Our journey into folding bikes
 

I thought I would start this thread to document our plans to buy two Bike Fridays for our various national and international bicycling tours.

Machka and I spent around 8 months on a round-the-world trip with our Thorn Club Tour, 700C bikes back in 2012 and into early 2013. We spent quite a bit of time in the UK and Europe and did a long driving trip across the US north to south and back again.

One of the things we learnt was that we needed some sort of folding bicycles to help with the logistics of flying, travelling on trains and getting into and out of cars.

While in the US, we visited the Bike Friday factory in Eugene, Oregon, ostensibly to enable Machka to find out that small-wheeled bicycles are in fact as easy to ride as the big-wheeled ones were.

So, now we are planning a trip back to Canada later this year to meet up with Machka's folks in British Columbia and Alberta. While on the trip, we aim to take a driving trip down to the BF factory to pick up two Pocket Llama discs.

This week started the ball rolling by contacting BF, and are now talking to Mike about our plans, including when we should order to ensure we can do the pick-up, and payment procedures. There is up to a six-week lead-time on ordering custom bikes, so if we were to order now, we would do a pick-up in early August. As it is, we intend to do the pick-up in late-August or early-September, so we have around two weeks left to finalise our specs.

I am really looking forward to how this all goes. And I and Machka will come back here regularly to let people know what is happening. :)

Looking forward to seeing what you end up with!

I had a stock NWT back in the 90's, regret selling it now. To me the only noticeable difference between the NWT and my full sized bike was a slight loss of momentum due to the smaller wheels. FWIW there was a guy that club raced on a BF around that time and he was very competitive!

Aaron :)

When I read the title of this thread, I thought "boy, I hope they picked Bike Fridays. " Seems like the obvious choice for the two of you.:D

I would love to see your final spec choice since I am likely to get about the same thing soon.

I have a Pocket Llama disc R'off I quite like .. *miss having a K stand, as a utility bike . though when I get somewhere ,
the city has mounted racks to lock to , so its not that much of an issue .

touring with a 4 full pannier load , laying the bike down and picking it up would get old ,
particularly as I am aging, myself.



When I was having a difficulty getting a leg over a regular Diamond frame , the lower top tube was nice..



Schmidt center lock front wheel hub (or another centerlock non dynamo front hub)
eases the Disc removal so it stays flat when you knock down a touring bike for packing ,
and is welcome undoubtedly in the suitcase packing of these bikes ..

* mine was largely as is , someone else did a BTO, and refused taking it due to color , wanted All Black .
[IDK, if they were a New Zealander] ( it is a metallic coal color )

BTW the Bus between the Eugene airport and Town, should make getting there simple enough ..

I've used it , the airport, to fly out of, connecting to Sea-Tac in Washington .

We've been researching on and off since our trip finished. We looked at Bromptons, but the limited gearing range was a bit of a bear. The other folding bikes didn't seem to have the "ooomph" for touring. Our loads aren't going to be particularly heavy -- we did round-the-world with two panniers, small top-of-rack load (tent for me, Carradice for Machka) and handlebar bags, but even so, the Dahons and others weren't in the same league as the BF.

Whenit came to model choice, I am quite keen on disc brakes. I have them on my MTB, with cable actuation, and I like them a lot. The cable actuation gets away from issues with fluids. I also like to get the best life I can out of my rims, and disc brakes are very handy from that point of view.

We will likely go with a "standard" list of components for the Pocket Llama Disc. It's SRAM based, which is OK. Over a period we will likely upgrade.

We will be bringing our own Brooks saddles and Carradice saddle bags, of course, for this trip, although the bikes are being specced with rear racks.

And I will likely bring along bullhorn bars to fit. All our road bikes have drop bars, but neither of us use the drops very often. I do have bullhorns on my fixie, and I find them a fine compromise. And in this case, the BFs will have MTB-style trigger shifters and brake levers, so they will fit the bull horns quite nicely. Just a note... I've used bar extensions on MTB flat bars before, and the sharp angle when they attach removes the comfortable hand position provided by the sweep on the bullhorns.

