Bike Friday? Anyone?

[Blueberry]

Another option to help the budget a bit would be to look at the Pre-Loved Bike Fridays. There's a tiny Pocket Rocket Pro right now that I would snatch up in a second it I were a tiny bit shorter.

I have drop bars on almost all of my bikes, including my Pocket Crusoe. I have them set relatively high - level with the saddle - and I don't feel like it harms my ability to sit up and ride around. I spend a lot of time on the hoods. The only time I think I would like straight bars (or swept back city style bars) is when I'm riding in heavy traffic sometimes.

[Tri Girl]

The Pocket 8 (closeout) they have on the pre-loved Fridays is a DEAL!!! Only 8 speed,but might work. I miss my BF, but not too much because I hope she's being loved by her new owner more than I loved/rode her when she was mine.
There are some great deals on the pre-loved page!!!

[wildrover]

It would be great if you could ride one before you buy.

My husband has a couple of them, and he LOVES them, as many people do. I have one of the original frame NWTs (from 1994 I think), and it is about 29 lbs the way I have it set up with the rack. Now, I hate to ride it, but I ride it all the time because it fits in the back of my mini-cooper. It rides very smoothly with the harder tires, and of course the components are as good as any, as the price reflects. I have never, ever, been happy with the twitchyness, and 'ride-feel' of the bike. Other people say it doesn't matter, and I can't define 'twitchyness', it means something different to everyone.

Call BF and ask if there is someone in your area that has one to test ride (I think they still have that program). It's alot of money to spend for a bike like that, and find you don't like it. My experience may be different, because my husband's bikes have a longer wheelbase, and I'm OK riding those.

[hulagirl]

Thanks for all the replies. I've looked at the pre-loved BF's and most are too small for me.

Plus, the option of having a bike custom built to MY measurements is quite inviting. And they do give you 30 days to test ride it. If you don't like it, send it back. Can't beat that.

I did find on their site they optimal weight for a bike is 12% of your body weight. Yikes. For me, that's a 17.5lb bike. HA! Gonna pay a fortune for that.

There is a Tikit here at one of the bike shops that I might look at today. They are listed as one of the BF dealers so I'm glad I have that resource here on the island.

I'll let you know what we find....I'm leaning towards the drops set level with the saddle as I do love the ability to shift hand positions.

Thanks again all!

Denise

[emily_in_nc]

Hi Denise,

To answer your questions, I have my drop bars set even with my saddle like blueberry, and I find that to be plenty upright. I am on the tops when climbing, on the hoods a lot, and also enjoy the drops when descending. All three positions are fine for me, though I think my cranky hip likes the more upright position the best. I didn't find that they limited me at all on our tour, and I didn't have neck, hand, wrist pain since the bike was set up to fit me (i.e, I sent measurements of a road bike I had at the time to be used while making the bike). I was able to look around just fine from the tops or hoods. If you have less back flexibility, that might be an issue. You can see my position on the tops in this photo that my avatar is a smaller version of:



I agree, the Bike Friday site is HORRIBLE to navigate. There is a ton of stuff on it, some broken links, and a mix of old-style and new-style pages. The old pages often don't link back to the new pages except to "home". They desperately need a talented webmaster. I actually have more luck sometimes using google searches like this "Bike Friday handlebar options" to get to their pages, rather than trying to navigate thru their site. I forgot to mention it before, but here is a review I wrote years ago of my bike for girlbike.com (now defunct as a cycling site, may still be a scooter site) that Bike Friday picked up for their site: http://bikefriday.com/press/2004/emily-smith-crusoe/

It would be cool if you could test ride the Tikit, but I do think a bike with 16" wheels is going to be twitchier than a 20" wheeled bike. I personally don't find the Crusoe twitchy -- just very responsive. But that may be because I'm a small-wheeled gal from way back. Have owned a long-wheelbase recumbent with small wheels, a Terry with 24" wheel in the front, and a road bike with 650c, as I am just too small to get a good fit with a 700c bike. My DH rides a 700c Trek but also loves his Crusoe for utility riding and just cruising around, though. He never complains about it feeling twitchy. When he wants to do really fast unencumbered rides, he takes the Trek, b/c he leaves panniers on the Friday for errands.

My Petite Crusoe, if I take off the rack, all bags, etc., only weighs about 19- lbs, but obviously with a rack and Tailrider and other accessories, she starts getting heavier. I think of the uses you mention, a Bike Friday would work well for you. If you could find a pre-loved one, you could definitely save some $$. I also covet that pre-loved Pocket Rocket Pro blueberry mentions (and it would probably fit me), but circumstances are not right for me to buy any new bikes right now since I'm moving out of the country soon.

Good luck and please keep us posted! If you have any other questions, just ask!

[hulagirl]

Aloha Emily - I spoke to Dave at BF briefly today. He said the Crusoe starts in the $1500 range. We can handle the $1800-$2100 range and since I don't want in internal hub, I should be able to make it.

The bummer about the pre-loved is that they won't ship them to Hawaii! Only the lower 48! Booo! Do we could as lower, lower, LOWER 48 at all? Nope. Never.

I'm going to call Dave on Monday and Hubby and I are going to go over the whole thing with him. Can't wait! Looks like we might be able to get it 1st week of June.

Quetion:

Does you handle bar fold for travel? I know the H bar does, but didn't find a drop bar on the site. And How do you find the bar end shifters?

Thanks for posting the picture bigger for me too. That helps a lot.

Denise

[Blueberry]

Wow - Emily! You have some very nice muscle definition

I have almost the same set up as Emily - she helped me decide on shifters.

I don't know that there is a good bar end shifter "option" on the website (which even BF acknowledges as a mess right now). However, our rep was able to order them for us (and they're quite a bit less expensive than STI for what it's worth). Or, was that the question?

The drop bars split in 2 and sort of nestle around the bike in the suitcase.