“A-bike: surprisingly easy to ride out of the saddle... giving blessed relief from riding inthe saddle...”

sit right on the nose,leaning well forward.Relax and you’ll be off the back before you’ve realised what’s happening. Once under way and up to cruising speed,the ride is quite good if you avoid potholes and rough,broken surfaces.The official line from the manufacturers is that cyclists instinctively avoid potholes anyway.This is true,but if you are faced with a kerb,a pothole and two white vans passing at 60mph, you’ll probably go for the pothole.That’s unpleasant on a conventional bike,and survivable on a 16-inch folder, but with 6-inch wheels,it isn’t an option.Consequently, you have to watch the road with particular care and keep escape routes in mind. If you can find a decent surface,the 6-inch wheels do surprisingly well,although the bike stopped some way short on our test hill,despite all the fiddling to make it roll better. You don’t notice too much on the road though.A bigger problem is friction in the crude plastic headset bushes.Small wheels need to make rapid changes of direction,and friction in the steering doesn’t help.After a few miles,the grumbles became aches and pains caused by the peculiar geometry of the triangular frame.With a maximum saddle height of 92cm, a high bottom bracket,and 140mm cranks,you’d need the legs of a leprechaun to find a comfortable straight-leg riding position. Ah yes,the saddle.The problem here is that it’s shaped for folding rather than riding,with a big cut out at the back and a rather high and solid nose.If you have a bottom this shape,you’ll be a medical curiosity, and we couldn’t find anyone willing to sit on it for very long.The need to sit well forward tends to put you on the nose of the saddle,throwing a lot of weight onto the handlebars,straining the lower arms and putting a bit of a kink in the neck.If you suffer on a normal bike, you are unlikely to be comfortable on this one. So how far did we ride? Showing true grit and determination, we completed our 10-mile commuter run in a slow,but by no means disastrous

Cornering on the Sinclair has to be a measured affair.Unless you sit well forward there's little weight on the front tyre

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