Thanks. My biggest impediment is budget - in terms of deciding what I am willing to spend to get what I want. Have some more "soul searching" to do and then to decide whether to move forward.
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Thanks. My biggest impediment is budget - in terms of deciding what I am willing to spend to get what I want. Have some more "soul searching" to do and then to decide whether to move forward.
Took the first step in the process and spoke to Dave (we got your name in, Denise!). Where I started and where I ended were completely different places, but I think we not only found just the right idea for me, but we also found something that ultimately will be more economical (certainly not cheap, but not as expensive) for me. If I order soon, my bike would arrive mid-July....and would be custom.
We are looking at a NWT with an 8-speed internal hub....of course with fenders, rack, etc. Fortunately, the MKS Lambda pedals I adore will work perfectly on a NWT, and my Brooks B67 will also be perfect.
Will be interesting to get the first quote and move forward.
It was interesting because I mentioned this to my mom today via email and even sent her a link to BF and I assumed she say "what the hell are you doing?" Instead, she said she recently saw a folder at the airport on her trip to Colorado a few days ago and thought it was cool.
How exciting Kerry! I can't wait to see what you end up with.
We are still 3 weeks out from getting ours. Patience! DH is having a hard time deciding what pedals to go with. I'm very happy that Speedplay has platforms now for their Light Action pedals as that is what I'll be doing with my BF. This way I can use my SIDI tri shoes if I want to go fast. Or just any old shoe if I want to tool around town.
I'll need to check out the pedals you mention for the husband.
And thanks for getting my name in with Dave! Also - you should know that Samsonite is having a sale via their Facebook page for $25 off $100 or more. The 31" F'Lite is on sale as well. With the coupon we ended up getting 2 for the price of one had we ordered from BF!
Thanks, Denise! I don't anticipate flying with my bike, so I don't think I'll need the case anytime soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by hulagirl
About those pedals - they are flat pedals (not clipless). I heard about them on this forum and had to try them on my bike as my regular shoes would slide on and off and all over on the pedals at any given moment. Someone on this forum, in answering someone else's question, highly recommended these. I couldn't agree more with her assessment. The feet simply don't migrate on, off and around the pedal - they feel very stable and stay in place perfectly. Another feature of them is that they are more long than wide from the bike (Dave called it a figure-8 shape), which is why they should work well with a BF. Since they don't stick out so much, Dave said they wouldn't smack against your leg while carrying folded like standard non-folding pedals do. These pedals, and my Brooks saddle, will end up on any bike I ride....I love them.
The person who mentioned them on here, I believe, called them MKS Grip Kings. That is the Rivendell term, used on their website (they highly recommend). They are also MKS Lambdas. I believe both are the exact same pedal with simply different monikers but I could be wrong. BTW: I apologize to whoever it was that recommended these - I'd love to reference you by name - but I simply can't remember!
I have them (the MKS Lambdas) on 3 bikes. Our LBS has started stocking them after I had him order me my last ones. They aren't wide, so they don't strike the pavement on turns, but they are long, so they provide a nice platform for riding. They completely solved my burning foot issue. I've ridden them with hiking boots in the middle of winter, sneakers, mtb shoes and even keen canvas sandals. Have I mentioned that I LOVE them? :)
Deb
I got my price quote and sizing form from Dave at BF. The cost of my bike would be actually less than NWT list/standard due to what I do and don't want.
Going to work on sizing this weekend and go from there.....yikes! Exciting yet scary stuff!
That's SUPER awesome! I'm so glad you talked to Dave. He knows what questions to ask to make sure you get the bike you need and will use!
I'm just about 2 weeks out now from getting Ketchup! I picked up my Speedplay pedals (in red of course) yesterday and I'm slowing preparing everything. We basically have to show up in Seattle with all that we need to get the bike up and rolling as we won't have a rental car. Saddle, helmet, lights, pedals, pump! Cant' wait!
My BF NWT should be delivered sometime around the middle of July!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
EEEEEKKKK!!!! So happy for you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kerry1976
yay!!!!!:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
We got 'em! Ketchup and Mustard have been unboxed, set up and ridden. They are quite fun and cute! And although they ARE funny to look at, they ride just like a regular bike!
The strangest part was that I gave them my Orbea Race bike measurements and when I got on Ketchup for the first time, it was like getting on my Orbea! I was ready to go into my aero bars!
I will say this FULL WARNING! DO NOT attempt to unbox/build your Bike Friday after a red-eye flight, travel, totally tired & loopy day. It was frustrating. Our biggest issues were with centering the brakes. As tired as we were, it took us way too long to figure it out. And then I couldn't find my seat post and almost had a break down. It was still in the box. LOL!
