miniB 11sp belt drive Folding Bike

this is a fabulous travel bike .............. it is my 3rd Down Tube bike ........ all have been wonderful. I love this bike for its portability >> folds quickly, stem allows me to remove saddle from frame completley (cannot do this with my Brompton). As others have comments, the 11 gears offer a wider range of gearing than the 6 gears of the Brompton. I changed out the saddle to a Selle Italian Diva Gel superflow and mounted it with a long 6 allen wrench. Took off the bike rack and the bracket at the base of the frame to make the bike even lighter. Set tire pressure to about 45 psi per recommendations of Yan. i have the bike in my trunk at all times, along with a nifty folding helmet. I cannot say enough great things about Yan and his customer service. I had taken the bike to a local shop for a maintenance inspection. Yan took the time to call the shop on my behalf, in order to explain a method of calibrating the belt (not needed after all). the only hitch with my bike was a trigger shifter that did not "move" the needle to show gear changes >> i decided not to replace this shifter, although Yan did offer to send a new one. It's not a problem, because the gear changes are so easy to make. this is not the first time that Yan has gone above and beyond to make sure that everything has gone well ....... he did the same thing when i ordered 9 gear bikes for a trip to hawaii ............................. all in all, this is a fun bike which rides well, folds beautifully, and delivers hours of pleasure in the sun and fresh air

I would definitely recommend this bike! It is very fun to ride. Quiet, clean and fast. After researching folding bikes I decided that I wanted one that could be packed in regular checkable airline baggage (not oversized) and that had a belt drive and an internal hub geared for climbing hills. The Downtube Mini is one of only two options that I found on the current market that meets these requirements (apparently Bike Friday just released a new bike, called the “Pakit”, but it is 2-3 times the cost of the Mini and I haven’t seen any reviews on it at this point). Here is a list of the concerns that I had about buying a Downtube Mini and what I learned: 1) The bike would be too small for me (I am 6 feet tall). It fits me just fine with extension of neck/stem and the longer seat post. 2) The bike would not climb hills well as I live Tacoma Washington which is very hilly. With the Alfine 11 hub the bike is geared low enough to tackle the steepest hills in my area. 3) It might not fold well into regular airline baggage (so I would incur additional charges for checking oversized baggage). The mini fits well into the Samsonite F’lite hardcase. I did have to disassemble the bike at the neck and frame hinges but it is not hard to do. Takes about 10 minutes to disassemble and pack or to unpack and reassemble. 4) Parts would be hard to replace/find. According to Yan, only the frame and forks are proprietary so replacement parts should be found easily. 5) Customer service might be a challenge since the bikes are not found or commonly serviced in bike stores. Yan is great! He answers e-mails promptly, is easy to reach by phone and is very helpful in solving problems. I had a loose neck on the Mini when it arrived and he replaced it with a new one without issues. There is a potential downside for those who like to use rear rack panniers. Panniers on the rear racks of 16” wheeled bicycles tend to hit the heels of the rider as they pedal (this is not unique to Downtube). There are makeshift solutions to this such as moving the rack backwards (using some hardware and creativity) but the easier solution is to replace the stock rack with a seatpost mounted rear rack with a quick release. This puts the pannier higher and further back so your heel doesn’t hit the pannier. This is what I do and it works just fine. It does create an additional step when folding the bike (you have to loosen the quick release of the rack before lowering the seat post) but it is very fast. How does the Mini compare to a Brompton? Bromptons seem to be the easiest/fastest folding bikes on the market and the most compact when folded. However, I believe that the Downtube Mini 11 speed is a better bicycle especially for the price. The Brompton costs at least $600 more and that would only get you a 6 speed hub. I test road a 6 speed brompton at a local Seattle bike shop this week and I could not climb the steep hills next to the shop. But with the Mini I could. I have heard that Brompton can be customized to have “mountain gearing”(lower gears) but I don’t know how low the gears go and what the added cost would be for that option. To summarize, the Downtube Mini 11 speed is a great folding bicycle and at a good price.

Really enjoying riding this great bike. Everything working fine on the bike. I usually ride 7-10 miles 5 days per week. Really a good idea to tighten everything up after you unpack the bike and make sure everything is adjusted right. May want to have a bike mechanic do this if you are uncomfortable doing this yourself. Thanks for the fast ship and fast responses to my questions.

I ordered two mini11's. They came very well packaged, in perfect condition, and were easy to assemble. Excellent recommendations and service from Yan. Only one trivial recommendation: manual reads "calibrate with shifter in 4th gear" but for 11 speed, it should be in 6th gear. Also, manual could use more photos. But they are beautiful bikes, well made, the ALFINE gearing us vastly superior to a derailleur for a folding bike, and so is the Gates belt drive. Totally clean, no oily, dirty or greasy chain, no derailleur to get bent or broken. These bikes will be stored in the engine room on our boat. The small size, foldable pedals, belt drive and Alfine gears make it clean and safe to store with minimal maintenance. Alfons is also much easier to use for less-technical people (e.g.my wife) than derailleur gearing. I was going to order a similarly equipped bike from a competitor. It would have been twice the price. Fortunately, they were out of stock, so we ended up getting the Downtube mini11's, at essentially two for the price of one, and am totally satisfied. I ride two Cervelos, two Montagues and a host of Treks for other purposes. This is PERFECT for the boat, car or plane.