A-Bike is NOT a Mountain Bike

I smiled when I opened up my newly delivered A-Bike and found a letter with the above sentences as the heading. Of course it is NOT an MTB. Anyone who sees the tiny, "krispy kreme doughnut" sized wheel would quickly realize that. But MTB is not what A-bike is for. A-bike is probably the smallest & the lightest foldable bikes that can still be enjoyed by a person up to 200 cm height (at least that's what the website claimed). With only 5.5 Kg, it is much lighter than my regular MTB. And it can be folded and put into a small bag.


To my surprise, the Doughnut sized wheel is actually a high pressurized inflated tyre. The bike was supplied with Topeak pocket shock pump, to inflate the tyre up to 90 Psi. That's almost the same pressure as my Anthem's rear shock pressure (110 Psi).
How does it ride? honestly is not a very pleasant experience. It flexes all over the place. The seat is to small to support my rear....The rear wheel is to far forward; so if you're not carefully maintain your bodyweight distribution, you can easily fall backward. It can go pretty fast in a very-very smooth road. Unfortunately it is quite rare even here in Jakarta, where plenty of speed bumps, road crevaces and all other road discontinuities. So you have to be very-very careful.

Would I keep my A-bike? sure! Now I always put it in my car trunks. You never know when you'll need it. Maybe you got trapped in a big traffic jam, or got a flat tyre, or running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, or simply had to leave your car in a nearby workshop and have to walk back to your office. A-bike can help you turn a 20-minute walk into a merely 5 minutes ride. It might not be a pleasant ride, but at least take you there faster.

In the future, when Jakarta has already a much better public transportation system, I might even use the A-bike regularly to go to my office. I can ride it to the nearest bussway station, fold it & put inside the bag, and carry it inside the bus easily without disturbing other passenger. Someday................