vik 

I decided to take advantage of the Bike Friday sale on stock Tikits and buy one. I appreciate all the Tikit discussions on this forum as it helped me evaluate the pros and cons of this bike. I've gathered up a bunch of Tikit porn, my first impressions and links to various Tikit content on a blog here.

Overall my impressions of the Tikit are positive. It isn't a perfect bike and I can already see things I'd like addressed, but it is very impressive in many respects. The fit, the ride and fold in particular are wonderful.

I'll continue to add posts as I ride this bike. If there are other Tikit owners out there who are interested in sharing their pictures/reviews/ride reports please let me know. I'd like to post a link to your site if you have one or post your content on this blog as a resource for other Tikit owners or folks thinking about a Tikit.

Tikit 2 Pannier Front Rack

Having tried a single sided front pannier rack on the Tikit I really wanted a front rack that can carry two panniers - this would balance out the load so handling isn't compromised and add considerable utility to the bike. I called Bike Friday and spoke with Hugo. They are going to build me a custom 2 pannier front rack in the early part of 2008 [~March]. If anyone else is interested in such a rack for their Tikit call Hugo and let him know. The more interest there is I imagine the cheaper they will be [price TBD] and possibly they may happen a bit faster.

A big thumbs up to Bike Friday for listening to a customer's input and committing to making a custom accessory based on one 5 min phone call...

Note: on my large Tikit there appears to be lots of room for this rack when the bike is folded. Hugo mentioned that they had considered doing such a rack, but there were interference issues with the fold and decided to go with the single sided front rack. If you have a medium or small size Tikit you may have some clearance issues - keep that in mind when considering this front rack.

gazer

You are definitely obsessive.

Love it!

Do you take your MKS pedals off when folding, or does it fold okay with them still on?

vik 

+1 - equal parts OCD, Canadian winter biking blues and procrastinating from work!...

The Tikit folds fine with the EZY pedals on. I might take off the left one if I was going someplace crowded, but so far I haven't needed to.

makingmark

Vik,
Thanks for posting and also the link to your comprehensive blog! Had the tikit come on the market a bit earlier, I might have bought it and not my Brompton.

If you intend to roll it while folded a fair bit, I'd love to hear your impressions over time re: the ease of doing so. I found it a bit awkward as the balance is a bit off, but I also suspect you could get used to it. My experience rolling it is for about a minute in total.

Thanks also for going into some detail about your experience with the one-side rack. It seems to contradict what is here:

https://www.arkel-od.com/tips/onepannier.asp

But perhaps it doesn't - perhaps Arkel's comments apply to rear single racks, not front.

vik 

Hi Mark,

Thanks - glad you enjoyed the blog. I just figured I might be able to make things easier for the next person looking into the Tikit.

Having had a chance to play with a couple Bromptons I think you got a really nice folder - definitely different than the Tikit, but impressive in many ways. I can see that I might have made a different choice if my commute and lifestyle were a bit different. Happily I'll get to bomb around on a Brompton whenever I visit my friends!

I have rolled my Tikit a fair bit and carried it up a few flights of stairs by the "rolling handle". I can see what you mean about the unbalanced feeling when rolling. I find it rolls well and it sure beats carrying or trying to roll my Dahon - OTOH you can't get away from the fact your pushing 25lbs of bike around. I don't really have any idea how you could make it better and still get the great fold. Compared to all the other options I've seen for moving around a folding bike while folded it seems like a pretty good solution.

I've carried really heavy single panniers on the rear of my touring bikes and there is no problem. It is a problem on the front of the Tikit because the wheel wants to turn in the direction of the pannier and combined with the quick handling of a small wheel that isn't really desirable. I'm pretty stoked about getting a two pannier front rack for the Tikit - that and a large Carradice seatbag should make light tours a snap.

makeinu

Vik,

In your estimation does the Tikit handle very rough/poor roads better or worse than a Brompton?...than a Speed D7?

vik 

I haven't ridden a Brompton far enough or on enough different roads to comment. With respect to the Dahon Speed D7 I think it would be better for bad roads - especially with some 2" Big Apples on it. The Tikit fits me a lot better than my Dahon - longer effective top tube - so I'd still use that if we were talking about a longer ride. For a short distance I'd go with the Dahon.

I should note that the stock Tikit tires are not very plush [the D7 stock tires are also very stiff] so I'll be trying out some 40-349 Scorchers in the Spring. I'm expecting them to deal with rough roads better than the stock Marathons.

Ultimately bigger wheels and wider tires are the solution to poor roads.

invisiblehand

Sweet. Enjoy the bike.

-G

awetmore

The medium Tikit still has a good amount of room between the front and rear wheels when folded. I was expecting it to be tighter than it is.

I haven't tried mounting my porteur rack on the small Tikit, so I don't know how much space is there.

Are they modifying the NWT front rack to make a two sided one for your Tikit, or modifying the Tikit rack?

alex

vik 

Alex,

I don't have all the details yet. I just made a call asking for a double sided rack, Hugo talked to Rob and the response I got back was they'd do it. The time frame of March 2008 was to allow time to talk to the fabricator that is making the current Tikit racks -so I'd guess it would be a Tikit rack with pannier mounts on both sides. However, they'll have a bit of time to ponder what to do so that may not be the way they'll go in the end.

What are your thoughts on the NWT rack vs. a modified Tikit rack?

cyclistjohn

Agreed: interesting, thanks.

This is one of my favourite bicycle transport pic's:

I suppose it's fair to say a bike (& rider) can cope with a lop-sided load pretty well :-)

awetmore

I think either would work well. The NWT rack is wider which makes it a suitable platform for mounting a basket. The Tikit rack is narrower which would help keep the folded profile smaller.

Since most baskets would interfere with the fold I'd say that a modified Tikit rack is better.