Tikit hyperfold not so hyper anymore...

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doraemonkey

I got my tikit2ride a month ago now while I was back home visiting the states and I love it. I've been making excuses for riding it anywhere! It's that fun... but lately the hyperfold has been a bit less hyper and the handle is staying stuck locked after swishing the wheel under. Normally the cable that holds the locking bit pushes outward freeing the stem and bars to fold, but now it just goes slack while the locking bit stays in place.

Is there an adjustment to make or a part to keep well greased so that it will work like when I bought it? I'm asking here because on the bikefriday forums it seems the last responses were about a year ago. I would guess that people here are a little more active.

I'd like to figure out this problem, since I can't really take it back to the dealer. There aren't any in France!

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iamstuffed

While looking down, make sure the cable is being routed under the locking latch near the chainrings. Just take a look whenever you fold it; more than likely it is caught above the latch. If that's the case, it probably also bend the latch a little. Just try bending it back slightly.

I recently adjusted mine to make it more stable when folded. If you look at how it unlatches and latches, it shouldn't be hard to figure out how the cable should go, or how to bend the latch.

Whenever I get home, I'll take a picture of mine (mine is the older style latch).

vik

This happened to mine as well. All you need is a little bit of lubrication [I used some light grease] on the hinge clamp and things will be back to normal again. The clamp is just sticking and the rubber block [mounted inside the clamp] that normally pushes the clamp out is not able to release the clamp. So far I've had my Tikit 6 months and had to lube the clamp once.

Just in case the lubrication doesn't work look inside the clamp - you should see a small black rubber block that is compressed when the clamp is closed. This is what pushes the clamp open when the cable is released. It's possible that this is missing, but it's much more likely to be a sticky clamp.

I'll post details about this on my Tikit Blog (http://www.viks-tikit.com/) tonight.

If you join the Tikit Talk Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/tikit-talk?hl=en) you'll have access to a bunch of Tikit owners for any questions that come up about your bike.

doraemonkey

Thanks guys,

I don't think that it's stuck in the latch. It might be a lubrication issue too. I'm going to take a few pictures too and post them here.

On my model I haven't seen any rubber block that pushes the latching mechanism. My model seems to be the 2008 edition, as I have that there are differences in some of the mechanisms in Bikefriday's videos.

Thanks vik for the google group... I'll certainly join it. I've seen your blog. It's pretty nice.

nycfoldee

vik

I just finished upgrading my latch from 2007->2008. There is a small bumper inside the pac-man (the bar with the cut-out that holds the clamp).

Mine is sticking a bit, too. After talking to BF, they said it doesn't hurt to add some light grease to the cable and so I intend to do so. Vik's note encourages me that this will resolve the issue for me.

Let's compare notes in a few days when the weather here in NYC clears up and I'm riding to work again.

-Peter

Hi Peter - just to be clear I'm not suggesting you lubricate the tensioning cable at all...just lubricate the "lips" of the "pac-man" [aka. clamp] where it grabs the hinge. This area of metal on metal contact is where the clamp sticks.

doraemonkey

Ok here are a few photos of the bike:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/2486393247_cb6158c8f5_o.jpg
Here the bike is "swished" with the rear wheel folded. You can see that the hypercable is a bit slack but the stem clamp is still solidly in.

Looking a little closer, I saw that there is little room between the mudguard and the cable at the point that it goes into the hyperheadpost. This might be where it is sticking... after dinner I'll try to bend the mudguard away to see if that fixes things. I'll follow advice and put a little grease at the entrance and clamp.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2486393117_7d60547964_o.jpg

awetmore

I agree with Vik, you just need a little light grease on the surface where the pacman sits.

The Bike Friday mailing list (http://www.bikefriday.com/mailman/listinfo/yak) is fairly busy and is monitored (unofficially) by Bike Friday employees.

vik

Alex has a good point about the BF yak list - it's fun and quite active.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_vUEhS0lU3eU/SCmnJDerI3I/AAAAAAAAFQk/d4UD7B9OR-g/s400/tikit+hinge.JPG

Here is a close up of the clamp showing the rubber block. I've put a post on my blog (http://viktikit.blogspot.com/2008/05/sticky-hyper-fold-clamp.html) about how to solve the sticky clamp problem.

doraemonkey

Yeah, a little oil and the hype is back... folds without a hitch! I didn't think that it would be that simple. And I was looking in the wrong place for the rubber block... I have one on my bike too. It's pretty small and you have to look for it.

I'm signed up on the Yak list... now I have another forum to post to...

vik

Awesome - glad you are back to HYPER-folding nirvana!

nycfoldee

No-one else has to put grease on the cable :) But BF said that it shouldn't hurt anything so I've tried it and lightly smearing grease on pac-man's lips, and it's helpful. I think I'll need to try it a few more times to confirm that I didn't also somehow twist the cable or otherwise add torque in an odd way.

-Peter

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