I have been looking at Pocket Rockets for a while now, the right one came along and I pulled the trigger. The box arrived yesterday.
Un packing was uneventful and the bike assembled in about 15 minutes. First impressions are, the frame build quality is excellent, nice welds, and 20 years after it left the factory, the fold pivots, slip joints, and the general tightness of the assembly with everything clamped down is impressive, nice stiff and confidence inspiring.
This particular Bike Friday was outfitted with a Chris King Grip-Nut headset, full 9 speed Ultegra groupset and American Classic hubs, Alex R390 rims, somewhere along the way a XT rear derailleur and lowend Sram cassette found its way into the mix.
During assembly I could not help myself and installed a Nitto Jaguar SP72 seatpost and Brooks Professional saddle, the seat tube takes a 28.6 mm post, I used a Sunlite 27.2mm to 28.6mm shim to fit the Nitto seatpost.
Some of the factory supplied components mainly the seatpost and the quick releases for the fold and stem assemblies are somewhat low end, weigh a ton, but are serviceable, the seatpost issue is done and the quick releases will be replaced with nice stainless hardware as tools are required to knock the bike completely anyway.
The first ride around the town went well, the handling is quick and feels great on a long fast downhill near my house leaving a big smile on my face, the bike hits all its gears eventually, I will blame that on kinked cables and crusty brifters, normal for a 20 year old bike. It's a LOT of fun to ride and I will repeat what I have been told "it feels like any other road bike".
I am very happy to own this and it was money well spent.
: Mike