The Vello is indeed a nice looking bike, it follows somehow the Moulton bike philosophy.
But they could have further developed the folding mechanism. Once folded, it is for sure quite narrow (like the Strida) but rather long and I am not sure you want to take it in a bus during rush hour
I would also like to see how it rolls once folded. It looks like you need to lift it by the saddle to prevent the chainstay to touch the ground.
But is the steer lockable? If not, then it will not roll easily by lifting the saddle.
What about the actual weight? It should be around 10 kg to be really competitive.
Guess it’s not lockable - and it wouldn’t be helpful, the front wheel can’t be inline with the rear wheel. To roll it along you’ll have to lift the front wheel.
Of course is the locking latch in danger to be damaged by touching the ground; Valentin replied at kickstarter to a request from Sang Jin regarding this issue:
My suggestion would be to use two very small wheels (rolls) - similar to Brompton - left and right the latch.
I’ve heard from a delevoper’s team member that they didn’t receive the serial tube material by now, so I mean it’s just honest not to claim a certain weight. Expected are below 12 kgs for Urbano and Rocky, Valentin wrote at a German bikeforum that they want to keep the Speedster’s weight below 9,5 kgs.
On the pictures, it looks like front and rear wheels are parallel once folded (which would allow the rolling). Does it mean that the rear fork articulation is not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bike?
If the wheels are on the same line, then the front wheel would be shown rotated in the folded position, as it would otherwise collide with the rear wheel.
Photoshop processing?
Understood, I don’t think that’s photoshopping, just an optical illusion.
I believe the steering clamp was loosened and then slightly turned to the right for the sideways pics. On the pic below you can see that the bar is turned left.
Edit: But I’ll try to find that out; latest once I could ride this bike, hopefully this week…
If I understand well, it means that when the suspension moves, the wheel moves slightly sideways
Of course this displacement will be very small: if it is 30 mm for a 170° rotation of the rear fork when folded, then in normal operation for a 15° rotation of the rear fork, the wheel will move less than 3mm sideways. That’s about the same amount as on the Strida when you pedal hard
