My wife and I recently bought two Fortes for our travels on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway by boat. We will use them for pleasure riding/exercise and to ride to supermarkets for food shopping. As space is limited on our boat, the ability to fold up is mandatory. Because we are always subject to a marine environment, I will be interested to see how the bike holds up to corrosion. I know there are other ZiZZO bikes that might be more corrosion resistant but because I wanted fenders and a rack to carry groceries, I had to choose the Forte. Because we are mostly on the coast, we have found most of the hills are small and the Forte handles them with ease. While I was a bit nervous about buying a folding bike without riding it first, I have been very happy with the ride, the comfort of the seat, the ease of pedaling, and the small handle bars have not been an issue. I’m 6’2” and weigh 230 lbs and my wife is 5’2” and weighs (ha ha..no way), very easy to adjust to both our comfort levels.
The unfolding and folding of the bikes is really simple. Since I have to fold them up and put them away at the end of most uses, they have to be convenient to fold and unfold or I’m sure I would stop using them. So far I have not hesitated to take them out, unfold them and take a ride. I have only ridden these bikes about ten times but so far, so good.
Just coincidently, the green color matches the trim on out boat almost perfectly. Not a deal breaker if it didn’t, but a nice plus that it does.