How To Put A Folding Electric Bike Into A Car Boot

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UntitledDay 48 of 365 Days Of Low Carbon Living.

Less than two weeks after I tried travelling by a folding electric bike, I returned to collect the bike I had ordered. I wasn’t in a position to ride it home, so I took the opportunity to document how to put my new folding electric bike into my car boot.This is what the bike looks like fully assembled:

UntitledThis picture and the one at the start of the post give an idea of how big the bike is relative to a medium-size sedan:

UntitledStep 1: remove the battery

The battery is quite heavy, so the first thing to do is to remove it to make the bike lighter for lifting.

Here is where the battery is housed on my new bike.  (Another common place that electric bikes hold their battery vertically is just behind the pillar in front of the back wheel.)

It is locked in place with a key. To take the battery out, you have to first unlock it from its housing.  If it doesn’t come out fairly easily then it’s probably still locked.

Battery housing & rear light of electric bikeStep 2: fold the handlebars

The next step is to fold down the handlebars.

On my bike, a clamp on the front stem holds the handlebars in place.

First you have to undo the clamp – step 1 on the photo below. If you aren’t familiar with folding the bike, it can be a little tricky finding the clamp because it blends in very well with the rest of the bike.

After the clamp is undone, it is very easy to fold the handlebars down – step 2 on the photo below.

How to fold handlebars of folding electric bikeStep 3: fold the pedals

Next comes folding the pedals. This is so they on’t dig into whatever you are lying the bike on (in this case, the boot floor) or bend under the weight of the bike.

(You could also do this step before folding the handlebars.)

Here is what the folded pedals look like:

Folded pedal, folding electric bikeFolded pedal, folding bikeStep 4: fold the frame

The final step is to fold the frame of the bike.

Like with the handlebars, first you have to undo the clamp.

How to undo frame clamp of folding bikeThen you can fold the bike in half and lift it into the boot of the car:

Folding bike in bootAs you can see, it doesn’t take up much space in the boot – so there’s plenty of room for other things as well!

Having a folding electric bike allows me to get the bike home in any vehicle.  Standard (non-folding) bikes can only be transported on bike carriers or in the back of station wagons, utes, vans, or pick-ups or other trucks – if you can lift them (because they are very heavy).

The combination of electric and folding means that I now have the freedom to ride a bike a lot of places that were previously beyond my ability – and I can do so relatively easily and with the comfort of knowing that I am unlikely to be stranded if something goes wrong.

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Till next time…

S