First rides

The day we made the bus journey into Glasgow to collect our new bikes turned out to be a wet one, heavy rain all the way there, the bus splashing through the enormous puddles that had formed overnight. It had eased a little by the time we left the Buchanan Street bus station for the short walk to our bike shop and as soon as we walked in the door the weather outside was forgotten as our two Brompton foldies were lined up in front of us ready and waiting. Our first attempts at folding them up were laughable - there is a technique which involves lifting and twisting each part in the right way - but we had guidance from the staff and were shown how to fit and remove the batteries too. We also experimented with fitting them into the bags that came with the bikes, these being needed for our return bus journey home None of this took long and soon we were mounting up outside for the short ride back to the bus station.

We had quite a long wait for our bus, time for some food and also time to speculate on whether we'd be challenged by the bus driver when we tried to load our bikes. Folded in their bags the bikes still represented a large piece of luggage. Then there is the issue of them being electric, the batteries being in rather attractive bags which we carried inside the bus as hand luggage. None of this turned out to be relevant and if the driver knew they were bikes, he never mentioned it. We felt a sense of relief once we had set off, knowing for certain that we now had bikes that could travel anywhere with us on public transport. This had always been an essential part of the plan.

Several days later another heatwave landed on Britain, something we had had experience of whilst touring abroad earlier in the year, but for some parts of the UK the temperature went significantly higher than what we had then experienced, and escaped from. Scotland avoided the worst of it but it was still much hotter than normal. Living here means we are not used to the heat, even in the height of Summer, so we notice its effect on our bodies when it comes.

Before the worst of the heat kicked in we took a ride to try out our new beasts, to test their performance on the flat and also try them on a few hill climbs. We needed to assess their riding comfort, to make sure we had our saddles set at the right height, to see how the smaller wheels coped with road potholes and gravel and also to consider whether we should fit a smaller chain ring which would give us lower gearing for our steeper hills. All of this was in our minds as we set off along the Crinan Canal towpath and on reaching the sea at Crinan we paused to take stock. Our riding speed on the flat seemed to be roughly the same as with our larger bikes (once we had discovered how to convert from kph to mph) but we both were using just our lower gears (we have a choice of four) which suggested that a switch to a smaller chain ring might suit us better. Starting off on a hill, even in the lowest gear, seemed to require a lot of effort unless we used a boost of electric assistance but this might just be down to us getting used to the bikes. As to the potholes... the ride comfort felt a little different from what we are used to due to the more upright riding position. The steering is also more reactive as one might expect with the smaller wheels but we both felt we could easily get used to these differences. We tended to use electric power when the gradient increased but for flat roads this wasn't needed at all. Switching off the 'pedal assist' is what we were used to doing even when our old bikes were fully loaded with luggage so there's no real change there. One good thing is that our foldies have hydraulic disc brakes which were powerful enough to slow us on the steeper downhills so all things considered our first ride went well. Folding up the bikes still needs more practice but we are getting better at this too.

One thing we both miss is our kickstands. Reluctant as we are to add anything that will increase the weight of our bikes, the ability to stop anywhere and prop the bike up on its own stand when there is nothing to lean it against is something we miss.

Then there is the absence of the rear wheel bike locks which we had fitted to our old bikes during the first Holland tour. These come as standard on nearly all Dutch bikes. Sometimes known as 'cafe locks' they were so easy to set whenever we stopped somewhere and they allowed us to walk confidently away from our bikes knowing that they would be safe. Regrettably they cannot be fitted to our foldies without impeding the fold so we need to come up with another solution, something light but just sufficiently strong to deter a passing thief. We are on a learning curve, discovering more each day about our new bikes. Storing them at home, finding a place from where we can easily unfold, jump on and ride away, has taken us through several different solutions. The flexibility offered by their prime feature, foldability, gives us so many new ideas.