FOLDING BIKES BLOG
Stories, tutorials, and advice from the Montague Bikes team.
Around the World (Almost)
The BBC recently reported on a gentleman who rode his bicycle from China to England for the Olympics. Beginning in May 2012, Chen Guangming left Erchen, Jiangsu province on a journey that would take him more than 85,000 miles to London. Traveling on his...
Changing Focus: Strict Liability in the Future for New York?
The Regional Plan Association (RPA) is the nation's oldest independent urban research and advocacy group. One of the nation's most distinguished of such groups, the RPA has been serving New York since the 1920s. Last week the RPA posted an article by Alex...
Midnight Ride: Boston by Bike at Night
Boston By Bike - At Night Each year for the past 23 years the Back Bay Midnight Pedalers, primarily composed of members of the MIT community (but not exclusively), have led an architecture tour of Boston, at night - on bikes. The tour begins at midnight on Copley...
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One
Understatement: Brakes are very helpful. Brakes allow we riders to react to those unexpected moments on the road and stop quickly, to help ensure our health and safety, as well as that of other road users. They let us stop as we approach intersections when the light...
Changing Shape
Starting in late summer 2012, Montague Bikes and Prime, Inc. Trucking, based out of Springfield, MO, will be partnering to pioneer an advancement in the trucking industry, a sea change in health. America relies on its trucking industry for economic success, but...
More Ways to Say Hello
Montague HQ in Cambridge is expanding our ways to say hello. We've just launched: a Tumblr and, an Instagram page. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a bicycle is truly beyond description. More ways to share your story, so stop by and say hello! Here we...
For Whom the Red Light Turns
Recently an article ran in The New York Times Opinion Pages by Randy Cohen. The author makes an argument that while running a red light may be illegal it is ethical by his considerations, as his actions could only injure himself. He invokes Emmanuel Kant and...
Tools of the Trade
Tools of the trade. In a mechanic's shop you'll see walls and drawers of tools, shelves of components, it's a treasure trove; with these resources you can handle anything. When you're on your bike it is certainly a good idea to be similarly prepared for the...
How to Get Around
We've been focusing on urban cycling recently, but what happens when you travel? When you live just a bit further than is comfortable to ride from, for whatever reason: time, distance, infrastructure limitations. The image above comes from the current exhibit as the...
Band-aids
With the influx of cycling and new cyclists in our city and around the world, there are sadly more accidents -and bound to be more - as drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike acclimate to the new street dynamic. Our emergency services must adjust as well; from...
Farewell My Sweet Auto
Along with all the Olympics news coming out of London, there has been some cycling news outside of the races. Changes in the great historic city of London are reflecting a change in the times, away from the car-centered past and a turn toward a...
Bumps and Bruises
Yesterday I shared some lessons from my recent car-bike incident. Now to help keep your bike safe. As much as many of us would like to be riding all day long, every day - most of the time that cannot be. Even bicycle couriers have to stop and leave their bike...
Back to the Basics
Sometimes things don't go according to plan and what should have been a routine commute home from work, class, or some other activity becomes a dramatic moment. Accidents happen. Sometimes they occur between bikes and cars, or with pedestrians. Often times they...
Philosophy: Minimalist
What are the necessary parts on a bike anyway? It all depends upon your build philosophy. From a Minimalist Perspective First one needs a frame. A bicycle requires wheels to roll upon (included therein: tires, spokes, hubs, and all that lay beneath these). It...
“Elegant Functionality”
[Image Credit: Ben Gabo Photography] "The Navigator folding bike, for example, is a marvel of elegant functionality," writes Mark Feeney in today's Arts Monday section of The Boston Globe review of the BSA Space show Let's Talk About Bikes. We couldn't have said it...
Bicycle Utopia
Utopia The word utopia comes to us from Sir Thomas More's 1516 work of that name. It means the ideal place or perfect society, but it comes from the Greek roots for "the place that cannot be", or "no place". Being no place in particular means it cannot be defined or...
Drumroll please…
Not just across the pond, but a little further, into a town known as Friedrichshafen in Southern Germany to be precise. Ensconced in the mountains and on the shores of the Bodensee (also known as Lake Constance) stands the district capital of Landeskreis district....
Local Considerations: Commuting gracefully
Yesterday we spoke of considerations from our old friends across the pond in the UK. Today we have local considerations. In a local Massachusetts publication, suitably entitled Wicked Local, there is a handy advice article written jointly by Newton, MA Police...
