I took my Brompton C-Line on the train to Eugene. I used it to bike to the Max station, then rode to Union Station, then checked it with Amtrak and picked it up in Eugene and rode it to my hotel.

I could have just taken it as a carry on, but I haven’t ridden Amtrak in a while and forgot how storage space works in the compartment. My most recent rail experience was in France, and the train ride from Lyon to Paris involved some genuine chaos in the baggage area, so that was the memory I could summon and I didn’t like it. I think I could have stuck it in the overhead bin on the Amtrak, and if there’d been no space I could have left it at the end of the car. Anyhow, it was $5 to just hand it off, and next time I’ll remember.

For as many bikes as I’ve owned, I don’t really know much about them. I couldn’t predict, based on specs around gearing and geometry, how a bike will really feel. I will say that of all the bikes I’ve owned over the years, the two that have felt the very best are my Brompton and a Trek Crossrip (one of the ones with carbon forks).

What is “best”?

I’d say it’s a combination of easy to understand stuff in the form of my riding posture and how easy it is to feel like I have good situational awareness without paying in a sense of balance, and something tangible but hard to explain in the form of I dunno what I’d call it … time to cruising speed? Smoothness to cruising speed?

I guess it’s just a gearing thing. The Crossrip and the Brompton both felt/feel easy to get up to a speed where I feel like I’m cruising at a satisfying speed and then not pedaling too hard or too fast to stay there.

It doesn’t surprise me that the Crossrip felt that way. It seems to be a well regarded bike whose departure from the lineup is lamented. It does surprise me a bit with the Brompton, given its tiny wheels and foldability. I’ve had other, less expensive folders and you feel the tradeoffs in the ride, and even with 20" wheels they don’t have that sense of smooth ramp and balanced control.

When I bought the Brompton I loved the test ride and was surprised at how good it felt, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t feel good for a ride all the way downtown and back, which is 10 miles if I take the long way along the Springwater and more like 7 or 8 if I cut through inner southeast. I imagined it as a good bike for stuff inside five miles: Errand runs into Woodstock, maybe trips to Sellwood, but mostly as a last-couple-of-miler from the Max, or a one-way “meet Al for drinks after work, toss it in the back” bike.

In practice, though, nowhere feels too far on it. Spinning back up the hill on Clinton from downtown, and then up the hill on 51st toward Foster can get a little tiring, but it’s not hard to find a gear and go to my happy place until those are over.

And it gets to a nice cruising speed. I overtook some Sunday riders on the Springwater at what felt like an easy pace and one of them muttered “goddamn ebikes” to his buddy as I went by.

Well, whatever it is, it works.

When I think back to 2013—the year 500 miles were enough to win the bike commute challenge at work—I did end up getting an ebike because the 20 mile round trip to work was taking a toll some days. One afternoon someone drafted me all the way from somewhere around Oaks Park to my exit at Lents and said “maybe someday you’ll get a real bike” as she pedaled away. Well, I have one, and still the hate.