Pedals? Well, I've looked at the MKS quick release ones, but I like clipless, so I figure another pair of A530s as on my Thorn, and Machka will probably do the same.

Fietsbob, we'll be driving down again, I think. We want to do the forests again, this time in late-summer rather than the middle of a wet winter.

I'd personally be very interested in a Brompton for commuting to the train station because of the very tight fold. But I also am disappointed with the gear range (I don't know why Bromptom themselves don't offer a Nuvinci 360 - compared to the rest of the bike, it's not even expensive).

Bike Friday, more than most, really seemed to understand that may people want a bike that happens to fold or pack and not a folding object that is also a bike.

I think bullhorns make a lot of sense here. As far as pedals, once you're used to clipless pedals, it's hard to go back...

Brompton rear hub spacing is something like 112mm OLD if memory serves. The Nuvinci hub is 135mm OLD.

A Brommie would need major modification to the rear triangle (i.e., cold set) to run that hub. It can be done but is not something I would attempt as a home mechanic. You risk ruining the frame, and it certainly voids any frame warranty.

In the UK, Tiller Cycles and Kinetix perform similar mods with different hubs.

A couple of our friends just got a pair of BF built up for them and are really happy... I agree that BF makes a very competent and versatile bicycle that just happens to fold.

I would not discount their off the peg options as if one is not of unusual dimensions you can save a good deal of money going this route.

That's a good point.

I'm still disappointed, but I understand. :)

Re bullbars. They tend to allow a much smaller folding size over drops also.

My alternate handle bar is Bike Fridays separable mountain straight bar, with Ergon GR5 grips ..

It shipped with their also knock down H bar , .. I exchanged down ..

.. though I am using Trekking bars now..


Their knock down Front Racks were my preference,

low trail & small wheels steady right up, with a bit of stuff hung over them.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=386308

Welcome to the world of folders, I am sure you will be happy with the Bike Friday's:thumb:

I think we're going the full custom, but once we punch in the dimensions, we will compare with the off-the-peg ones.

And I must say, I haven't heard anyone who has been entirely dissatisfied with their BF.

We've always been rear-rack people, with the occasional foray into the frontal arrangement. Thanks for the heads-up, and the BF front rack is certainly an option that we could put in the mix.

Thanks!

I had to make some adjustments to their bikes after they were delivered, there were a few small QC issues that were easily rectified and after ordering up a conventional rear wheel my friend decided to swap his bike to a dual drive so I installed that for him.

All in all, BF makes a great bike.

I thought you guys moved to Australia.

Long story short... I am Australian. Machka is Canadian. She moved to Australia in 2009. We make regular trips back to North America to see her folks and more often than not we take the opportunity to see some of the sights the US has to offer. We'd truly love to spend six months of the year living in Australia and six months in Canada, and that may happen sometime into the distant future.

This is, of course, reassuring. As also are the pictures of real steel bikes being brazed by craftsmen.

Are you sure the levers and shifters will fit your bullhorns? I think most bullhorns have the same grip diameter as drops which is bigger than mtb bars. Hence the lever and shifter clamps may be too small to fit bullhorns.

I did see someone post a setup using bullhorns that had mtb size grip diameter but they are very rare.

Thanks for tip. I will keep it in mind, and quiz any supplier for them on the diameter.

I've been researching 22mm bullhorn bars and they do seem to be available from ebay and internet stores. So that should be OK.

And we've started getting a bit of stuff together. The first bit was a soft-sided suitcase that matches the BF-Samsonite one that we acquired from a recycling shop at the local dump. We paid $20 for it, and it's in remarkably good condition. We drop by a couple of other recycling shops to see if we can pick up a similar one.

It's not that we are being cheap on this. It's just that we are unlikely to use the Samsonite case for touring, and the recycled suitcases can be left behind at a destination without feeling guilty about it.

The Bike Friday H bar is decent ,, there you have a bar end shifter in the back and a Brake lever on the front , right under your fingers.

they come apart in halves to easily pack into suitcase sizes.

they make an STI H Bar for using road Brifters , kind of J ski-tip upward bend H