Origami Crane Bicycle Unboxing

With the nice weather in Western Michigan, I wanted to start biking to work -- I'll get some exercise and save some wear and tear on my car. I decided to get a folding bike for the convenience of being able to easily take my bike with me. Plus, I just think they're cool!

I was looking to keep to a budget of around $300 for the bike -- this is only enough to get a low-end bike, but considering my commute is only going to be 4 miles on smooth bike trails, I figured I didn't need anything too super fancy. After much research, I decided on a bike from Origami Bicycle Company, the Crane 7.

I ordered on a Sunday, it was shipped on Tuesday, and I received it Friday. It came in a pretty big box.

Inside, there was lots of paper...

And the completely assembled, folded bike. Just about every inch of the frame was wrapped in bubble wrap and then thin cardboard.

Sadly, it looks like the chain fell off (or maybe it's shipped that way purposefully?).

Here's a view from the top:

And a view from the front:

The rear wheel and rack, after I unfolded the bike and got some of the packing materials off the bike.

Another view of the bike.

And the rear derailleur  with the chain back on. It was pretty easy to get the chain back on, just use the slack in the chain and hook it onto one of the smaller gears.

Everything seemed to be adjusted pretty well -- I probably didn't need to touch anything, but I adjusted the rear derailleur (and probably made it worse), and the front brake. The only two minor issues with the bike are that the boss for the left side of the v-brake isn't the same distance as the boss for the right side, and the plastic chain guard on the rear wheel is slightly deformed and rubs again the sprocket.

The frame and hinge seem strong, and it rides pretty well. I'll add another post once I start actually using it to commute!