travel with a bike friday

I am planning some traveling, starting with a week in hawaii, then a few months of travel starting in mid Dec (probably).

I like to have access to a bike when traveling, but I've always been loath to take a full-size bike case w/ my own bike, since i like to travel very very light. Plus, I am cheap and the added cost of the full-size case is a huge turn-off (airline, shuttle, greyhound-- all gouge for the full-sized bike case).

In the past, I've rented road bikes and even a clunky mountain bike for 500 miles of riding in Laos and Thailand. However, this time, I will be moving around a fair bit and don't want to have to mess with rentals/poor fitting/finding shops and the like.

I am considering taking my BF's bike friday instead. It's appealing because it's easy to build up and no bike fees for the luggage. Also, obviously, I wouldn't have to buy another bike since his fits me pretty well.

It's not appealing because the thing is quite clunky-- 27 pounds!-- and the handling is kind of odd, I've heard. Also, my BF will have his ritchey breakaway, thus likely to be even more zippy and speedy compared to me.

Anyone have thoughts on the Bike Friday? (Obviously, I'll actually ride the thing before traveling with it, etc. ) I know there are people who really love their BF's (bike fridays). Anyone out there in teamestrogen land have a comment on this?

This past May I did a tour with PacTour (eastern half of Route 66 from Amarillo to Chicago). I did the tour on my Bike Friday (Pocket Rocket Pro). There were two others in our tour who had the Ritchey. Both riders had done many tours with their Ritcheys. Their tear-down and assembly time was comparable to my Bike Friday. The Ritchey has the added advantage of standard size wheels/tires/tubes and components (rear cassette and hub). My PRP has the Capreo hub and cassette. I should carry the Capreo lockring wrench as a precautionary measure. Those are just a couple of things to consider.

I love my PRP. There are several threads on Bike Fridays; if you do a search you will find more info.

No comment on the Bike Friday, but I actually found traveling with my road bike to be very very easy. I posted a thread on it a few weeks back asking about airline cases and I ended up going with the Biknd from Canada. The total weight of my bike and the bag was less than 50 pounds and I wasn't charged an oversize bag fee. Because it was special, it came off the plane first so I didn't have to wait around in baggage claim either. Admittedly, the case is kind of pricey, but for me it was totally worth it to have my own bike with me that is fit to me with all my things. The case had plenty of room for my helmet and shoes and I bet you could get a lightweight pump in there too (since no CO2 cartridges on the plane).

EDIT to add: Thought I should also mention that it fit in the trunk of my dad's sedan without a problem at my destination.

I am taking my Bike Friday Crusoe to Japan in a couple of weeks. Last year I took it on a tour of Virginia. At home, I have it set up on a trainer. It is very convenient to half fold it ( one minute instead of the 15-30 it takes to get it into the suitcase) and put it in a car trunk on a driving trip. No worries about theft, rear ending of car or bad weather. No extra fees on the airlines.

If you set it up the same as your road bike, after a few minutes you don't even know that you are riding a bike with small tires. It is a little slower than my Ruby, and when I am home, I prefer my road bike. Still, it's got a lot of uses - far better, I think, than renting a bike that might not fit correctly. I would give your boyfriend's Friday a try for this trip so that you could make up your own mind. I find it to be a very useful second bike.

thanks for the input! Generally, I'd rather have a full size bike like a Ritchey (the Ritchey itself being a moot point since I don't fit their smallest frame-- too much reach for me) but I think the Friday is an option, esp. for this trip which is not super riding focused due to my fitness at the moment.

Is the bike case you mention a soft case? (I will look at your thread). Any issues with damage in the soft case? We've had damage even in the Ritchey hard case--broken spokes and even a big ding in the steel frame, so I worry about a soft case in that regard.

update: I ended up getting a soft case, the Pika packworks, & taking my regular bike. The case was easy to pack, light when packed (35 pounds total, which included some bike gear as well as the bike itself), good value for the money (less expensive than most hard cases), took just twenty mins or so to pack on my first try and the bike travelled securely (no damage).

I wasn't charged bike fees or oversized fees, but the agents at each end immediately recognized that it was a bike (contrary to what you might read if you research up the case). Not sure if I'd get away fee-free on every airline. Some of the reviews on the 'net suggest that gate agents are more relaxed about fees for this case because it is light when packed, even though it is clearly oversized. I guess I will see in the future!

Logistically, the case was light enough that I could just sling it over my shoulder using the shoulder strap. But, it's still bulky and large, and thus was awkward to carry especially while dragging other luggage along. As such, I will probably not take the case for trips where I anticipate I will be carrying luggage around a lot, for example, taking trains in Italy requiring lots of transfers between platforms and up and down stairs, etc. But, it was absolutely fine for this trip, where we had a rental car and thus carried luggage around only for short distances.

Glad that worked out for you. I would not trust a soft case to protect my bike from airline luggage handlers. I have heard of the argument that you can make if your bike is broken down...say it's bike parts and then sometimes they don't consider it a bike that is subject to extra fees. They don't charge extra for golf clubs, so they should not charge extra for bikes!

I shared the concern over the soft pack, but was comforted by my research and also experience of folks I know with the same case. Also, there is really a lot of padding-- 2-3 inches of thick foam at a minimum with extra foam below the crank and bottom bracket & I added some padding at the fork and rear drop out points since my frame is small and there was some extra room for additional padding. So it is more robust than you might imagine seeing the case from the outside.

But ultimately time will tell on the durability of the pack! I'll be taking the bike toe new zealand in december (probably; still planning this) so that will be another test. I think the best bet is to ensure that there's a bike shop at your destination to take care of any glitches (or be capable of repairing spokes, cables, DRs yourself)!

Note: I have some pictures up from my trip on my blog if anyone is interested. The riding was really really fun on Maui