm wide, giving a folded volume of 207 litres or 7.4 cubic feet, which seems pretty typical on past performance.To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing, and broadly similar to much simpler 20-inch designs, such as the Dahon.The other disappointment is that it’s very difficult to fold a Birdy without getting your hands dirty, because there’s really no escape from grappling with the tyres and other grubby bits. Again, you may profoundly disagree, but we think this rules the bike out for the smarter sort of person with nice shapely nails, which is a PC way of saying women and the more effete sort of gentleman.We may be wrong – do let us know.

Conclusion

As we saw in the the last issue with the Dahon Helios SL and in this issue with the Oyama Victor, the mainstream folding bike manufacturers cannot afford to be complacent, because there are some excellent designs starting to arrive from the Far East at extremely competitive prices.

On paper, the Birdy Black, more than most, is in big trouble. It has the sort of price tag that could give elderly Cyclist Touring Club types a heart attack, yet it’s relatively heavy, difficult to fold, and it produces a big cumbersome package.We’re sometimes accused of favouring the Brompton, but (sigh) it really does fold much smaller, much quicker, and the process is generally oil-free. And we could add that a Brompton doesn’t usually try to fling off its front tyre. On the road, the jury is more split, with a sizable minority favouring the Birdy, but the new Mezzo (see News) is likely to take sales here too, and it costs half the price.

As mentioned somewhere or other above, you will know if you are a Birdy person, but if you aren’t you would be well advised to keep that £1,250 (£1,323 in this case) safely in the bank. For commuters, a Brompton or Mezzo is less than half the price, and for leisure riders and tourists making occasional use of public transport, a custom Bike Friday will (or should) fit like a glove and give years of pleasure for about the same price. If you have been seduced by the Birdy’s undoubted qualities, we’d suggest starting with the Red, which is almost as good as the Black, but leaves you with £400 in your wallet.

Specification

Birdy Black £1,250 . Weight (as tested) 11.7kg (25.7lb) . Folded size W40cm H63cm L82cm Folded volume 207 litres (7.4cu ft) . Gears Shimano Deore XT 9-spd derailleur .Ratios 30″- 87″ Manufacturer Riese & Müller web www.r-m.de mail team@r-m.de tel +49 6151 366860