I finally had a chance to take some photos of my custom Swift and to post them. I rode it about 10 miles today. Here in Minnesnowtah it was almost 50 degrees!!!! Normally we are at 0 or colder this time of year. Bike was a blast to ride. Fenders kept me dry as can be even though there was a lot of melting run off.
I hope you all like the custom John Deere Green powder coating along with the custom yellow decals I spec'd. I wanted a more "English" type script to go with the retro fenders and Brooks Pro saddle. Chain is a stainless Wipperman. Hub is the Nexus Red Label 8spd (high efficiency version). Brakes are Shimano Deore XT (parallel push) which work great by the way. Heavy duty rims with Schwalbe tires. Front chainrings are 53/39 for a good wide ratio gear set. I manually move them over for big hills. Singulator won't work do to the wide difference of chainring size so for now using a derailleur until I can custom make a chain tensioner that will work better for it. Pedals are QR MKS Promenades with Power Grips. Fenders are Planet Bike for 20" wheels. I am sure I am forgetting something else custom I did but it was such a long work in progress that I probably forgot.
Yet to add is my QR rack, lights, cyclometer, GPS, bell and mirrors. I will probably add a dynamo when I get a chance but I have found some very high intensity LEDs (3-5 watts) that work great so I might just stick with them for a while and they are easily removed. The saddle is pretty comfy out of the box but it will need a few miles to break-in but for now I am really surprised how nice it is. For not being an "anatomically correct" saddle it doesn't seem to hurt any of the more tender bits of my anatomy. So far it was well worth the price of admission.
I was trying for something sort of retro but modern. Sort of Mazda Miata but on 2 wheels. It rides amazingly well. I thought it would be a bit harsher but the aluminum rides very well. I won't need any suspension up front but I will probably add my Thudbuster later to absorb a little. Keep in mind that are roads here are heavily frost damaged so it is often like riding on cobblestone streets. For 90% of the people there would probably be no complaints about the ride. I personally was amazed. Out of the box it didn't ride much worse than my fully suspended Dahon did without the Thudbuster.
All I can say is kudos to Peter and curse him at the same time. Now I will hate to ride some of my other bikes. It truly is that good! It feels as good as a Bike Friday but with a better fold. Also for the car the fold isn't quite as good as my Dahon or Downtube and if I drop the seatpost back in like normal it will hit my rear fender. Other than that I am totally impressed. If you are considering a Swift because you want something different than the Xootr don't hesitate at all. Or even the basic Xootr is a great platform to start with. I wanted powdercoating and an internal hub to start with and the Xootr doesn't come that way. I couldn't be happier. Absolutely awesome bike!!! Considering the number of other folders I have this is definitely not faint praise.
When I was thinking about the color I was really torn with going basic black or something different. I thought that the JD green combined with yellow decals and black fenders could be sort of a unique combination with a both a sublime and more obvious contrast. I think it works pretty well and Peter was surprised how it turned out. The silver rims, seatpost, stainless chain, handlebar stem and chainrings add a little accent to it. I might consider a CF seatpost and anodizing the handlebar stem black but I have time to tinker now and then. Your comments are of course welcome.
Here's to you Peter!
