I have to confess I'm more than a little confused. Weakling has posted very negative comments about Stridas on this forum on many occasions, so imagine my surprise to see that he is a moderator on the Strida Forum! How does that work?

Well, I hope it works out as Gary Wright expect it too. I am only a Mod for the spam that happens
I try to stay away from or out of the inner workings and opinions on Strida.
Not easy as you expected but if you see something I've written that you
don't like there then tell me and I try to edit it and write a bit more as you
want me too.

What you forget is that I have written very positive about Mark Sanders and his approach to design of folders that had Strida as the end result.

I liked him from day one that I've heard about Strida many years ago.

My negative writings are backed up by other persons having same experiences of how
it feels to ride it.

Why else would Mark Steedman take it up when he bought the right to develop Strida.

We are all individuals with our own style of expressions and I only try to be accurate in how it actually feels to ride it
and my experience was confirmed by a friend and by the sales persons in the shop
me visited here locally.

Maybe my English are too home made to allow nuanced expressions so it could sound
worse than my intent wanted it to sound.

If you disapprove of me being a "technical" Moderator at the Strida Forum take it up
with the owner Gary Wright. I don't mind if you take over my role there and help them
with the spam that flood them at times. at least daily.

When I wrote them my intention was to be fair and very mild in my criticism.
Maybe my words sounds much more harsh than I am able to read in to them. I found my remarks to be utterly friendly. Had I felt as you say
very negative then my comments would have been much more hard.

I tried to be as friendly as was proper based on my experiences of Strida.

I was not alone in feeling mildly surprised either. My experiences was shared by those who tried it out together with me.

I still feel very friendly towards Sanders and his Strida. I just tried to tell you all how it felt for me to ride it.

I realise that since you seemed to have problems after a short test ride that you have now re-posted the reports & videos that tell Mark Sanders story, (they already have been featured on here and elsewhere about a year ago) but have you actually ridden a Strida anywhere yet?

I had some positive experiences with Steedman Bass @ Strida UK, but this all went wrong when he told me that the Strida 5 didn't exist & that the photos (of the Strida 5) that I'd seen were a one-off custom from a Japanese fan!
Then he blocked my attempt to buy one from Strida NL. So I had one delivered to my friend in Holland, who brought back to the UK for me.

I do not have a problem with you being a moderator on the Strida Forum, I just don't understand how you could be so negative about our beloved Stridas & then appear helping to run the Strida Forum.

Thanks for the quick reply, though I still don't see the logic.

I love Strida too. I love small wheeled folders like Strida, Carryme, A-bike and such. Less than or equal to small 16". That love has been active for many years but I've started to write about my love for folders very recently.

I started to help out with Spam in the A-bike forum and saw that the time zone would allow me to help out at Strida Forum too.

I have taken to my heart that you find my comments very negative but let me assure you that that
was not my intention. I did my best to write as friendly and fair as my English allows me to.

My native language is Swedish so I am not good at style and nuances in how my expressions comes through. I apology if my words have sounded harsh, I do my outmost to be as fair and accurate as possible.

I have visited the Sport Shop two times now and rode for two minutes the first time and some 4 minutes latest time. I plan to visit them until I manage to be "legal" when riding it. The shop is the nearest that sells Strida but lies some 40 minutes away going by fast car so I don't have a chance so often.

I will try to find somebody who owns one so I could take longer rides than the less than 5 minutes.

May I kindly remind you that Strida in UK promised that 10 to 15 seconds and at most 2 minutes would suffice.

I notice your experience about the Strida 5. Surprised that he acted that way. Must be internal policies on how to set up strategy? Only my personal guesses. Strida Forum in Singapore are very fave of Strida 5 so I am happy you managed to buy one with help from friends in Netherland/Holland.

I never interpreted Weaking's comments as being negative about Stridas.

To the best of my knowledge all he's said is that he has trouble riding the Strida and, if was negative towards anything, it was himself (specifically his balancing ability) and, as such, he requires a different bike to meet his needs.

Several other forum members have commented on his negative comments towards a bike that he's never owned & only ridden around a shop! Next time I'm in Sweden I'm gonna take him for a proper test ride!
Even his latest post in the name your bike sticky has another negative comment about, yep! you've guessed it! Strida!
I just find it bizarre that someone who seems to spend most of his time knocking the Strida can then become a Strida moderator.
And as for a Strida balancing worse than a Smartbike (Easybike) That just takes the biscuit! I have ridden a Smartbike and it's a heavy tiny-wheeled, badly braked impractical £24.99 piece of junk that they sell in Italian gas stations.

Thanks makeinu. I bought a very small bike that looks more like a joke than a real bike.

SmartBike, I link to it in the Sticky where we describe the bikes we owns.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=67772&page=18

The reason for me to buy it was that my maybe 20 years old Microbike could give up sooner or later and me is a kind of wannabe collector of small bikes. I am very tempted to buy the Carryme bike despite it being too
small for my long legs. Tallest allowed is 190 and me is 194 and me still some 5 kg too heavy for it.

The SmartBike has another solution to the folding so it allowed them a higher clearance for the knees.

So if Carryme is max 92 cm at highest for the handle steering stem. Then SmartBike allow some 115 or more. I've set it to 110 and that is a good compromise. SmartBike has an even shorter wheel base than
Carryme. Only 62 cmtr.

What I like about SamrtBike is that despite it being the shortest wheelbase I ever have riding its balance are almost perfect. Even me had no problem riding it.

