folding bicycles

[Bob S]

Terry,

I bought the West Marine Jetty Express and the Schwinn 20" Loop bike a few years ago. I love them both with a slight preference to the Schwinn (the seat is more comfortable). Definitely get carrying bags. Can't tell you how much we've enjoyed them.

http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=115129&highlight=folding+bikes

 

[Don12364]

And When You Find the Bikes

And when you find the ideal bikes you may discover, as we did, that all the lockers were already full and that it is a pain folding the bikes up and worming them into a locker every time you want to move on.
Some people even tie them either side of the mast when they sail - but bikes have a hard life in that location.

I made the rack shown in the pics below from 2"x2" Alloy channel and 1" sq Alloy tube. It mounts on two 2" diameter disks screwed one on each side of the transom. There is a 1/4" wing bolt on each side that holds the frame to the disks.
The modus operandi is the frame and bikes live separately on the garage wall and are transported to the boat in the car trunk.
Only the two wing bolts and the rack is attached to the boat in a jiffy. Then the bike wheels sit in the lengths of channel. One pedal on each bike is rotated to touch the central bar of the frame and there is a captive 1/4" wing bolt on each of the plates shown hanging on cords. This bolt passes through the pedal and screws the plate up tight so the bike cannot move.
The bikes don't suffer from salt spray as it rarely reaches that far back, especially with the dodger up.
They don't have to endure lengthy periods outside when we are not on board because the whole lot is at home then.

We found that, after 20/30 years of hardly venturing more than a few yards from the harbors and marinas we usually visit, we discovered a whole new world around our favorite places. It really is like having new cruising grounds.
Also neither bike has shown the slightest tendency to shift, even when we have been through some pretty horrendous overfalls.

 

[Bad Obsession]

Mine fit perfectly into the lazzeretted in my Catalina 30. I still have room to store other things in there as it is a very deep lazzerette. Having them stored like this is priceless. I just take them out by the bags, lower them off the rear of the boat into the dingy (would be so much easier with a swim platform or reverse transom). I then take them ashore and I have access to so many more things.

20" folding bikes are a great size for storage and use.

 

[stephen Penny]

Try downtube. Have two.

 

[Beautiful Day]

My wife and I first purchased West Marine's top of the line folding bikes. They opened up a whole new world of exploring. We found great places to eat, and shared sights and experiences we would have otherwise missed. I even mounted a Garmin GPS to my handle bars and we effortlessly find points of interest. My only complaint, was that after some distance, my lower back would hurt because the seat adjustment was very limited in height. We enjoyed the freedom the bikes offered so much, we recently invested in two "Dahon Mariners." These are top of the line foldable bikes for boaters. They are made of light weight non corrosive materials for the marine environment. I am sure that just like everything else in the salt water environment they will suffer. But, hopefully not quite as quickly. But, here is the report:

1. You can put them in Dahon "body bags" which makes them store flat and facilitates easier loading in the narrow doorways of a sailboat.
2. They are easier to assemble then the West Marine Models. They are also lighter and easier to handle.
3. The quality is immediately evident. Mercedes versus Chevrolet.
4. The seat post comes way up...making the ride far superior, since my knees are no longer in my chest.

By the way, we kept our West Marine models for when another couple joins us on coastal cursing trips. The bikes are a huge hit when we pull into port.