Folding Bikes - Bike Friday

Anybody have a Bike Friday? Have you toured on one? I just got a cataloge in the mail. Interesting bike. I don't know much about them. Any comments would be great. Thanks

You might want to do a search here or on the folding bike forum. Lots of fairly recent comments, mostly very favorable. I've owned a BF New World Tourist for 5+ years and I love it. I've flown with it and toured on it many times already, and also use it for my day-to-day riding, including my short commute. It rides better than my other bikes, which are now gathering dust in my basement.

....I've owned a BF New World Tourist for 5+ years and I love it. I've flown with it and toured on it many times already, and also use it for my day-to-day riding, including my short commute. It rides better than my other bikes, which are now gathering dust in my basement.
Sounds like an endorsement.
I've never ridden one, but on a recent club ride, 2 members of a family of 4 were riding them (one adult and a 12yo). They said that the BF's were great to ride, although I noticed that they were the slowest riders of the 16 of us, and that include the 10yo (younger brother of the 12yo) on a small mtb.

Ditto on the Folding Bike Forum.

I have a Bike Friday tht I use for touring and for everyday use. I have the Pocket Rocket, and I am totally happy with it.

I'll move this thread to the Folding Bike Forum, and you can take a look around that forum for additional information on Bike Fridays.

Koffee

Pocket Rocket Pro here. It's a good riding bike and an engineering marvel. On mine, there's just the slightest hint of flex in the steering column and the smaller wheels definitely take the bumps a little harder than "normal" sized wheels. However, I'm very happy with mine and with the customer service BF provides.

Hey Koffee,
I thought I remembered you saying in a distant post that you had one.

I've been touring/commuting on a converted MTB for quite a number of years. I do like my current bike. However, I've also been looking at other touring bikes for the last couple of years (so who DOESN'T look, right?)

I really haven't seen anything that I liked until I got the Bike Friday cataloge. Pretty cool. I'll do some more digging. Maybe I'll even finde one close to my house and test ride!

Thanks everyone for your comments!

Pocket Tourist here. I've had mine for 2 months and put over 1200 miles on it. I've toured in the Caribbean and southwest without any problems. I have a garage full of road bikes that are collecting dust since I bought my Bike Friday. I'm going to sell a couple of road bikes and buy a Pocket Rocket Pro..

I travel alot for business and take my BF with me. It's very easy to pack and unpack. An added bonus is you can fold it up and carry it into "nice" hotels and you won't get dirty looks from hotel managment.

I have a Pocket Rocket set up as a road bike and an Air Glide set up as a touring bike. You can see pics & details of my cross-country trip on the Air Glide here (http://denise2002xc.crazyguyonabike.com).

Both are excellent bikes.

--- Denise

I'm quite pleased with my Pocket Gnu...currently being used for commuting, trail riding and so forth. I wouldn't hesitate to load it up for an extended tour.

Scott

Good point Dave Hickey. I rode part of the Lewis and Clark trail last year. I stayed one night in a hotel. What a pain carrying my bike (after unloading everything on the sidewalk!) up three flights of stairs to my room. Back down the stairs to get all of my gear. Yup, I got a few looks.

I think a folder is in my future. The search is on!

Hey Koffee,
I thought I remembered you saying in a distant post that you had one.

I've been touring/commuting on a converted MTB for quite a number of years. I do like my current bike. However, I've also been looking at other touring bikes for the last couple of years (so who DOESN'T look, right?)

I really haven't seen anything that I liked until I got the Bike Friday cataloge. Pretty cool. I'll do some more digging. Maybe I'll even finde one close to my house and test ride!

Thanks everyone for your comments!


Most definitely, the folding bike is a great option when you're in a bind at a place where you can't bring your regular bike and/or they don't allow bikes, or if you travel a bit. Some train systems don't allow bikes during rush hour, but if you have a folding bike, you can take it on the train anytime. I also like to take my folding bike when I'm going out of town (like next month, when I head home for a few days and still want to ride while at home for four days). In the old days, when I traveled, I didn't have the option of riding, then when I was traveling, I'd be all upset and grumpy because I'd miss riding. Now, I can throw my Bike Friday in my suitcase and take it with me anyplace. Now that's versatility. I'm all about options. I like knowing I can take my bike with me if I want.

I just thought I'd add a brief description to my comments above regarding the touring I've done on my New World Tourist. It's been mostly road touring with rear panniers but without camping gear, in both "developed" as well as "developing" countries. Two trips, however, involved extensive riding on unpaved but fairly smooth rail-trails, and my NWT did quite well on unpaved surfaces. Some of the touring was in mountainous areas, including riding up some significant passes (e.g. the infamous Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees). The NWT performed well both on the ascents and descents in the mountains. Only once did I convert the suitcase to a trailer, but I was impressed with both how easy the conversion was, as well as how well the bike rode with the trailer. I've taken it on quite a few buses and trains without any problems, in addition to flying with it numerous times without incident. Only once did I take it on public transportation where a non-folding bike wouldn't have been permitted, and I did find it cumbersome to carry folded up (in the nylon carrying bag I bought from Bike Friday) in and out of the trains and subway stations. It's not something I would want to do on a daily basis, but I'm neither big nor strong.

I also use it daily for all sorts of riding, including commuting. Overall, I have been extremely pleased with my NWT.

Hmmm. You brought up a good point. All of the touring I've done was fully loaded. I enjoy the freedom of going where I want with tent, pad, and stove. I've seen some pics of riders fairly loaded on a folder. It looks like it should handle the weight pretty well.

Right now I'm trying to find a dealer/distributor within a 100mi so I can test ride one.

I just thought I'd add a brief description to my comments above regarding the touring I've done on my New World Tourist. It's been mostly road touring with rear panniers but without camping gear, in both "developed" as well as "developing" countries. Two trips, however, involved extensive riding on unpaved but fairly smooth rail-trails, and my NWT did quite well on unpaved surfaces. Some of the touring was in mountainous areas, including riding up some significant passes (e.g. the infamous Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees). The NWT performed well both on the ascents and descents in the mountains. Only once did I convert the suitcase to a trailer, but I was impressed with both how easy the conversion was, as well as how well the bike rode with the trailer. I've taken it on quite a few buses and trains without any problems, in addition to flying with it numerous times without incident. Only once did I take it on public transportation where a non-folding bike wouldn't have been permitted, and I did find it cumbersome to carry folded up (in the nylon carrying bag I bought from Bike Friday) in and out of the trains and subway stations. It's not something I would want to do on a daily basis, but I'm neither big nor strong.

I also use it daily for all sorts of riding, including commuting. Overall, I have been extremely pleased with my NWT.

This is the only model I would consider getting. I wonder if BF would make a version with disk brakes.?

Right now I'm trying to find a dealer/distributor within a 100mi so I can test ride one.
Have you contacted Bike Friday? Usually they will find a BF owner who is your size who lives near you. They will then contact the owner to ask if they would let a prospective buyer come by for a test ride.