We are going to take both bikes to a local bike shop to just have a few last things tweaked. Shifting is a little odd on Mustard, and I dropped my chain for the first time ever on a bike within 3 minutes of riding Ketchup. And we want to make sure things are tight enough, etc.
Super fun bikes! I'll get pictures up later - right now we are a little behind on work as we spent many hours yesterday setting up the new Bike Fridays.
Denise
yay!!! Can't wait to see pics of them!!!
Can't wait to see pics!
Alright! I am so excited for you! Hopefully all the little things can be tweaked. I suspect so.
My DH just changed out my blue bar tape for red on my (white) Pocket Crusoe tonight. It was the original bar tape and was getting all torn up and pulling apart on the top of the bars. The red really POPS -- makes me feel like I have a whole new bike! Since I have red bags and accents on my bike, it was a good choice. And I'm sure it will make me faster, right!? ;-)
Can't WAIT to see your photos. How fun!! :p
If you could recommend a bike friday model for a fully supported bike ride across the country, which model would you recommend?
Well, I'm a bit partial to the Pocket Crusoe :rolleyes:, but there are several that would work -- NWT, Pocket Rocket, even a Pocket Rocket Pro if very light weight is important to you, and since the tour is fully supported. We used our Crusoes for a self-supported tour carrying full panniers, and they worked great and are lighter than NWTs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reesha
Really, call the Bike Friday folks and talk to them about your needs. They are awesome and super knowledgeable! I changed my model choice a couple of times while trying to narrow it down, and I ended up very happy with the bike I chose.
Denise, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are seriously negligent in your picture posting. Don't you know that we have rigorous standards around here?Quote:
Originally Posted by hulagirl
:p :D :p :D
We want to see Ketchup and Mustard. Soon. Post pictures by the end of the week and no one will get hurt. Or fined for non-compliance. :D
For a supported tour, I wouldn't hesitate to take my PRP. I'd even do it with panniers, but not overboard with tents and stuff. But that's just me. I agree with Emily--call Bike Friday folks and ask them. They are very knowledgeable, friendly, and patient. I changed my mind multiple times, too, and they didn't blink an eye at my multiple calls and numerous questions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reesha
I suck! I'm sooo sorry! I've been having wayyyy too much fun on this thing!
Basically, I've ridden my Pocket Crusoe every single day since we got it. Except yesterday - when I had to do a 4 mile run for training and was just too dang tired to ride.
We are staying in West Seattle on the beach so any ride other than to the water taxi is up a 400' elevation gain in 1.5 miles. I was dreading this hill at first - expecting my gearing on Ketchup to be similar to the gearing on Serafina (my Orbea Road bike). I was sooo wrong! Dave at BF listened to my concerns about hills and set me up with excellent gears to hit the hills. I started up the hill and was shocked to discover that I had 3 more (maybe it was 4) easy gears to shift down to! Wow. Seriously awesome.
Unfortunately, the closest bike shop wasn't very helpful to us. Not only did they tell us it would take a week for them to look over our bikes and make sure we built it correctly, but they sold us 451 tubes for 406 tires. This will be important later for sure.
Hubby has had some issues getting used to shifting. He's got a Big Dummy at home and is used to grip shifters and thumb shifters so the SRAM double taps were giving him problems. Especially on the front cog. I had no problem with it. But he's getting much better with it.
Regardless we still wanted someone to check 'em over and help put on the fenders. (As we are staying in an office, we are limited to tools to do this stuff) So we took the bikes down to another shop about 5 miles from our place. On the way, hubby got a flat. But we were fine as we had new tubes! THAT WERE THE WRONG SIZE. Ugh. Broke a tire level getting the tire off and discovered that my patch kit is a piece of crap with one tube of the glue having burst a long time ago and the other tube refusing to open. We barely patched the tire well enough to get us to the shop within 10 min of them closing. Luckily they were cool enough to stay later and do all the work for us.
We took the bikes back to them the next day to get slime in our tires and our back gearing soaked in oil. That makes the bike spin ultra quiet. Now we have stealth Bike Friday's! ;-)
We've been to the Seattle REI numerous times and we each have Ortlieb panniers on our back racks (matching colors of course). We use the water taxi and bike lanes of Seattle to get around so easily.
So how do they ride? Well, really I can say they ride JUST like a regular sized bike. I can't tell the difference AT ALL unless I go to make a sharp turn. (They turn on a dime) I've got my Speed Play pedals on and when I'm clipped in - the bike flies! I do wish I had a slightly smaller gear as I've bottomed out while going downhill. But if I had to pick one, I'd keep my bigger gears for hitting the uphills.
On the bikes, I can't see why everyone looks at us so funny. Off the bikes, they look like circus bikes! But they ride so well.
