Ever experienced the classic cyclist’s nightmare? The one where no matter how hard you pedal, the horizon gets further and further away? Buy a Gekko and you’ll have a unique opportunity to experience the night terror for real.

Play fair, A to B! Surely you can’t compare the Gekko to a proper bike? But why not? Brompton, Birdy, Bike Friday and Dahon… they’re folding bikes too, but they either stand against conventional bikes or fall by the wayside.The problem for the Gekko is that folders with 16-18 inch wheels have got ever so good – both at folding and riding.

The Gekko

The Gekko was designed and refined over a period of ten years by Australian Jamie Herder. As so often happens, the aluminium prototype (known as the Ant) looked good and reportedly weighed less than 10kg. No doubt it rode well too.The production version, made by Tsan Ching somewhere in the Far East, is a very different animal – the componentry is poor, the bike is ‘orrible to look at, and – most damningly – it’s ‘orribly ‘eavy too.The steel frame is over-complex, and if you care to factor in a forged bottom bracket, steel side-stand, large coil-sprung saddle (quite unnecessary with balloon tyres), you wind up with a tiny bike weighing 15kg (33lb). It’s the heaviest machine we’ve tested since the Skoot in April 2001, and that ceased production soon afterwards, but please, we really shouldn’t take all the credit for that.

you stand a good risk of getting mown down by pedestrians…

Why is weight such a problem with folding bikes? By definition, these machines get carried a good deal and – believe us – every atom counts if, for example, you’re humping a bike from Platform 1 to Platform 13 at Birmingham New Street.

The typical weight for a good (ie, multi-speed, comfortable, fast) folding bike is somewhere between 10kg and 12kg.That’s a great deal easier to manoeuvre than 15kg, and of course, you’re riding a better bicycle when you unfold it. The second catch with the Gekko, as with the Skoot, is that it’s a single speed machine, with gearing, in this case, of 41 inches. That means an ankle twirling top whack of around 8mph, at which speed you stand a real risk of getting mown down by pedestrians in a busy city. It’s all made a good deal worse by 121/2 inch 30psi tyres with the rolling characteristics of damp putty.

Yes, the rolling resistance leaves much to be desired, although it could have been a lot better had we been able to fine-tune the tyre pressures. We managed to adjust the front tyre (this wheel has a sensible tally of 16 spokes), but space is at such a premium in the rear wheel (28 spokes), that we couldn’t find a pump that would reach the valve. Fitting twenty-eight spokes to a 12-inch wheel might sound like overkill, but 28-spoke hubs are common on childrens bikes, so they’re easy to source and cheap…

Our rolling resistance figure came out at 10.1mph, which is jolly good, all things considered, suggesting that 12- inch tyres (even 30psi ones) can be viable. But that sort of figure has to be compared with the results from the ‘real’ folding bikes, where even the 16-inch Brompton manages 14mph or more these days. So if you buy a Gekko you’ll not only be hampered by a cruising speed of 8mph on the flat, but you’ll suffer a 30% reduction in downhill speed too. Hill climbing is even worse, because the frame flexes like mad under load, and the saddle height is limited to 94cm, which is simply too low for most people. Clearly this bike is seriously challenged against the opposition.

…Walking has much to recommend it, at a minuscule cost in shoe leather…

Folding

Maybe the smaller wheels allow it to fold smaller? Er, no.The Gekko hits the same brick wall that has stopped numerous folding bike designs in their tracks since the Brompton achieved a folded volume of three cubic feet. It might be improved on tomorrow, next year or in a future century, but then it might not, because below 20 inches, wheel size has little to do with folded size: the deciding factor is the frame, and it’s very difficult to make a full-size frame fold smaller than three cubic feet, sorry, 85 litres.

To fold the Gekko, the handlebars pull out and drop down, the saddle stem drops (but not very far) and with a safety pin removed, the frame sort of concertinas up in the middle, bringing the sticky-out bits together. Not that close together as it happens, because the final volume is 6.1 cubic feet – not as big as we’d feared, but much too bulky for the bike’s folding ability to be viewed as a saving grace.

Conclusion

According to trendy bike-bits impresario Simon Goude, who is apparently helping to market the machine in the UK, ‘The Gekko is very sturdy and rides well with a big bike feel…’ Pardon? He must be joking.

The Next folding pedals (standard on the Dahon range) are very good, and the V- brakes were a pleasant surprise. Oh, and we liked the dinky little alloy rims and the short but substantial rack, that will carry a friend if you have the muscles and the nerve (wheelies are an ever-present risk). Otherwise, for £250 the bike has absolutely no redeeming features. If speed is not a priority, a good micro-scooter costs a lot less, covers ground at much the same rate, and folds smaller and quicker. Come to that, walking has much to recommend it, at a minuscule cost in shoe leather.

If you want the speed and stability of a bicycle, the 3-speed Brilliant Micro costs about the same as the Gekko and folds to the same volume, but rides twice (yes, twice) as fast and weighs only 10.5kg. If folded size is less critical, that hard-earned £250 will buy a Philips (Dahon) Boardwalk, offering 20-inch stability, double the speed, etc, etc. The Gekko is billed as a trendy accessory for trendy young urbanites. If you happen to be such a thing, and you hanker after something a bit more stylish than a run-of-the- mill Brompton, take our advice and save up for the Panasonic Traincle – titanium frame,14- inch wheels, compact fold and a gorgeous little feather-weight at just 6.8kg (15lb).

Next please.

Specification

Gekko £250 Weight 15kg (33lb) Tyres 203mm Folded volume 235 litres (6.1 cu ft) UK Distributor Gablemere Ltd tel 01905 779922 mail jwallis@gablemere.co.uk