KHS Westwood: An affordable hard tail folding bike

More choices now..

A variant of the KHS Westwood

I was chilling out at Johnny Ng's shop in Bandar Utama and came across a rather attractive looking folding bike on display.

It was set up next to the KHS F20 - T3 and KHS JJ.

What intrigued me was the front suspension fork.

This is something that you would find on a kid's bike, but it's nicely fitted on the KHS folding bike frame and the stark difference between the higher-end F20 - T3, is the suspension fork.

Both bikes has a small elastomer damper on the seat stay which gives the bike a rather comfy ride on the pavement. 

But it does not serve as a real suspension as the shock absorber's travel is negligable.

You will need at least 2" of shock travel to qualify it as a suspension.

Overall built quality and performance..

Straight out of the box and with a pre-delivery tune-up, the KHS Westwood will deliver a smooth and comfortable ride on the pavement.

It's front suspension fork can be locked for a firmer ride as well as preventing energy loss due to too much dampening.

Most commendable, is the RM3k retail price which made it as one of the cheapest hard tail folding bikes around.

Components-wise, KHS uses some cheap and entry-level parts to compensate for the cost and with proper maintenance, you can expect the bike to run for years without worrying too much about upgrades.

But, it could be even better if you can slowly fit in better parts like disk brakes, wheelset and tires.

The KHS Westwood that is sold here has a 24-speed drivetrain, mechanical disk brakes and KHS' OEM components.

For its basic package, the bike is impressive.

The downside is the overall weight - almost 14kgs and the locking clamp for the handlebar stem.

Other than the obvious flaws, the KHS Westwood is a worthy contender if you are in the market for a pavement/light trail folding bike.