United Trifold: First Impressions and Stock Component Weights

There are many Brompton look-alike bikes nowadays, such as the 3Sixty, Pikes, and now the Trifold. The 3Sixty and Pikes are very close copies of the Brompton, as the geometry, folding design and component designs are similar. 

However, the United Trifold as seen here, is not quite the same. From far it may look similar to a Brompton, but there are many areas where it differs.

More than 9 years ago I had the Flamingo London NX7, which was a poor copy of the Brompton. You can check out the issues and details here.

More recently, about 4 years ago, I got the Brompton M6R. It was mainly used for bringing my kid around for rides. However, I also sold the bike once my kid outgrew the bike. This was because the Brompton was not the best bike that I had in terms of ride quality, nor weight, nor gearing and speed. It is the most compact folding bike, but it was never my first choice regardless of the type of ride.

Then, I recently had the chance to get a United Trifold 7S for a good price. The stock setup is actually a 7 speed internal hub drivetrain, which is unique as other Brompton look-alikes don't offer this. I was not interested in the internal hub, as it can be rather draggy. Even the high efficiency Alfine 11 internal hub cannot compare to a normal chain driven drivetrain.

However, the frame seems to be rather interesting, and I thought it might be possible to convert it to a single speed setup for simplicity. It will be used only for casual riding, such as riding with my kid on the Early Rider Seeker 14 kids bike, or to run errands nearby.

Here is how the stock United Trifold 7S looks like. Some people like the oil-slick crankset, but I really dislike this colour. Not an issue as I will be replacing it.

At that time, I only saw this 7 speed version in purple colour. Now there are also 5 speed and 3 speed versions available, in a wide variety of frame colours.

As a purple coloured frame is rather rare, I went online to see how it would look if I upgraded the tires to Schwalbe tan wall tires.

Purple Brompton with Schwalbe tan wall tires.

Another view of a purple Brompton with Schwalbe tires. The side walls are more yellow than tan coloured.

A picture showing a folded purple Brompton with tan wall tires.

After I received the bike, I started to study the bike, to see which parts can and should be upgraded. Some parts are fine and I didn't need to upgrade it straight away. I did not take a picture of the full bike before I dismantled some of the parts. The stock weight is 12.6 kg, which is comparable to a stock Brompton M6R that weighs 12.3 kg.

Nexus Inter-7 internal hub, SG-C3001. Rarely found on folding bikes.

The handlepost is rather unique, as this is a Dahon design, which I have never seen on a bike that folds like a Brompton. This type of handleposts are only found on folding bikes that fold like Dahon.

Other than the purple colour, the handlepost has a tall base, which is good for handlepost rigidity. First seen on Tern handleposts, and I have also used the Fnhon version on my Fnhon DB11 folding bike. This handlepost on the United Trifold is very different from the threaded type used on Brompton bikes.

Inside of the purple handlepost. This handlepost and headset follows the Dahon design, not the threaded design used on Brompton bikes.

Tektro front caliper brake has the cable clamp on the non-drive side, unlike standard road bike types that are on the drive-side.

Brompton front caliper brakes also have the cable clamp on the non-drive side, but the inner cable runs downwards first, instead of directly upwards like on this United Trifold.

I measured the distance from the axle to the arch of the brake caliper. I wonder if there is enough space to fit larger wheels...

The stock brake caliper has really long arms, which is necessary to reach past the mudguards and wide tires. However, from prior experience, long arm brake calipers have lesser braking power than standard reach brake calipers. Therefore, if I am going to change the wheelset, I wonder if I can put in a larger wheelset, so that I can use standard reach caliper brakes. Mudguards will have to be removed.

The next step up from the stock 16" 349 wheels is the 18" 355 wheels, which are only slightly bigger, no point changing to those. The next step up would be 20" 406 wheels, but these are just too big to fit onto this frame. Besides, a larger wheel will affect the folding as the top tube rests on the rear tire when folded. Therefore, I have to stick to the stock wheel size of 16" 349, even if I change the wheelset.

Stock seatpost has a Dahon standard of 33.9 mm diameter, and this saddle clamp follows the Litepro design.

From this brief study, I found that the top half of the bike is based on the Dahon design, while the bottom is based loosely on the Brompton design. There are also some areas which are neither Dahon nor Brompton. This is an interesting folding bike with hybrid design concepts...

Stock single speed chain is heavy, as the chain link plates are thick.

Stock rear suspension block. It is slightly different from the Brompton design. And the "rubber" is very hard, almost like a solid plastic block.

Stock hinge clamp with a plastic lever, following the Brompton design. Not the most user friendly as described in detail at this post.

Plastic hook that is fixed to the front fork, same as the Brompton design. This hooks onto the rear chain stay when the bike is folded, to prevent the bike from opening up.

Stock saddle, very heavy at 351 grams. Changing to a lightweight saddle will easily save you 200 grams.

At 451 grams, this seat post is also considered heavy. With this kind of saddle clamp, it will usually weigh about 330 grams.

The stock roller wheels are surprisingly good! They look good and roll smoothly on sealed bearings.

After excluding the two roller wheels, the rear rack weighs about 347 grams.

The rear rack is critical to allow rolling of the bike when folded, thus it cannot be removed without affecting the folding feature.

This United Trifold is quite different from the Fnhon DB11, not just in the frame design and component choice, but also in the usage.

Fnhon DB11: High spec 1x11 speed Di2 drivetrain with hydraulic disc brakes, for rides of longer distance and higher speed.

United Trifold: Simple single speed drivetrain with rim brakes, for short and slow casual rides without steep slopes.

In the following posts about the United Trifold, I will transform it to a single speed bike with some lightweight components for weight savings. I have never used a single speed folding bike, so it will be interesting to see whether I can get used to the lack of gearing.