vmaniqui

hi all,

will this work on my Bike Friday Tikit - SRAM 3x9 Dual Drive or SA 8 speed IGH. has anyone done any gear upgrades on their Tikit ? the curious side of me is acting up again. but in all honesty since i got a good deal on my TIKIT i am thinking of changing the gearings. my wife told me that this will be my last bike upgrade - unless i hit the lotto. so i might as well make it the best TIKIT out there...

TIA,
vic

wahoonc

It will depend on your preference and the style of riding you do. Me? I would go with the 8 speed Alfine, but I much prefer IGH over the more conventional hubs. I would also consider waiting a bit until the new 11 speed Alfine is available. BTW nothing wrong with a SRAM Dual drive, just not my preference.

Aaron

feijai

The tikit works great with IGH and Dual Drive and in fact Bike Friday sells versions with each (the Season tikit and Travel tikit respectively). However if you have a standard tikit -- as opposed to one of these -- it will have vertical dropouts. This means installing an IGH will require a chain tensioner.

vmaniqui

do you think there will be problem folding the tikit2 with the clickbox. i checked online and the sturmey archer 8 speed is on sale for $120+ compare to nexus which is more than $189 and sram dual drive is about $384. one of the guy at bikefriday forum mentioned that the sturmey archer has some issues so that may be the reason in price difference. basically i want wider gears on my tikit as i live in a hilly area and would be nice to think that i've got available gears in case i need them.

Dynocoaster 

Use the 8 speed from your Mu Xl.

feijai

Not that I know of: After all, BF sells the Travel Tikit, which has Dual Drive on it. I do know you have to take a bit of care when packing the bike with the clickbox (see around 3:40). Call BF up and talk to them.

Dynocoaster 

This would be different https://www.utahtrikes.com/PRODINFO-S...Wheel_Kit.html

SesameCrunch

If you decide to go with the SA8, I have a nearly new one that I'll make you an irresistable offer on...

vmaniqui

that would be a nice one. i heard good review about it. but price is so much high. i know that shimano is coming out with a new alfine 11-speed hub this september 2010 as an indirect competitor to Rohloff 14 speed hub. and from what i have been reading, the price is in the neighborhood of $400 ++.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/articl...hub-gear-24930

https://travellingtwo.com/3856

Joako

He/she might be referring to the old Sturmey Archer 8 hub. I got the new (w) hub and have ridden it for about 200 miles without any issues. The only con I find is that the hub sounds like a coffee grinder in gear 4, whereas the Nexus 8 red band hub is silent in all gears. This hub might work very well in a Tikit with double chainring as you will be able to get very high and low gears.

vmaniqui

thanks joako. i also have a dahon mu xl that has the nexus premium 8 speed hub and i love it. that's the reason i am wanting to go for the IGH on my tikit, too. i also happened to have a 53/39T crank lying around so i might install that too. we'll see how it goes.

RobHalligan

You'll need a horizontal drop-out for an internal hub. Bike Friday developed new styles of dropouts about a year about that seem to be interchangeable. I'm not sure if older Tikits would take the swappable drop-outs. Walter blogged about it.

vmaniqui

my tikit has a vertical dropout so you're saying that i can't really do this on my tikit ?

Joako

You can, but with a chain tensioner or with a magic gear . I would rather get the modular dropouts from BF as it is easier and looks "cleaner".

vmaniqui

i am quite confused with this new modular dropouts - with my existing set-up, would i just be able to call BF and order the modular dropouts and screw it to my existing drop ?

RobHalligan

Im confused too. I've read Walter's blog pieces and watched Bike Friday video. The good thing is Bike Friday is very responsive to customers. I'd think pinging Walter would be the best way to clarify.

GeorgePaul

Probably not. The rear triangle has to be able to accept them. For example, my Season Tikit can. "Just the tikit" can't.

LHT in Madison

I can't comment on this on a Bike Friday, I have an Airnimal Joey with 24 inch wheels. Getting a very wide gearing range with very low gears for steep hills was important to me. I recently installed a Dual Drive and have an SRAM 8 speed 11-32 cassette. I switched to a 39t chainring. My gearing now ranges from 20.7 up to 112.1 gear inches which was what I was looking for. I used the bike for several years with the 11-32 gearing but without the Dual Drive, it did not give the the range I wanted.

vik 

Your Tikit won't work with the modular dropouts. You would have had to order the bike with them from the start. It's possible [I assume] to send your Tikit back for a retro-fit, but the cost may not be worth it.

You can run an IGH with your existing Tikit, but you'll need to run a chain tensioner. The photo above is of my BF NWT with a Nexus 8 and a Surly chain tensioner. Your Tikit will require something similar.

If you read Alex W's Tikit pages he setup his Tikit with a SRAM IGH and was able to get away without a chain tensioner by using a "magic" gear ratio that provided just the right chain tension. You can always try and replicate his install and see if you can make it work.

Although I would prefer the cleaner IGH setup with a set of horizontal/sliding dropouts...the use of a chain tensioner isn't a big deal and will give you 95% of the benefits of the dedicated Season Tikit tensionerless setup. If I was adding an IGH to my Tikit I'd just use a chain tensioner and not worry about it.

vmaniqui

thanks vik. man, your bike looks so clean. do you clean it everyday ?

vik 

I wish! No I take lots of detailed shots when I first build a bike and use those to illustrate posts. The bike is not that clean anymore...