Jipe

There are two positions of the stem, one with a longer reach, a second one with a shorter reach, if you tried a comfort tem with the longer reach (default factory mounting at Riese & Müller), the difference between the comfort an sport positioned on the short reach will be smaller.

For the difference between the two, it depend of the height adjustment of the stem: the higher the stem, the bigger the difference..

CEBEP

Difference between 2 stems is 11 degrees. When fully extended stem is 39cm from pivot point to the middle of a handlebar. Assuming you will use stem at full extension, according to my calculations the distance difference between two stems at the handlebar level will be 7.5cm.

astage

I cannot confirm measurements, but this is a superimposition of the two adjustable stems, although each is not shown at their maximum height extension. As Jipe wrote, there is further back/forth adjustment via rotating the handlebar clamp.

Comfort & Sports stems
When I ordered my Birdy Rohloff, the distributor said, due to my age, he would recommend the 10° 'comfort' stem, but he was totally wrong – I lasted only two rides before ordering the 21° 'sport' stem, and am very glad that I did. Before that was fitted, I was actually contemplating selling the Birdy, because it felt so uncomfortable.

You should also pay attention to the grips. Initially mine had the straight/flat Ergon GP1, but now with GP3 Bar-End grips fitted there’s more room to move, relax and re-adjust your grip on longer rides.

chrisuk

mkadams001 CEBEP astage Thanks for the replies - really helpful.

>As Jipe wrote, there is further back/forth adjustment via rotating the handlebar clamp.

I had no idea this was possible! I'm going to go for the sport stem and try this adjustment if necessary.

Thanks again.

chrisuk

Can you tell me how I'd make this change or point me to somewhere that would explain? Not having the bike yet makes this difficult to picture!

EDIT: Found it on Youtube (can't post links yet) titled "BIRDY stem reach adjustment"

Jipe

Yes, that's it, published by Pacific Cycles.

Note that this is only possible with the height adjustable stems, not with the fixed height stem which has a fixed shorter reach.

chrisuk

Do people really replace the stem / front forks every three years as the maintenance schedule suggests? I know a stem is around £175, how much are front forks?

astage

My suspicion is that Birdy owners will replace parts more on usage and distance travelled by the bike, rather than bike age – especially with the current economic restraints that owners are living under.

However, from personal experience, I would urge all owners to regularly go over their bike very carefully.

Whilst cleaning and preparing my bike for the new year in February 2021, I noticed a crack along the weld edge on the front fork/’steerer tube’ (Gabelschaftrohr) after only 42-rides, totalling 797km (=495 miles) according to the bike computer. It had never been dropped, or taken off tarmacked roads, and had been pampered since new.

As the photographs show, the crack runs down the entire length of the steering boss

In my case, the suspicion is that this resulted from the outside part of the right side Fork-Pivot-Bolt having fallen out - discovered when I queried handling/steering unhappiness at the 357km (=222 miles) first service. Whether the pivot was badly fitted or not thread-locked at the factory or at pre-delivery assembly is unknown.

Riese u. Müller did replace the assembly, but I had to pay for a local bike shop to fit it. He did keep to his one-hour quote, even though it took him well over two hours to remove and fit the new part – his first time in doing so.

Side view of steerer tube

View from below - circled in red

Geoffroy2020

How do the grips feel when using the rohloff shifter? I am worried it would feel difficult to shift as many gears as I am able to with regular grips

Geoffroy2020

I managed to confirm that the holes were calling for M5 bolts. I have installed a pair of will priced decathlon child rollerblade wheels (M6) and it works like a charm. Thank you to everyone who responded and shared ideas.

astage

I have little experience of derailleur gears, having only ever owned bikes with in-hub-gearing (IHG). The only derailleur exceptions were whilst testing various brands and models after a 35-year abstinence in 2015, and the random necessity of borrowing bikes when visiting friends in Germany - which was what convinced me a folding bike was necessary, even as my only bike.
For me, an IHG, and especially the Rohloff, just fits so nicely. There's no faff'ing around with different levers, just a quick twist of the wrist to go up and down the gearbox as necessary. It helps, of course, that the Rohloff's 14-gears are so ideally spaced, with no duplication, and there's no difficulty in going past multiple gears at once. …the ability to change gears whilst at a standstill is priceless - which always caught me out on borrowed derailleur bikes.
The low maintenance and longevity of the Rohloff hub also impresses; and it gets smoother with accumulated distance. For a folding, or even a touring bike, I would always go for IHG. However, if I were a speed merchant trying to keep up with a pack of similar, then perhaps not. They would (no doubt) laugh their socks off at seeing my IHG anyway. But even if I have to move to an electric bike in the future, it will likely have a Rohloff gearbox fitted - although the over GBP9000 price tag made me wince when I recently spec'd out my 'ideal' electric bike.
With apologies, if this reads like an advert for Rohloff.

