Bike Friday? Anyone?

[hulagirl]

No search results here for Bike Friday so I don't even know if anyone out there has one.

I have my race bike (Orbea Diva) and I have my "tool around town, kick back" bike. (Specialized Vita Sport) I just sold it in about 4 seconds because it makes me feel like I'm riding in mud. I don't know if it's the upright riding, the weight or what. But it is a very inefficient bike - for me.

Hubby has a Big Dummy. We travel a lot. Big Dummy doesn't and Orbea isn't allowed. So we both want to get an "easy to travel with" bike so that we can take it on our trips and use it to tour, travel around, exercise or all of the above.

Bike Friday has been in our sights for a while now.

Anyone have an world of love/warning? I'm looking at the New World Traveller or the Pocket Rocket. Something in the $1600-$2000 price range.

Thanks!
Denise

[emily_in_nc]

Hi Denise,

There are quite a few here who either own Bike Fridays now (like me!) or have owned them in the past, so apparently your search didn't find us. Perhaps it found either "bike" or "Friday", of which there would be zillions of posts, and not "Bike Friday" together?

My DH and I both have Pocket Crusoes. Mine is a petite model (you must weigh no more than 125, but it means a lighter-weight bike). We LOVE them. We spec'd them out with a lot of things we wanted (Ultegra triples in front, XT in back for loaded touring, drop bars), so ours were more expensive than your price point (in 2004 even), but they have been well worth it. Love the ride of steel and love the folks at Bike Friday. Also love that they are made here in the US. The smaller wheels don't bother me at all. They are incredibly strong and accelerate quickly!

I do know that the models you are considering are heavier than a Crusoe, and certainly quite a bit heavier than an Orbea Diva, so that is something you'll notice since they will not be as fast. But if you are looking for a travel and touring bike, they are a great option. Mine is actually my only road bike now, but I ride most utilitarian rides to markets and on errands rather than the fast club rides I used to do before a serious accident in 2005 left me with some chronic pain issues.

I love my Bike Friday and will be happy to answer any questions you have, with the caveat that it's been seven years since I ordered mine, so some things may have changed. Here's a link to the loaded tour we bought them for back in 2004 if you are interested: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/n...tour-2004.html

If you look at nothing else, check out the photo on the first page showing the full panniers we used. They were Arkel and worked great on the Bike Fridays.

[tulip]

I have a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro and it's just fantastic. I've brought it to Europe and out west, and I ride it locally, too. I switch between riding my Luna and my Bike Friday.

[hulagirl]

Aloha Emily and Tulip -

Thanks for the replies.

Emily - Fantastic Trip Report! Wow!!! I was looking at the Crusoe and the price gets me. Having just dropped over $3000 for my Orbea and over $2000 for hubby's Big Dummy, we are limited on our bike budget. Weight IS an issue for me, but not so much for hubby. (Being that his Big Dummy weighs more than a 747! Even his bike lock is 30lbs!)

I seriously doubt that we will ever do a trip as big as yours. We are looking at possibly taking them to Yellowstone when it's open to bikers only. Maybe around Utah (Zion, Moab, Bryce Canyon, etc), maybe around the Big Island (hills though...actually, 2 very big volcanoes to be exact) and around Kauai. Living on Oahu we don't have much of a need to bike tour on this island. So that would be my "tool around town" bike for grocery shopping, beach visits, etc. We also plan to use it when we have to spend a few weeks in Seattle every 3 months or so for business. Cheaper than renting a car!

The Bike Friday website is a little difficult to navigate. I tried to contact them today but was too late due to time zones. I'll try to contact them tomorrow.

Question
1. With drop bars, how aggressive is your riding position? Did you feel like you were able to "look around" comfortably on your road trip? Or did your neck start to bother you? Do you spend more of your time up on the tops of hour bars, on the hoods or in the drops? Did you ever feel you wanted a more upright riding position to look around?

2. Tulip - do you use your BF mostly for road riding? Do you do a lot of touring or just "kick back and enjoy" riding on it all?

I realize that the bike will be heavier. And that's not too much of my concern. The Big Dummy weighs a ton and I feel that I am more efficient on that than I was on my Specialized Hybrid. My biggest decision is:

Straight bar or drops? I just don't know if I want to be upright or more forward. Any words of advice on that would be great and seriously appreciated.

[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.

[emily_in_nc]

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.

Yes, I don't recall even seeing bar-end shifters as an option, but the salesguy we worked with (Walter, who is no longer in sales) suggested them as being the best functionally with V-brakes, since I wanted the mountain gearing in the back. If you don't go with mountain gearing and v-brakes, there's no need to get the bar-end shifters, and I'd probably go with STI if that is what you are used to.

I do like the bar-end shifters a lot, but they do require moving your hands around on the bars more, and every now and then I'll hit my leg on one of the shifters. But they work very well with the setup on my bike.

As for the drop bars, they can get you any bars you want that can be cut/split in two (i.e., no carbon bars). So if you have a favorite handlebar, they can get them and split them for you. I had the Salsa Pocos on my other road bike at the time and liked them a lot, so that is what I ordered. Note that you will lose about 1 cm in width when they split them, so if you are between bar sizes, order up.

Hope this helps! And bummer on the not shipping to Hawaii, but it is a lot more costly for them. Too bad they just won't let you pay the difference. Guess there are more chances of something going wrong too? But they'll ship a new bike... ?

[tulip]

My setup is very similar to Emily's--we even each have white bikes! I, too, had my Bike Friday built to the measurements of my Luna. I ride each bike interchangeably. My Bike Friday has a triple, so I tend to take it when I go to the mountains.

Let's see if I can dig up a photo...oh, here's one I've posted before.

[emily_in_nc]

My setup is very similar to Emily's--we even each have white bikes! I, too, had my Bike Friday built to the measurements of my Luna. I ride each bike interchangeably. My Bike Friday has a triple, so I tend to take it when I go to the mountains.

Let's see if I can dig up a photo...oh, here's one I've posted before.

It's fun for me to see a photo of your bike and remember what mine would look like were she not decked out with rack, Tailrider, airhorn, etc. Very cute indeed!

[tulip]

It's fun for me to see a photo of your bike and remember what mine would look like were she not decked out with rack, Tailrider, airhorn, etc. Very cute indeed!

I have since added a second water bottle cage (both are pink!), computer, cue sheet holder, under-seat tool bag, blinkie, and bell. Sometimes I use the rack, too, but it's not on all the time. Some day I will get a Trailrider.