Folding bikes | Compact bicycles

Tern Bicycles are on the way

Sep 02

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The complete line of Tern folding bicycles have been photographed and documented. The website is up and running. There’s really only one thing left to do: ship bikes to dealers around the world. According to Josh Hon, head of Tern Bicycles, that’s soon to be taken care of as well.

Here’s what he said to me in an early August email exchange: “Bikes are in production as we speak. We just finished a batch of about 150 samples for use at shows and distributor house shows. Bicycles will start shipping next month with arrival in stores in a few markets by the end of October, and larger quantities hitting most markets by November/December.”

Folding bike demand is global

That’s good news for this “instant global” folding bike brand. Hon says his company has distributors in more than 30 countries “chomping at the bit and waiting for bikes.”

One reason: People know Hon from his folding bike career at Dahon. Even though Tern Bicycles didn’t exist as a brand a few months ago, the team behind the brand is a known quantity within the industry.

Another reason for all the enthusiasm: Tern is making all the right noises about durability as well as design.

Building a strong folding bike

“We’ve submitted all the frames for independent testing,” Hon said. “The EN (European standard) requires a frame to pass 100,000 cycles. We took every frame up to 150,000 cycles before turning off the machines. We didn’t have a single incident.”

You don’t read much about durability testing with traditional road and mountain bikes. That’s because the materials, geometry and construction of traditional bikes are pretty well established. The work is still being done, but durability testing rarely finds expression in a marketing plan.

However, durability testing is extra important in the folding bike business. Folding bikes have joints that traditional bikes don’t have. And a new folding bike brand, even one backed by the experience of the team behind Tern Bicycles, depends on independent testing to add credibility to its durability claims.

Not only was the testing satisfactory, Tern decided to raise its maximum rider weights.

Durability and stiffness combined

“We’ve bumped up the maximum rider weight to 110 kg (242 lbs.) on 20-inch wheel bikes and 115 kg. (253 lbs.) on 24-inch and 26-inch bikes,” Hon said. “People (media and distributors) who have had a chance to test ride the bikes overwhelmingly comment about the stiffness of the ride.”

Keep in mind that stiffness and durability are two different things. You can have a durable folding bike that has a noticeable amount of flex in the frame and in the handlebar/stem combination or what Tern calls “the handlepost.” But eliminating the flex without creating a heavy, unresponsive folding bike is much harder. And yet Tern seems to have avoided that dreaded weight gain in its pursuit of a stiff, responsive bicycle.

Tern Bicycles plus Biologic

That same fashion show is on the floor of Eurobike, the big European bicycle trade show. Tern will also have a presence at Interbike in Las Vegas.

At the shows, Tern folding bikes share space with BioLogic, the company’s sister brand. Many BioLogic accessories first surfaced while Hon was still part of Dahon.

“All the really cool iPhone BioLogic stuff that we announced a few months ago – ReeCharge Bike Mount, Dynamo Kit, Cipher Gloves – will be in stock by early September,” Hon said. “We’ll also be releasing an updated version of BikeBrain, our iPhone app, in a few weeks. It’s got some great new features – and it’ll still be free. Amazingly, its only been out for a few months and we’ve already had more than 40,000 downloads.”

In addition to folding bikes and bicycle accessories, Tern Bicycles has a philanthropic side as well. Several months ago, the company donated a week’s worth of all online Biologic revenues, more than $8,000, to the Red Cross in Japan to support earthquake/tsunami victims. Hon says the company is committed to giving at least 1 percent of net profits to environmental or social causes.

For Hon, success is having the right folding bikes, accessories and business model. Now, to win the attention of the folding bike community, it’s time to deliver the main event: the full line of Tern folding bikes. And he’s on it.

“We move ahead with making bikes,” Hon concluded. “In the end, people want good bikes and that’s what we are focusing on.”

Current offering of Tern folding bikes in the US

-Sam Joslin, 16incheswestofpeoria.com