Best Folding Bikes Under $700

The best folding bikes are designed for the consumer on the go who needs as much space as possible on their adventures. The best folding bikes are convenient for travel because they take up much less space and provide owners with more cargo room to pile in whatever’s needed on long trips. Some of the best folding bikes are road or city bikes, some are mountain bikes, but all of them provide efficiency and ease of use overall. Some folding bikes can be astronomical in pricing, but here are some good buys for their feature set and value.

The Bendable Montague Paratrooper Mountain

Best Folding Bikes Under $700: Montague Paratrooper

The Paratrooper Mountain Folding Bike is a sturdy mountain bike that has front suspension, 24 speeds, and Fire Plus shifters. Its double cage aluminum pedals are durable and its wheels are able to climb the roughest terrain. Its folding mechanism is simple and takes seconds to break down. This bike can also be used for casual street riding by simply swiktching out the tires with road treads.

Users really like this bike, giving it four and a half stars on Amazon. Most of them mention how simple and useful the bending feature is, as well as the overall sturdiness and durability of the bike as a whole. One user notes how flexible the folding bike is when used for street riding, and another lauds the company for offering it cheaper than the competition.

The Montague Paratrooper Mountain Folding Bike is available at Amazon for $683.

The Compact Xootr Swift

Best Folding Bikes Under $700: Xootr Swift

The Xootr Swift Folding Bicycle becomes compact in a snap, featuring a customizable feature set as well as a sturdy frame. Weighing around 22 pounds and aluminum alloy cage and body pedals, this best folding bike is well constructed. There is a SRAM 5.0 twist grip shifter included, as well as a Velo VLG-3029 Plush Comfort with Ozone seat. Overall the fold mechanism is well designed and is easy to initiate.

Users like this best bike, noting its flexibility in terrain, and overall convenience in storage. One owner notes it’s almost infinitely customizable, allowing anyone to switch out tires, shifter, or derailers. One user does note that it’s not the most compact when compact compared to some other similar folding bikes, but overall it’s still quite efficient.

The Xootr Swift Folding Bicycle is available at Amazon for $699.

The Convenient Dahon Mariner D7

Best Folding Bikes Under $700: Dahon Mariner D7

The Dahon Mariner D7 Folding Bicycle weighs 26 pounds and folds in less than 15 seconds. While it was designed for boaters on the go, commuters will also love this best folding bike. It has been coated with rust resistant materials to prevent decomposition, and it features seven speeds. It’s built to last, with a very durable frame and while it’s heavy to carry on long distances, you should probably be riding it anyways.

Users really like this  bike, noting its overall ease of use and one owner even mentions that it makes a great portable seat. While frequent use necessitates filling the tires up around twice a month, that’s standard maintenance on most bikes. Some users noted the price is also better than many titanium models.

The Dahon Mariner D7 Folding Bicycle is available at Amazon for $489.

The Space Saving Schwinn Loop 7-Speed

Best Folding Bikes Under $700: Schwinn Loop 7-Speed

The Schwinn Loop 7-Speed Folding Bike has seven speeds and features a carrying bag. It comes with 20-inch rims and its city tires are made for concrete. Its alloy front and rear linear pull brakes are solid and durable. There is also a 3-piece single-speed crankset included. Its alloy frame makes this bike quite solid to handle any bumps or holes in the road quite well.

Users really like this best folding bike, giving it four and a half stars on Amazon. Some users have noted this bike is a bit heavier than most others, and others have mentioned that the folding mechanism is a bit sticky at times. Also, many users have claimed that the seat included isn’t the best and a replacement one is necessary.

The Schwinn Loop 7-Speed Folding Bike is available at Amazon for $265.

Versatile urban travel: the Felt X-City 1 bike, and the folding Dahon Jack bike for under $600.

The Dahon Jack folding bike. It weighs 28.4 pounds (or 12.9 kg). I’ve treated this bike harshly for a year now, and I haven’t had any problems with it. It costs $459.

The Dahon Espresso. It has 21 gears instead of 8. It weighs 13.3 kg (or 29.3 lb). I’m currently testing this bike — so far it been as durable as the Dahon Jack. Update: My wife loves this bike, good maneuverability. It’s available for $370 from Amazon.

I’ve been testing a folding commuter bike, the Dahon Jack. This is a good quality bike that feels solid when riding. I like the ergonomic grips on the handlebars and the full-size 26 inch wheels. I get a lot of flats, so the bike’s Schwalbe Big Apple tires were a welcome inclusion. Dahon says that these tires, which include Kevlar anti-puncture lining, offer lower rolling resistance than thinner tires.

