John Tim
Foldable bikes offer a pretty obvious trade-off: the convenience of something you can easily grab and store in the corner of an office or small apartment, but with some compromises in the cycling experience. Typically, putting more emphasis on one of those things means sacrificing a little on the other.
But e-bikes offer the opportunity to get around some of that trade-off, improving aspects of cycling performance without adding much extra mass. And the Gocycle G4 provides an excellent demonstration of how well that formula can work, offering excellent performance in a thoughtfully designed package that’s easy to pick up and tote around. It’s not quite as good as it will completely replace a regular bike, but it comes a lot closer than I expected, and it has some brilliantly designed features.
That said, the bike still has some issues that dampen my enthusiasm a bit.
Brilliant design
Gocycle is an English company founded by a designer from the performance car maker McLaren. The original idea was to make a bicycle that performs well at transporting people to and from a train station, but folds neatly enough to be transported on the train. The result is a highly customized design. It has a few stock parts on it, but the frame and many of the parts are custom made for Gocycle. The good news is that the freedom to conform to standardized parts enabled some truly inspired features.
But it also means that if you want accessories that come in standard sizes, such as fenders or a rear rack, you should buy them from Gocycle. Buy ready-made parts and chances are they will be the wrong size or won’t attach to the frame.
What are the positive aspects that customization makes possible? It’s a very long list. Instead of a standard kickstand, the G4 comes with a pair of legs that fold neatly against the frame when not in use. Push one down and both extend and spread out to form a stable tripod with the rear wheel holding the bike upright, even when fully folded. In the frame is a piece of bungie and a buckle; the bungie is just the right length to allow the buckle to latch onto a button on the handlebar when the bike is fully collapsed, and hold it in the folded position even as you lift and move it. And the shape of the frame provides an obvious place to hold the bike when transporting it folded.
The G4, fully folded. Note that the kickstand (between the pedal and seatpost on the underside) keeps all but the wheels off the ground, even when folded.
John Tim
The seatpost inserts into a tube that is not part of the frame, allowing you to adjust the height and lock the seat in place before inserting the assembly into the frame. This design also allows you to remove the seat without losing adjustment. Gocycle thoughtfully tucks an Allen key for adjusting the seat height into the underside of the seat itself, and there’s also a handy handle to secure the whole thing into the frame.
Finally, most single-suspension e-bikes place it on the front wheel, where it absorbs sudden braking on bulky frames. But the G4 doesn’t have a bulky frame and the suspension is on the rear wheel, making for a much more enjoyable ride when seated. This effect is accentuated by the long seatpost, which converts a little bit of compression in the suspension into a much bigger bit of flex.
A close-up of the rear suspension. Note the elastic band stored on it – when the bike is folded, it clips onto a hook on the handlebars to keep it folded. Also note the black plastic handle on the left side, which can be rotated to release the seatpost for storage.
John Tim
