Bike Friday Tikit.
 

I spent last week in Arizona riding on PAC Tours Bike Friday historic tours dessert camp. One of the owners of Bike Friday spent the week on a new Tikit. It seems to be everything they said it would be. It weighs in at 24 pounds as a 9 speed model complete with the bag it goes into. Gearing is roughly 32 to 96 gear inches. I followed Alan Scholz the owner down a mountain at 40+ MPH. I watched different people fold it many times in under 15 seconds. If you put the built-in bag on it it takes about 30 seconds and looks like a french horn in a case. It has a built-in carrying handle on the bike and may be rolled easily on one of the wheels. This one had Schwalbe tires on it. Very classy well built bike. Rumor has it they may make a performance version called a "Speeding Tikit". Roger

LOL @ 'Speeding Tikit'! Thanks for the brief review. Interesting...

AFAIK, French horn players are prohibited from most commuter rail and bus services, so that could be a problem. Maybe BF should provide a sticker on the bag:
"Bicycle inside - NOT a French Horn".


>>>>>>>>disclaimer>>>>>>>>>joke>>>>>>>>>disclaimer>>>>>>joke>>>>>>>>>
not responsible for literal intepretation of this post>>>>>>>disclaimer>>>>>>joke>>>>>>>>>

Looks like the Forum software had a bad case of indigestion from that joke - seems to keep coming back up on it!

From my short ride on a tikit on the bike path behind the Bike Friday Factory last month, I would say the report of Alan Scholz's riding the tikit says it's pretty much like our Boardwalk D7's, as was my comparison. The gear inches are even about the same.

However, I have not tried to get up to 40MPH on either my D7 or S1 Boardwalk - the bikes would be more comfortable with that speed than I.

I saw one at the toronto bike expo recently ... nice bike.. but with a $1200 + price tag - they kept it next to the Dahon Mu SL also another nice bike ..surprisingly light.. cool part of the tikit is the quickness of unfolding /folding

We ran into a Mu SL at our local Dahon dealer when I had them install the 1.75" Tioga Comp Pool tires on my S1.

The wife was looking at the Dahon's on display - she lifted the SL with one hand and was surprised it was light as a feather. Ever since, it has been her "dream bike". Not so much as one she'd want to ride, but rather as a work of art to be hung on the wall.

While both the tikit and the Mu SL are 4-figure bikes, they are for different purposes, and I would bet have a far different feel (I have not ridden a Mu SL, but it's definitely a road bike vs. the tikit's commuter look & declared purpose.)

I rode a tikit for half an hour and I think it is a very comfortable bike.
The only problem was the heavily flexing stem if you get out of the saddle. It twists and bends much worse than with every other folder, even worse than the Bromton.

You flex a Brompton stem?

The stem on the TIKIT is long, so I did wonder how much flex there would be when out of the saddle.

On a recent ride on an S-Type Brompton, I did not notice much flex at all, even when out of the saddle. The problem I had was with the old style M-type bars which I could roatate in the stem clamp...

FWIW, the Swift stem / handlepost is rock solid....

There is a new instructional video of the Tikit being packed into a hard luggage. The video takes 5 minutes and some seconds and as far as the edition goes, that did not remove any major portion of the process, which makes me thing the bike can go inside the luggage in less than 10 minutes.

Would be nice to know how it feels compared to a Brompton.

14R, the video does the entire process in 5 minutes, with explanation and all. I think you could pull a minute or two off that. Also, they take more care than might be necessary (the various bags). Many may not be interested in the fenders either, which they remove in the video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6m29V31VgfI

FYI, I did that today on my road bike, which happens to have somewhat sucktacular gearing (52T x 14T). Err... not follow Scholz, just descend at 40. ;) Really, it's not a big deal, I'd expect that of pretty much any high-end folder.

However, I wouldn't do that on a bike with 20" or smaller wheels unless I had a straight shot and an unobstructed view all the way down the hill. Too much oversteer! :D