The Dahon Jack fairly light at 13.6 kg (30 lbs.), and fold down easily to 38 x 69 x 91 cm (14″ x 27″ x 36″).

This bike cost me $450. I’m planning on converting it to an electric bike at some point, using anAmped Bike kit.

Dahon offers some other full-sized commuter bikes like the Cadenza Solo and the Espresso.

Folding bikes are particularly efficient when used in conjunction with public transit. Unlike regular bikes, they can be taken easily on buses, trains or ferries. In fact, some transit systems will only allow folding bikes to be taken on board. I recently reviewed the Best Folding Bikes of 2008. An efficient addition to these bikes is an electric motor. For a little extra weight, you get the benefit of going up hills easily, and this is often very important to commuters who do not work up a sweat before getting into work. Let’s take a look at one of the better folding electric bikes out there: a Dahon Mu P3 custom-fitted with a BionX electric assist motor.

This bike is called Dahon Conversion and it’s sold by NYCEWheels for $1899 (see photos above and below).

The Dahon Conversion weighs just 42 pounds. It can be folded in less than 20 seconds into a size roughly 13″ x 25″ x 30″.

The folding of the bicycle requires the loosening of 4 clasps and the bicycle collapses to its folded size without removing any of the wheels or adjusting any of the gears. The wires are out of the way and do not obstruct the folding and require no special attention in the folding process.

The bike has a range of 20-30 miles. This version of the bike uses a 250 watt motor and NiMH batteries. If you spend more, you can get a 350 watt motor (add $230) or lithium-ion batteries (add $300).

The BionX standard system includes a control console, a battery and a motor. The control console includes a multi-functional odometer, four assistance levels, four generative settings as well as a battery charge indicator.

You can also create your own folding electric bike. For example, to recreate the Dahon Conversion you could get the Dahon Mu P3 (about $590) and install the BionX motor system yourself (kits start at $1100). Of course you can also use other folding bikes and electric assist kits. Some kits are available for less than $500, however I can’t vouch for their quality. There’s also DVD that will tell you how to fit your bike with an electric motor — its a bit hokey but it shows the basic method of installation.

Another folding electric bike is the iZip EZgo. This inexpensive bike by Currie Technologies, will help you  pedal for 18 to 25 miles with speeds up to 18 mph. The bike weighs 53 pounds, including the motor. The EZgo has a simple twist throttle with a battery gauge. The wheels are 16″ heavy duty alloy with stainless steel spokes. The bike also features an integrated rear carrier to take some items on the go with you.

It’s available from Amazon for $649. The bike’s home page is here.

Biontague is a folding electric mountain bike, created by Electric Cyclery. It’s a Montague Swiss Bike LX folding mountain bike fitted with a Bionx PL350 electric conversion kit. The Biontague bike offers speeds in the 20 MPH range, great hill climbing assistance, and a range of up to 60 miles on a 3-hour charge.

The Montague Swiss is a mountain bike that folds for easy transport and the whole thing weighs only 43.2 lbs. A 36-volt lithium-ion battery pack is mounted down low on the frame.

The price is $2425 from Electric Cyclery, plus $100 shipping in continental USA.

Folding bikes have all the efficiencies of normal bikes but they can also be folded and stored in cars, buses, trains and even carried on air flights.

A recent review by Consumer Reports gave top rating to the Brompton C3-E. It was the lightest bike tested and it sells for $675. It is easy to fold, and it folds up so the chain is inside, not on the outside where you can rub against it. In the less expensive range, Consumer Reports named the Dahon Speed D7 a Best Buy. It was the heaviest bike of those reviewed, but it had the lightest price at $380.

One of the least expensive folding bikes is the Citizen 6 Speed bike, which weighs 35 pounds, and is selling for $174 right now. A very similar bike is the 6 Speed Folding Bike, which weighs in at 23 pounds and is selling for $169.

If you are interested in finding reviews and videos of folding bikes, RideThisBike.Com is the best place to look. They recommend the 29lb $650 Montague Paratrooper as a folding mountain bike that can deal with rough surfaces. RideThisBike.Com also has many favorable reviews of the Giatex folding bikes.

Another site, BikeFold, has a huge range of folding bikes for sale, many with price tags over $1000.