We've ordered Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires. A litte wider and highly rated by users. We've also got slime in our tubes! Finally get to use it with the lower PSI.
Photos coming! I'm working on them now.
Denise
Here they are! They aren't that great as we are just too giddy when we ride them to actually stop and take pictures of them. ;-)
Ketchup - Naked! (This is right out of the box, fresh!)
http://gallery.mac.com/dvanryzin/100...13082479490001
Dressed and together with Mean Mr. Mustard:
http://gallery.mac.com/dvanryzin/100...13082478530001
We also have front racks, but only need the back racks for now with the fenders. In this shot I have the SpeedPlay pedal covers on the pedals. They are super easy to put on so that I can ride in normal shoes if I want to just tool around the town.
Absolutely lovely bikes. Sounds like you have really been using and enjoying them - and doing the extras to really make them work just for you.
The pair together looks so awesome!
My NWT should arrive in the next 3-4 weeks! Can't wait!
Kerry - I think you will love it. It was soo strange for me to get on the BF and have it feel just like my Orbea. (I gave Dave my Orbea measurements to match for the BF build)
One thing - make sure you set aside time to do your build of your bike when you can call BF and ask questions. And do not have easy access to small children that can be thrown out of windows! It was very frustrating. More than it needed to be due to somewhat lacking instructions on BF's part. The DVD they send you is not very helpful and the brakes we got are just downright evil to hook up. Have a day to do it and a glass of wine and you should be fine. ;-)
I am NOT looking forward to packing the bikes up into the suitcase for the first time. I know it gets easier with time, but it's an expensive bike that I don't want to muck up.
D
Denise,
They are absolutely gorgeous and cute as buttons! The color scheme is amazing and not even anything I knew could be done with the cabling and even matching racks! Nice job! The matching panniers look fabulous too!
Thanks so much for posting the photos and so glad you're enjoying your new bikes. I have been loving mine so much this season! DH put red bar tape on mine (which matches my red bags and air-horn) as the blue was tearing and wearing out terribly, and it looks even more smashing to me now. Wish my Candy's pedals were the red ones instead of the blue now!
Emily
Here's another for you guys that I took tonight on our way to dinner in Seattle:
It's like seeing double! ;-)
http://gallery.mac.com/dvanryzin/100...13082816420001
Emily - we are looking for horns now. Or a bell. I'm thinking a simple Crane Brass bell will work fine - but I'd love something that I could activate from my hoods. Ha...I like to dream.
We are packing up our panniers for the 3 hour boat trip up to Victoria BC tomorrow. I can't tell you how excited we are to get our bikes out on a trip and on a BOAT and a FERRY no less. I just love these things!
I'd love to see new pic of your bike Emily with the splash of blue! Post away!
Denise
OH MY GOSH! They are the cutest bikes EVER!!! Love them!! :D Enjoy every mile (and it sounds like you will). :)
They look great. Packing and unpacking is not so troublesome. Use the book, go step by step, and be patient. I can pack mine in an hour, and unpack in half that time. Enjoy your new bikes!
Awesome photo! They are a match made in heaven!Quote:
Originally Posted by hulagirl
My air horn (google Air Zound) was inspired by my crash to try to keep free-running dogs away, but it's also come in realyl handy against a few crazy motorists, who wouldn't hear a bell. It's too loud to use on pedestrians, tho. It's red, so would look fine on your bikes. If you usually ride together, maybe one of you could get a horn and one a bell, to have all the bases covered!
I'll try to get a new photo of my Crusoe. It's actually got red accents; only the pedals are blue now with the bar tape change. I'm heading to the markets tomorrow with red Arkel panniers, so that would be a good time to snap a photo or two.
Have fun on your ride. It sounds awesome! Be prepared to get a LOT of attention and answer a lot of questions. Most of the time I don't mind it a bit, but every now and then it gets a bit tiresome and I just want to fade into the woodwork.
Here ya go -- taken today right before heading to the markets. Mine doesn't look nearly as sleek as yours due to fenders, lots of long cabling from the bar-end shifters, and age (7 years!), but she's still a cutie (to me). If we weren't going to move to Belize soon and leave our Fridays for safe-keeping at my mom's, I'd outfit her with a black & red saddle and red Candies pedals!
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/z...784800x567.jpg
WOW! That's some serious red! Love it! And guess what saddle I have on my bike? The SI Lady! I figured I'd try it because of the REI return policy (anytime, full refund no matter what) and at first I hated it. Now I totally dig it!
