Expensive yuppie toys. It is just as easy to rent a bike at the port or
carry your own bmx style that can be purchased used at garage sales for less
than $50.


wrote in message
oups.com...
New Stowaway Bike Options Unfolding
(by Chuck Gould)

One of the most useful accessories one can carry on a small boat is a
folding bicycle.

some beginning in the $300-$350 bracket.

the Giant Halfway retails for $525
and the price includes a cover.


Woopie!


three Brompton models that retail at
prices from $650- $1075.

What a bargain.


The basic, "Birdy
Yellow" retails at $1050, and the top of the line "Birdy Ice
Blue" sells for $1500.


Why lovie dear, will you please pass the Grey Poupon?


For an additional $1300, a BionX electric assist system can be
retrofit to many of the models. The battery-powered motors are designed
to assist, rather than replace, human pedal power. When this story was
prepared in late March, Eric had an outstanding buy available on some
electrically assisted Dahon folders, (the Dahon "Zap" was priced at
just under $600).


Why not just walk?

Maybe our most popular cruising areas out here are a bit more woodsy
than those in the Great Lakes region. You can't always rent a bike at
the marina. In fact, more often than not, you can't.

On a small or medium size boat, the last thing you need rattling around
deck or lashed to a rail is a bicycle. The stowaway bikes fold down and
disappear into the lazarette, or if we leave them lashed in the cockpit
they take up maybe 6 cubic feet for the pair.

Why not walk? We often do. Since we added bikes to the mix, we get to
see a lot more of some of our local islands than we could be walking.

The other nice thing about these folding bikes is that we have enjoyed
riding them in some of the parks around town. We stuff them into the
wife's Subaru.....no big old clumsy bike rack, etc, to fiddle with.

We are very enthusiastic about our folding bikes. We started off with
just one, as my wife orginally expressed some of the same reservations
you did in your post. Before long, she just had to have one too.

We all carry a dinghy to get around on the water when we arrive at a
destination, why not a bicycle to get around on land?