Which shows that it is possible to make even so short wheel base and 12" wheels safe to ride.

SmartBike is a poor alternative to Carryme but the design of CM makes it difficult to raise the
handle higher which I need to go clear from my knees hitting the handles.

EDIT

Chop and me wrote at same time so me didn't know he was mentioning
the SmartBike.

I certainly agree it is a too heavy junk bike with very poor band brake
so I recommend it not to anybody unless you only have 29 pound and want to get home a few miles instead of walking and no bus in sight.

it is more like a joke indeed.

But that is as I and others here locally experienced too. My friend even found Smartbike better than my beloved Microbike. So I maybe knows how it must feel for you reading my friendly criticism of how the Strida behaves. I had a hard time accepting he found
the SmartBike easier to ride compared to Microbike which is a dream to ride.

Maybe you and me are very different and that we do describe our experiences of Strida accurate.

I trust you feel your Strida to behave well. I trust my description on how
it felt when I tried it out. I have both MicroBike and SmartBike to compare with.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=67772&page=18

Hello Chop, and others!

I thought I'd take the time to reply here to clear things up.

Weakling is a moderator of Stridaforum.com because a) he asked and b) he's been extremely helpful in dealing with the spam. I welcome people of all viewpoints in my forums, you don't need to be a mindless fanboy (not that I'm suggesting for a second that Chop is!)

Mark was very kind to send me a Strida, and I've been extremely impressed by it, though I do accept it takes a little getting used to at first. Luckily this was quite quick for me.

Chop, I recall our conversations from before and you're very welcome to participate more in Stridaforum.com and my others if you want to

Garry
www.abikecentral.com
www.stridaforum.com
www.foldingforum.com
www.3001.co.uk

I'm glad Weakling is helping Garry fend off spam at the Strida forums (I left cyclingforums.com because of the spam there). I, however, also thought it odd that the only detractor of the Strida I know of to post his views was a moderator there. I know the Strida is not a perfect bike and some people may not care for its handling characteristics. I know an anonymous, tall, heavy, older Swedish gentleman that can't yet ride it confidently. I'm glad he actually likes the Strida (and other folders) and I think it's too bad he can't get used to its handling enough to enjoy it like tens of thousands of others seem to do. If Strida in the UK promised him a 10-15 second or two minute learning curve, then I guess they owe him an apology for his inability to master it within that timeframe, but why does he continue to post his personal disappointment here and elsewhere? Prospective buyers will make their own judgement on the Strida and either buy it or move on to something else.

Garry, can you update the "Strida News" and "Where to Buy" links? They're a little short on information and somewhat out of date. I had to dig elsewhere to buy my Strida.

Hmmm! The plot thickens! HoHum, it's a funny old world isn't it?

Hi Chainstrainer

Sorry for the out of date info, I've been a bit out of contact with everything for the last few months due to business and a new baby. Anyone who wants to contribute information is very welcome.

Garry
www.abikecentral.com
www.stridaforum.com
www.foldingforum.com
www.3001.co.uk

How? Through the forum?

Congratulations, Dad!

Yes just contact me via the forum, thanks!

Garry
www.abikecentral.com
www.stridaforum.com
www.foldingforum.com
www.3001.co.uk

I am somewhat confused by any Forum Moderator's purpose or even existence. I wonder why anyone would volunteer for such a position. I would think that it is simply not worth the hassle-especially for the lack of pay. I know for sure there are other avenues to explore both online and offline. I gathered some comments from around Google below for more information on Moderators-and there is not much available. Could someone please clear this up for me?

"....Our experiences in moderating a forum: What's best, not what's new

Moderating a forum is fairly straightforward: knowing what you want, deleting entire threads that aren't going anywhere, correcting the spelling of the word "it's," fixing URLs, deleting individual contributions that fail to advance the thread. It helps to have experience writing and editing (and reading student papers, refereeing journal articles, reviewing manuscripts and grant proposals).

As clearly indicated to potential contributors, we do a lot of deleting--only about half of all submitted contributions survive for more than a month.

So moderating a forum is fairly straightforward and not all that time-consuming--if you have excellent contributors, some editorial skills, a clear idea about what you want, and the ability to make quick final decisions. It takes much more effort to answer questions, start new threads, and add new material to the website...."

And from another source:

"...Here in our community forums are a group of truly dedicated moderators who volunteer their personal time and share their considerable knowledge and experience with all of our members, so we recognize them with a moderator icon () to let you know that they are offering the best advice possible. While they may not have the answers to all your questions, our moderators are here to help in any way they can..."

I can personally relate to that view for sure. I didn't volunteer to do regular Moderator job of dealing with people who are trolling or behave nasty.

I let the Admin judge what is needed and him to take care of such behavior.

I had been a guest user of A-bikecentral and not even a forum member when I saw that the automatic programs that placed spam on the forum had an advantage. Most of the Mods all lived in same time zone while me lived some 9 hours or more later. So I joined and asked for to help out.

So me could delete the spam happening when they where asleep or at work.

So I asked Garry if I could be a help Mod for spam and me reclining to do other mod job.

I have helped out with URL at times though. Failing links or searching for older threads.
but that was because I had the time and felt for it. Not required of me at all.

So yes, i would not recommend being a Mod either. I do it cause I like the views on forums that
Garry has and I like the approach of A-bike and Strida designers. To give alternatives to the
other folders we had since 1960 or so. Competition is good for creativity.