Folding Bikes

Thanks, Deb, for sharing your packing times.

For the Bike Friday, I remove the front wheel, stem, handlebars, seatpost, and pedals. I use foam pipe insulation to protect the frame and the skewer for the fork. There's usually a bit of struggle to figure out how to arrange everything in the travel case. It takes me about 20 minutes if I've done it recently, and 30 minutes if it has been awhile. Reassembling goes a faster but then there's a lot of fiddling and adjustments the first ride or two.

For the tandem, we have to separate cables (we use cable splitters) - including a drag brake cable, remove (and deflate) both wheels, two handlebars, two seatposts, four pedals, one derailleur, one crank, and misc. accessories. We use a lot of pipe insulation, too. We work together and it takes at least an hour. We allow two hours, minimum, because it is stressful if we are rushed.

I'm having Bilenky retrofit the S&S couplers to my Carl Strong ti bike. I guess I thought it would pack in only 30 minutes, but based on your experience it sounds like it will take much longer than the Bike Friday. That's good to know!

There's been a discussion about traveling with tandems over on the Hobbes list. In my experience, the airlines are increasingly weighing (50 lbs max) and measuring (62 inches width x height x depth max) luggage. At LiveStrong Austin last fall I was very disappointed to see my fellow fundraisers charged as much as $350 to travel with their bicycles. The large number of bikes that weekend (both Livestrong and a Triathlon in Austin) resulted in a huge amount of oversize luggage fees. Other people report that they don't get charged; I don't like to worry about not enjoying my bicycling vacation due to problems checking in my bike(s).

30 for a BF, yep...that's what I was seeing, but I'm with Deb in the 1-2 hours. However, I don't disassemble quite as much. I don't take off the crank or the front derrailleur, but I do take the fork out. We pack DH's teeny little bike the same way--not that he needs quite that much disassembly but just for consistency.

As for flying, you're not carrying a bike, but "sports equipement" or "mechanical parts" Some of the airlines will charge you even if you're within size and within weight if they know the box contains a bike (as apparently they did in Austin). My next flight is Southwest where they actually state that Bike Friday's and S&S bikes are standard luggage if less than 50 pounds. I've never flown them before but their bike policy (and pricing) had me switch this time.

Apparently American Airlines will accept a bike as a checked back if it's 50 lbs or less and not oversized. That's what I heard from 2 friends (of friends) who just flew to Europe. Don't know firsthand if that's true or not...

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Originally Posted by tulip

No comparison. While you might be fine on a Dahon on short rides (I used to have one), longer rides will likely be a different story. I ride my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro for longer club rides, organized rides, and multiple-day supported tours. I can't say enough good things about the bike. I also have a Luna and it's a hard to decide which bike to ride. It took me a year to pay for my Bike Friday, but I am so glad I have it.

(hi Lynette! 2009 PAC Tour white PRP here!)

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Cool bananas Julienne! Ooops, blew your cover ...

I've been getting lots of great information. After trying the Dahon's, I'm not impressed enough to get one. A woman in my bike club has a Pocket Rocket and she is going to let me try it. I really need 2 bikes, one for me (5'3") and one for my husband (6'2"). Would consider used.

I've also had some really good emails from Xootr Swift folks. I had not considered them at first because the bikes have only 8 speeds and reviews said that they don't fold as small. The rest of the reviews are really good. They come in 3 sizes for the very reasonable price of $679/free shipping. However, on closer looking at the website, they have a front derailleur kit that can double the speeds and give good low gears. They have skinnier Schwalbe tires that can be substituted for less weight and more speed. And if you disassemble them more, they get smaller. There is a shop in Berkeley that carries them, so some time next month I am going to go up and take a look/ride (after I try the Pocket Rocket).

I don't think I want the other types of bikes mentioned because I don't want to have to totally dismantle the bike to fit it in a case. One thing that I don't get is that when I read the folded dimensions of the bike and go look on the web for a hard shell suitcase (the one that seems to be recommended is the Samsonite Oyster), the measurements are less than the folded bike dimensions, so how do they fit? I also think the Bike Friday cases are really expensive.

I just want to be able to bring a bike on a plane so that when we visit kids back East or go on a trip, we would not have to rent overpriced, heavy hybrids or spend nutty amounts to ship our road bikes. I also think it would be really fun to take them on a cruise ship and get off and ride away. Probably most of you don't go on cruise ships. We started because my sister-in-law lives in Alaska, and it was cheaper to take a cruise there than to fly and stay in hotels. Now, we have figured out how to use them by only going on cruises that stop in ports every day (in the cheapest inside cabin), skipping the 'shore excursions' and using them as a moving hotel. We went on a river boat cruise last year, and I was just dying to have a bike as the boat docked out of town and we had to find buses and change currency.

Anyway, I'll let everyone know if and when I get something.

I've been eyeballing Bromptons for awhile now too. Would love to get a folding bike at some point. *sigh* Someday.

If you're looking for a bike for your husband, too, there's a largish BF Pocket Rocket listed in the For Sale forum!

For short rides with no hills AND something that will fit inside my Mini Convertible, I am thinking about getting a Strida folding bike, second-hand on ebay.

Real quirky, I guess you love 'em or hate 'em.

Wonder if anybody has ridden on one on this site?

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