World’s Lightest Folding Bike Weighs Only 15 Pounds

The world’s lightest folding
bike is here. The Hummingbird Bike Company has put its ultra-light, carbon fiber bike into production following a successful 2015 Kickstarter campaign.

The two-wheeler weighs only 15 pounds.
According to the London startup, the bike features a unique folding mechanism where “the rear triangle pivots around the bottom bracket, so the chain tension never changes. Not only does this prevent the chain from falling off but it also removes the need for a chain tensioner.”

The bike is light but sturdy. Dezeen reported that Hummingbird partnered with British motorsport company Prodrive—which constructs cars for companies such as Aston Martin, MINI and Volkswagen—to develop the bike frame’s carbon layout with the minimum number of layers for the maximum strength.

Hummingbird founder and designer Peter Craciun also said that the “bike is safe and would pass all the safety requirements for the British and ISO standards.”

At £3,495 ($4,515), the Hummingbird, which comes in yellow, black, blue and burnt orange, is pricey. There are certainly more affordable, albeit heavier, foldable bikes on the market.

You might be wondering why anyone would want a folding bike over a regular bike. Well, a folding bike has a number of advantages over its clunkier cousin, especially in cities where space is at a premium. For instance, in the Netherlands, where there are 1.3 bikes per person, finding a bike parking spot can be a serious challenge. After launching construction for the world’s largest bike parking garage beneath Utrecht’s central train station with 12,500 parking spots, city planners are looking for even more parking spaces.

But with a folding bike, parking is not even necessary. It can be stowed in an apartment closet or the trunk of a car, tucked under the work desk, or easily toted onto a crowded bus, subway or train.

Notably, Hummingbird also has an electric version of the folding bike in mind that will hopefully launch by the end of the year, giving urban commuters another method to zip from A to B.

In any case, with transportation being a major source of global carbon dioxide emissions, emission-free options for the roads is always a great idea.