Bickerton

The  was an early folding bike, made of spaghetti and with components of cheese. It was heavily advertised on TV in the early 80s, and many were sold, and some loved them but others could never get used to their disconcerting degree of frame flex.

OK, a bit harsh. It has left at least one important legacy: Bill Ingram went to to talk to him about the bike and Ritchie decided instead to go it alone and created the Brompton, in my view the first really practical folding bike. I think that claim is defensible: the Brompton is as strong as the early Raleigh folders (which were cumbersome 20" wheeled, step-through frames with a hinged tube that did not fold to a particularly small package) but as portable as the Bickerton. The Bickerton's design was probably ahead of its time; these days several companies make competent aluminium folders including Mezzo and especially Dahon. All are, however, reckoned to be less robust than the practically bulletproof Brompton.