ericbartiscool

I just got my polished silver 9 speed, disc brake Birdy! I have been playing with the fold to get it down and getting it dialed into my fit. So far I'm impressed with it, although I have only just taken it up and down my driveway a few times so far due to all the ice here in the Boston area.

I plan on riding it about 16 miles to the train station and then taking it on the train into Boston as my commute and then reversing this on the way home each day. Anyone else riding this kind of mileage on a Birdy?

Eric

BruceMetras

Our friend Jur comes to mind.. I think he Birdied similar distances on a routine basis .. although I hear it was mostly downhill both ways ..

jur

Used to do 28km both ways. I have since moved closer to work and it's now 17.3km each way. The birdy became obsolete when I got a Brompton so I sold it. But it never missed a beat while working.

ericbartiscool

I just packed the Birdy into a 29" hard sided suitcase, it was a tight squeeze, but it fit along with my shoes, helmet, handlebar bag and sunglasses. It will be ready for my trip to Palo Alto next week!

ericbartiscool

Jur, how fast were you able to do the commute on the Birdy. When I was commuting 25 miles each way last year on my road bike I would do 17 - 19 mph depending on the day, is the Birdy capable of getting close to that speed?

ericbartiscool

I took my Birdy up Page Mill to Moody, down Moody to Altamont and back to Page Mill and then back to Palo Alto. I must say, the bike was AWESOME. It rode like a real bike, climbed well and descended like a beast. It was a great ride.

Joe Remi

I stumbled on a silver Birdy with a mid-'90s 8-speed Shimano XT rd, which I assume dates the bike to the same era. Any idea what I should expect to pay for one in decent condition?

jur

I once rode a back-to-back comparison on my Birdy and my Swift on the commute. I was wearing heart rate monitor on both cases. For those 2 commutes, my heart rate was very close to the same for the two days, and unexpectedly, so was the average commute times. I expected the Birdy to be slower but it was just as fast.

I would have to do some digging to see if I gave the actual speeds on those cases, I expect it may have been around 27km/h ie 17mph. My best ever was 30km/h for the 27km commute. So based on that I would say yes, the Birdy, if wearing Kojaks, would be just about as fast as that, maybe a few % slower. My perception was it is slower and I found that perception counts a lot because I imagine I get more tired. I get the same effect when riding on slightly wet roads, it feels harder.

jur

I don't know what the market over there is like; I found that over here it is not all that different from the used car market. About 15% reduction in price from new per year. Mid-90s? That's a bit of time ago. Not more than half I would say.

Winfried

I'm thinking of getting a Light, and replace the following parts:

• Add a 34T chainring to the 56T chainring to ride in hilly areas
• Replace the flat handlebar with a butterfly handlebar for long rides
• Replace the not-very-effective chain tensioner with Pacific Cycle's

I guess the last two should be non-issues, but do you think adding a second chainring is easily doable?


Birdy light | Riese & Müller

Thank you.

jur

Not sure a 2nd chainring will work. The chainguard is important with the Birdy or the chain will fall off during folding.

bhkyte

my recomendation is to get the paffic chain tensioer and run a small cage rear mech for more ground clearence. i run a altura hybrid mech with larger jockey wheels on my bike.
not sure about chain ring. i run my drailler hub shod birdie with an inside guard only. chain falls laterally occasionaly. you may find in folding chain simply falls on to the small cog instead of coming off.

mconlonx

After futzing with the drivetrain on a Birdy, I'd be leery of expecting a double chainring / front shifter-derailleur system to work with no issues regarding the resulting fold...

Winfried

Thanks for the feedback. The reason I was thinking of adding a second, 34T chainring is that it's been done before:

bike.gang.uk

******************** - birdy****************************** - ********** - Mobile01

Again, a lot of photos showing how to mod a birdy for double chainrings (and some videos for different speed combination). let me know if further info (translation) needed.

Winfried

So it's doable, although ideally, some practical feedback would be great from people who've actually moded their Birdy to use a double chainring.

Winfried

As an alternative, what about removing the 17T sprocket from the eight-speed Shimano CS-HG50-8I cassette (11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30) and adding a 42T sprocket to lower development to 1.8m?

Oneup Components 42-tooth Cog for Ten-Speed Cassettes - Reviewed - Pinkbike

Birdy light | Riese & Müller

Clownbike

This shows one fellow's solution. It's in Japanese, but well documented in photos, including the front derailleur mount he fabbed.

PEUGEOT‚Q~‚V‰ü‘˘ƒŒƒ|[ƒg

yangmusa

You don't need to fabricate your own front derailleur mount, you can get them from Thor USA. Scroll down and look for "DAHON JETSTREAM FRONT DERAILLEUR HANGER" - temporarily out of stock, but normally sold at $56.

Winfried

Thanks for the infos. That Peugeot folding bike 1) awfully looks like a Birdy and 2) is nowhere to be found outside Japan. Does someone know more about that?

Generally speaking, what's difficult, if that's the case, about adding a second, smaller chairing to a Birdy?

yangmusa

Pacific Bicycle, the Tawainese factory that makes Birdy bikes for R&M, also sells the bikes rebranded under various names (including Peugeot) throughout Asia.

Winfried

It's strange that Peugeot allows this but doesn't sell them anywhere else.

I'll investigate further about adding a second chainring.

bhkyte

i am not sure if the inner chsin ring will work ok with the pacific chain catcher. there's not a lot of clearence or tollerence in its fitting.

just a thought about combining the two as i whole heartedly recomend the tensioner and small cage rear mech. just want to make that clear. as i am running an inner chain guard you should be ok to replace with inner chsin ring.

BirdyOwner

You can buy a special edition of Birdy with dual chainrings:

BIKEgang

Or if you know someone in Taiwan who could buy a modified Birdy and bring it to US:

New Classic Birdy ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? smax - **********? - Mobile01 **********

Or you could visit Taiwan and bring your Birdy there for modifications.

bike.gang.uk

Birdy is always produced by Pacific cycles from the beginning. I believe Peugeot birdy was also part of their deal. As far as I know R&M holds the distribution right in Germany.