Looking for advice on a good mtb frame to take on some travels across Europe and S Asia. I plan to mix cycling legs with travel by trains, buses and the occaisional flights, so I’m looking at options for an easily transportable mtb, which I can stash in hostels or hotels and take on trains etc without too many hassles. Ideally something which will also serve for XC and commuting once home.

It would needs to be able to take a pannier rack, should be light and possibly foldable. Some options I came across are:

Slingshot Fold-Tech
Montague SwissBike
Ibis Tranny
Dahon Flo
Forgetting about foldability and using a bike bag
Getting couplers fitted to a steel frame

The last would be too time consuming. No one seems to stock the flo and it’s pretty costly. The tranny looks amazing but expensive and not sure whether it could take a rack. Does anyone have experience of the foldtech or swissbike? Swissbike has several models, it looks like they’re all the same frame with different components?

Any thoughts or tips much appreciated.

surly do a LHT with couplers already attached.

They have small wheels and are probably more expensive than your listed options but the Airnimal Rhino range, with their compact foldability and general all round ruggedness might be just the ticket.

Airnimal Rhino Website

Personally I’d avoid a folding bike if you’re going to be doing serious miles on it there are just too many things that could go wrong.

Ben that used to post here once upon a time does S&S couplings if that helps; kinetics

I do like the Tranny, but you’re right, it isn’t cheap and I was told recently it’s very harsh ride.

freeload racks mean you don’t have to worry about a frame having mounts – they have at least one mail order dealer in Germany so you don’t have to get them from NZ.

Personally, I’d go for steel/ally mtb in a bag or if you have the time/money/inclination get s&s couplings put in (i think it has to be steel for these) to make it more packable and manageable. But do consider how much of a pain it will be dragging a bike in a bag around when you are not riding it and how small you can make teh bike bag when you are riding.

sorry about the epic post; bored at work!

Ritchey’s break-away system is pretty good too.

Mustard: I like those freeload racks. Site bookmarked for future use 🙂

This may interest you.

My first thought was an Inbred.

My Inbred has 700c wheels and has been used for touring and commuting. Has all the braze-ons for mud guards and racks. Choice of V or disc brakes.

Choose the right forks for what you need.

Reasonably cheap to boot.

Personally I’d avoid a folding bike if you’re going to be doing serious miles on it there are just too many things that could go wrong

Agreed.

My first thought was an Inbred.

Mine too, becasue that’s what I use. I can’t think of a better bike for the job, TBH 🙂

some really useful info, thanks! opens up a couple of possibilities: the freeload looks great, i hadn’t come across this, means i could potentially take my maxlight (sunken dropouts mean an OMM or tubus wouldn’t fit). the fast turnaround from Ben’s kinetics service means i could also potentially get an inbred with couplers, as in shep’s link (cool).

going back to mustard’s advice, agree it could be a huge pain dragging a bike around when not pedalling it, even a fairly light or collapsable one. but i wanna take it, damn it.. hoping some good planning and luck will minimise the drag-time, though there’d inevitably be moments i wondered what the hell i was thinking of.

just heard from dahon that the flo, which uses ritchey’s break-away system, is discontinued, so that explains that. the surly’s an interesting proposition, too, and looks like there is a 26″ version, though handling for xc perhaps not great. Airnimal probably a bit too heavey, think full sus a bit overkill for this.

I was also thinking Inbred until I saw “light” mentioned in the requirements. I used to have one built up as a general purpose commuter tourer and it was good for that, but one thing it’s not is light.

the alternative to couplings, for getting it into a case smaller than a bike bag would be a full sus frame, maybe something that you could swap the parts from your Kinesis onto for the trip, but only a realistic option if the plan is to mountainbike from a base point rather than actually touring on it. The are the same issues of complexity and thigs to go wrong as a folder.

A Thorn Ripio – according to Thorn it’s the only MTB suitable for touring.