Huggable

My Father’s Day gift! Will keep it in stock condition for now.

bunnyberg

I'm interested in replacing the front fork, as mine has broken for a while.

Does anyone know where to order the front fork? I'm based in Germany.

CEBEP

From any Riese & Müller dealer I’d assume.

bunnyberg

That's definitely an option.

limal

Hi everyone, hope you are all well
I am new here and I need some guidance on my Birdy.

Is any expert able to guide me or direct me to a video on how to remove the Shift cable and housing for a Birdy? I am stuck not being able to remove the black attachment that is connected to the rear part of the birdy where you are able to fold (near the release clip)? I am not able to replace a new shift cable and housing in this case. Thanks for the help in advance!

Geoffroy2020

Good evening to all,

I have added a low rider rack at the front of my birdy bike. I would like to know if I could add a frame on it to attach my backpack in the same way one can add a brompton type block to the birdy and attach a bag carrier to it. Has anyone found a similar technical solution? I really want to avoid having to buy the block, remove the low rider rack and attach a canoe handle if I can.

Any advice?

Thank you all for your help.

Cheers

G

bunnyberg

In the end, I got a quote of 300 EUR from a local dealer for a front fork (mk1), and I didn't accept it.

In the very end, I salvaged a second hand broken birdy for 200 EUR, and did the transplant. Now I have a wonderful mix of blue and red color. I cannot post a photo yet...

Winfried

Maybe a link to eg. Postimage works

bunnyberg

Thanks for the suggestion. Apparently I have not posted enough (10x) to be allowed to share photos/URLs lol

bunnyberg

JoeyJoJo

I recently bought an old Peugeot BD-1 which seems to be in excellent condition. No cracks etc obviously. It has the non-extendable handle stem, which doesn't show any signs of cracking etc at the usual spot where they seem to break.

Snce getting it, I've been reading about them and a lot of the sites in Japan really make the thing sound like a deathtrap that could have a catastrophic failure resulting in death at any moment.
Most such sites are bike shop related and of course their solution is to buy a new bike.

It's ruining my enjoyment of the bike, since I don't really want to die in a catastrophic bicycle failure, but could someone with more knowledge let me know how much I should be concerned about this?

Is it just a case of keeping an eye out for any cracks etc before I cycle it, or are these things so fragile that I should just buy a new folding bike if I value my life?

JRat

Cracks take time to grow to a length that can result in failure. It's useful to be aware of the potential problem and periodically examine for possible cracks. Also listen out for any creaks or unusual noises.

The photos here https://www.ebay.com/itm/204519106981, for example, show cracking which has not yet resulted in failure. In that particular circumstance I would be tempted to apply external reinforcement by removing the paint, wrapping tightly with steel wire, smothering the wire with epoxy resin glue to both protect it and bond it to the metal and then repainting. A similar approach could be used where cracking might occur.

JoeyJoJo

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'll definitely keep an eye on it for any signs of cracks etc.
Cycled it again last night for about 25km. When I'm actually cycling the bike I feel confident that it isn't going to suddenly snap in half, just reading some comments online were scaring me off a bit.

Can you link to an example of what you were referring to regarding wrapping steel wire etc (of course it doesn't have to be Birdy related).

The only potential issue that scares me a bit is the handlebar stem. I'd like to avoid the handlebars breaking off the stem when I'm going down a hill someday etc

​​​​​​It surprises me that there isn't any sort of option of something that can be placed around the part where the handlebar joins the stem to reinforce it a bit and provide a fallback in case the stem breaks. It wouldn't have to be perfect, just reduce the possibility of the handlebars flying off the stem before you have the chance to stop the bike. Does anything like this exist, or can anyone think of any diy ideas? I don't care if it looks rough or about weight etc.
​​​​​

JRat

I've just done a similar repair to a pedal in which the plastic was splitting. There's a loop of green wire (plastic coated steel - what I could quickly find) with the overlapping ends twisted to tighten the loop and then covered with some epoxy resin glue to bond the wire to the pedal, protect it from corrosion and ensure that the twisted ends don't undo. I used the 5 minute epoxy but be aware that if doing a bigger job then use small amounts in stages as it becomes unworkable after about 5 minutes. It needs a lot longer than 5 minutes to properly harden.

Wire + epoxy repair