I am a university student part a group that has been tasked with designing and manufacturing a folding bicycle. I know there are already lots on the market but wanted to see what you all thought too and so have out together a short 2 minute survey. Some of the questions you might find difficult to answer with the answer options provided but we have tried to construct the questions in a way that is tailored to the specification we have been given! The link for the survey is below and all answers are anonymous so no personal information will be collected! Thank you in advance if you take the time to fill it in- it will really help us out!

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H2XG8BH

Done.

Your spend figures are way too low. Also, folding fixies? Just no.

Agreed, on all of the above.

The survey assumes the entrant has a folding bike already which limits it a bit.
Price bands are way off reality, unless you are going for Uber budget BSO folding bikes – asking about discs assumes you aren’t.
Agreed on the fixed question, are you mental?

Yu can really only answer the questions if you already have a folder.

Done, why not just ask people if they own a Brompton at the outset to save time 😉

Yeah v odd Qs.

One of the questions asks for a comment if you don’t choose one of your answers. There’s no option to add that comment.
Again – that’ll be a Brompton or a Birdy then?

Done

Ref the fixed wheel question, we built a fixed wheel 20 inch Damon a few years back, it was nigh on un-rideable. Short top tube and the usual compromised riding position of a small wheeled commuter, combined with the lower inertia and small contact patch of a 20×1.5 schwalbe Kojak would make it feel like it was either locking up or pitching you over the bars apt the slightest provocation. Wish we had videoed the test rides, the customer took it to the top of the street and back and we were ordered to fix ( unfix?) it!

Price bands actually made me laugh

Very short sighted survey.

What is most important?
All of those items.

folded size very key for trains etc,
Unfolded size, needs to be rideable
Weight very important for commuting
time to fold and unfold very important, I could unfold my Kansi in the time it took to walk the length of one train carriage, while walking!

One feature, which seems only to work properly on Bromptons, is that the folded bike should stay folded without the use of a strap.

A clean place to hold the bike is useful.

Done. And a light, fast-folding fixed wheel would be great. But I ride fixed a lot.

The most important thing with cheap folding bikes is a large warranty department.

Done.

My colleague builds these in his spare time. Crank driven folding bike. Rather unique patented design (builds from the ground up from welding tubes and making the planetary reduction gear based hub from laser cut parts).

I have to ask… how do you pedal that?!

I saw / spoke to him riding that in Bristol. Looked easy enough to pedal, and immediately saw the benefit of no bb / ultra short “chainstays” for a folding bike.

For a single fold pivot and large-ish wheels that is a very compact fold.