Travel with other bikes than a Bike Friday
 

Hi all.

Forgive me in advance if this has already been answered 1000 times in here, but I was unable to locate anything through search or a quick perusal of pages of threads.

I already own a Bike Friday NWT and have travelled extensively with it this year, but my dad is looking to get a folder to tour with as well and doesn't want to pay through the nose for the whole rig like I did. I suggested a Swift.

The problem:

The BF has the trailer and suitcase option, so you can disassemble it at the airport and plug the trailer/suitcase in and off you go wherever you like, no cab necessary.

But I was wondering if any other bikes have this option, since we would like to arrive in Brussels, do a full bike-camping tour from there, but not have to leave his (presumably wheel-less) suitcase at a hotel, which would necessitate coming back to pick it up. In other words, we don't want to have to do a circuitous route back to Belgium just to get a suitcase. We would like to depart from Munich instead weeks later without having to use trains or cabs at all to transport his case or fold his bike up in it again and again.

Do most folders have this ability? Does the BF trailer attach to any other folders? I can't find anything like it on the websites of any of the folders he is interested in.

Thanks for any replies.

-Matt

A friend of mine who loves bike friday, told me that BF sells refurbished bikes for a lot less. he and his wife got 2 and took them to europe (from USA) last summer. He said that they did not have to pay extra for them but some other person who had a bigger folder, had to pay extra baggage charge.
Hill Slug

This works with a B.O.B. trailer and sounds like the same thing you describe for the Bike Friday set-up.

http://www.wandertec.com/index.html?main=products.html

Everything packs up in the Cello for flight / shipment and then unpacks in to the bike with trailer rig for touring.

This is for a full size bike so might be overkill for a folder...

Thanks Hill Slug. I've suggested the same thing and I'm still not sure he wants to shell out the quid for the trailer and Samsonite that Bike Friday offer, though I've told him that any large hard-case suitcase will do since all you do with the Bike Friday case is drill holes in the bottom and it's otherwise just an overpriced huge suitcase. He's still in consideration stage.

This looks like a great solution, and I'm passing it along now. Thanks so much!



Further suggestions are still welcome. I would be surprised if Bike Friday were the only folder that could do the travelcase/trailer thing.

Various Swift users have reported successfully packing their bikes in the Samsonite F'lite that Bike Friday uses for their trailer. Bike Friday sells a clamp on attachement for their trailer hitch. It's shown on the page referenced below. If you can clamp that on the rear triangle of a Swift, then you can use the complete Bike Friday trailer system.

http://store.bikefriday.com/index.ph...aa5d7&cPath=51

Speedo

That'll do it! Thanks a million Speedo.