Bike Friday? Anyone?

[Kerry1976]

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!

[hulagirl]

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

[emily_in_nc]

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

[hulagirl]

Here's another for you guys that I took tonight on our way to dinner in Seattle:

It's like seeing double! ;-)


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

[Tri Girl]

OH MY GOSH! They are the cutest bikes EVER!!! Love them!! Enjoy every mile (and it sounds like you will).

[tulip]

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!

[emily_in_nc]

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

Awesome photo! They are a match made in heaven!

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.

[emily_in_nc]

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!

[hulagirl]

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?

[Owlie]

Denise, those bikes are adorable! (And yours is too, Emily!)

[emily_in_nc]

Belize???? Waaa? How long?

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. 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!

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.

[Chicken Little]

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.

[hulagirl]

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.

[Blueberry]

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.

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.

[Tri Girl]

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!!