Machka and Rowan would like to announce the arrival of almost-identical twins in the form of an orange and purple Bike Friday Pocket Llamas.

The delivery took around seven hours, including two hours for lunch with fellow forumite Doug64. It wasn't that there were problems, but the delivery was a huge amount of fun for us.

Many thanks to "Doctor" Mike Boggs for his amazing patience and skill, especially in how to fold and unfold the bikes without dramas.

Naturally, additional toys were the order of the day, including Bike Friday jerseys, a BF cap for me, and Schwalbe Durano slicks for each of the bikes to go with the Marathons we ordered.

We also got to tour the Bike Friday delivery rooms, AKA factory. It's a remarkable hive of activity and one surprise for me is that the tubes are delivered round, but BF ovalises the big ones themselves.

And we may have started to plan next year's overseas trip with Ruthy, a part-time BF consultant who also organises trips to Japan, and in particular Hokkaido which we visited a couple of years ago. She is organising another tour next year to Hokkaido, and it might be the opportunity we need to get those Bike Fridays doing what they are meant to do.

I know that Americans are proud of anything of good quality that is produced within its borders, and I think with what we now have and what we saw today -- and especially with the customer service -- that pride is well founded.

Pictures to follow.