We had a GREAT weekend on our BF's. On the high-speed ferry to Victoria, BC with them. Only got to ride a tiny bit as our friends did not have bikes with them. boo. Then we took them over to Port Angeles and had to do our first quick fold! GASP! They horror and fear! It went ok and will get better. The good news is that after being folded up for 2 days they unfolded nicely and quickly down in Bainbridge, WA! We loaded them up with our 4 days gear and rode onto the ferry back to Seattle. Then a quick trip up to REI and a water taxi back over to West Seattle and back to work.
They were SO much fun and really, the Seattle area ferry system is awesome. It was free to ride our bikes onto the ferry to Seattle. First to board and first off the boat. You can't beat that.
Now I'm contemplating a GPS unit like the Garmin 800 for directions. I'm sick of stopping and pulling out my iphone every 5th block to see where I should be going. Dangerous too. Agh. More money!
Belize???? Waaa? How long?
Denise, those bikes are adorable! (And yours is too, Emily!)
Don't want to hijack the thread, so this will be brief...I've mentioned this on several other threads here and there, but we are building a condo on Ambergris Caye and are moving there for retirement. No planned end date; we'll stay for as long as it's fun. :D We've moved away several times over the 26 years of our marriage and always end up coming back to NC, but we'll see...we can always rent the condo out and just use it for vacations if it gets boring, but we want to immerse ourselves in a new country for awhile. It is time for a change!Quote:
Originally Posted by hulagirl
The beach cruisers are coming with us; that's really about all you can ride there (or mountain bikes). The Bike Fridays would get trashed with the sand and salt air, and gears are unnecessary.
Glad you had such fun on your weekend adventure! I agree that a GPS would be a great idea for riding unfamiliar roads.
These bikes are beautiful. I'm starting to feel the need for something more versatile in the garage, this might be it. Thanks for including all the pictures.
So here I sit, looking at an empty suitcase and my Bike Friday. Somehow I will need to get the bike into the suitcase without killing anyone. :-)
I really, really hope it's as easy as it should be. And then Ketchup and Mustard make it home to Hawaii in one piece and not messed up by TSA. :eek:
Hang in there - I'm let's just say mechanically challenged, and I made it! One tip: Put as much in sealed bags are you can (i.e. pedals). TSA took them out of a drawstring bag (that was tied shut) and left them rattling around the suitcase for our pleasure. Next time - Zip loc and pouch. Maybe that will help the [insert not very nice description] TSA agents with the job they *should* be doing.Quote:
Originally Posted by hulagirl
search the threads here for packing your BF. I'm pretty sure someone (don't remember who) posted about how they packed their BF and even when searched, it made it through unscathed.
I remember that zip-tie'ing as much of the bike as you can (or using velcro straps) is great. It keeps the bike from unfolding when the case is opened. I think I remember them putting a sequence of pictures (4 I believe) of how the bike should be put back in the case.
Let's just cross our fingers that they don't bother it!!:rolleyes:
I pack mine in the soft case that I put in the hard case. When TSA opens the hard case, there is a zipped soft case. They unzipped it and that seems to satisfy their need to check thing out. No problems thus far.
Go step-by-step in the book, one step at a time. Remain calm and think if it as a meditative practice.
I also tape a nice note to TSA on the inside of the case top explaining that this us a folding bike and I include photos of the folded bike in the case.
I love the colors on your bikes!! So cute!
I have a Bike Friday, and I took it from California to Maryland to do a ride last October. I took pictures of each step as we packed it. I then printed out the photos with my name and cell number and placed it in an envelope labeled for TSA in the Bike Friday suitcase. This way if for any reason TSA felt they needed to rummage through it or had trouble getting it all back in, they could see from the pictures or could call me. The bike got to Maryland fine and came back fine. No phone calls either. :)
I'm sitting in the United lounge waiting for our flight. United took the bags without batting an eye. Came in at 44 lbs per case. So well under weight limit (I have a 70lb weight limit as I'm Premier Executive status anyway).
Packing took us an hour and a half. I velcro'd everything that I could in the case so that if they have to pick up the bike they will do so in one piece. I put a picture up in the case of what it was unfolded and folded in the case. I noted that the case did not contain any C02 or liquids. And I put my name and phone number if they had questions. I can only hope and pray they the TSA is decent about this.
I didn't think about the zip lock bag thing. Next time. I'll get the big freezer bags and label them. I hope my karma level is high and things work out.
Regardless, we just saved $300 by checking the bikes. I guess if we had to put them in a box and pay $300 that the TSA is still going to check things and possibly screw stuff up. So...well...at least I'm not out $300. Gotta count your blessings when you can.
Fingers and toes are crossed. Won't be home until after 9pm tonight so I'll check it all out tomorrow at let you all know how it goes.
Denise
Good luck and safe travels, Denise!!
fingers crossed, Denise!