August 2007 - Posts

Tikit followup

This is a followup to my previous mini-report on the Bike Friday Tikit.  I took it on a 10 day trip to Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Saugerties, NY.  This involved two flights and a lot of car travel.  I used the bike for 3 twenty mile rides, mostly in the Saugerties/Woodstock area.  The rides were really enjoyable and gave me time to explore some of the backroads that we don't see while driving around the area.  Once back in Philadelphia my brother and I went for a nice around Springfield Township.  This is all riding that I wouldn't have done without a bike along, but none of it would really be enough to justify bringing a full size bicycle.

The Tikit packs almost as fast as Bike Friday says.  It takes me a little bit longer due to the drop bars and my front rack (which has two bolts), but it packs much more quickly than my New World Tourist did.  Everything that I need to remove is easy to adjust, unlike the NWT where I removed the cranks, derailleurs, and other major components.  I'd guess that I'm packing the bike in about 15 minutes, and unpacking it in about 10.  There is a lot (almost too much) of extra space in the suitcase and I had no problems storing my rack, shoes, water bottle, and tools in there with the bike.

The fold is really fast.  On Wednesday I used the Tikit to bike commute (which involves a bus).  I arrived at Montlake bus stop and started folding the bus.  I looked up and a bus was arriving, but I still had time to put the cover on the bike.  My Tikit folds wider than stock (due to the drop bars), but it still makes a fairly compact package that was easy to carry aboard.

I'm happy with the gearing that I have on there (54t chainring, 11-34 cassette, which gives me 25 to 80 gear inches).  In Saugerties I rode up some very steep unpaved roads and they were challenging but no more so than on my other bikes.  The bike handled nicely when coming back down them too.

I emailed the service department about the little bit of play that I had in the hinge that holds the stem.  15 minutes later I had a phone calll from the owner of Bike Friday (Hanz).  He gave me some suggestions and I've been able to eliminate most of the play.  I'm very happy with the companies service.

All in all I'm very impressed.  I'd still suggest the Bike Friday New World Tourist for someone who wants to fly to a destination and spend a week on the bike.  If you are primarily using the bike for shorter trips and mixing in a lot of other forms of transit (bus, car, train) I'd suggest the Tikit.  It rides almost as nicely and folds much more quickly.  I don't think I'd have any problem doing some light touring (overnighters) on the Tikit.

What would I change now that I have a bit more experience with it?  I still think that the bike would be better with an internal gear hub.  I'll be putting one on after I learn more about the SRAM i9.  I want to tweak the design of my front rack a little bit and wish that Bike Friday had a better system of their own for carrying cargo.  A second water bottle cage might be nice.  It could be a little cheaper or come with nicer components.  All of these are minor complaints -- it really is a very nice folder.  It's a nice blend of folding fast, folding pretty compactly, fitting into a airline-legal suitcase, and riding pretty well.  There are many folding designs that can do some of these things, but not many that do them all.

Posted 31 August 2007 05:51 AM by AlexWetmore | 5 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
Peter White's interesting observation on saddle comfort vs shifters

 

He posted this to the touring list, but I think it is something that is interesting to a wider audience:

http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=touring.10708.0740.eml

 I've noticed a dramatic increase
in saddle complaints from cyclists since the early 1990s, when STI and
Ergo shifters became the norm on better quality bikes. With shifters in
the brake levers, it's much easier to shift gears than with other
shifters. So cyclists tend to shift gears more often now than they used
to, with detrimental effects on the old tush. Here's why.

I haven't put significant time on STI or Ergo shifters in about 10 years (my bikes have downtube or barend shifters).  I do tend to stand on small short inclines.  On Sunday I rode with my friend Rory who does ride with Ergo and I don't think he shifted much more often than I did or spent more time seated. 

Someone's probably looked at the photo above and is wondering why that bike has STI and barend shifters.  It was an overly complex setup:

  • STI left shifted a SRAM 3x7 hub
  • STI right shifted the rear derailleur
  • Barend left shifted a front derailleur
  • Barend right controlled a drum brake

If I still owned this bike I'd have ditched the 3x7 hub and STI shifters.

Posted 29 August 2007 03:25 PM by AlexWetmore | 4 comment(s)
Filed under:
Bike Friday Tikit mini-report

 

My Bike Friday Tikit arrived last week.  I found it at my house around 5:15pm and had it unpacked and ready to ride by 5:30.  The bike unpacks really fast and I enjoyed my first ride on it (with a few component exceptions).

Over the weekend I converted it to drop bars and made a front porteur rack for it.  I made the following changes:

  • Changed from flat bars to drop bars
  • Installed adapters to make the V-brakes work with drop bar levers.  I'll probably change the levers to Diacompe 287-V sometime in the future...I really don't like V-brake adapters.
  • Swapped the 175mm crank arms for 170mm ones.
  • Changed the cassette from an 11-28 to an 11-34.  This also required swapping the rear derailleur to handle the larger cogs.  When the SRAM i9 hub is available I expect to switch to that.
  • Installed my favorite saddle and pedals.

The front rack was a little tricky to make.  I wanted to make it pack easily and didn't want it to interfere with the fold.  I originally made the rack platform a little large and had to remove about 1cm from the left to clear the front tire.  When the bike is folded the saddle rests inside the rack.  I don't think that this will be my final design, I want to experiment with a triangular rack platform to reduce the size and eliminate any chances of saddle interference.  This design does work for now and my first couple of trips.

I took the bike for a test ride today and it rides pretty well.  There is a little bit of play in the stem hinge, but I expect that I can adjust that out.  The rest of the frame seems to be very stout. 

The fold on this bike is amazing.  With a little practice (it took me about 5 tries to get the hang out of it) it folds down in a few seconds.  My first attempt was not pretty and took significantly longer (but Josh and Cam probably got a laugh out of it).  Once folded everything is secured nicely by a single latch and there are no traditional quick releases.  My front rack and the drop bars make it a little wider than a stock Tikit, but it is still reasonably small.  The fold protects the drivetrain (and keeps the greasy chain away packed away in the middle).  More importantly it doesn't put the handlebars in the middle which makes converting to drop bars possible.  This is not true of many folders by Downtube and Dahon.

It packed into the suitcase quickly.  This was my first attempt at packing it and I had to figure out a new packing method to work with the drop bars, but it still packed more quickly than my old New World Tourist.  I had to loosen six bolts: seatpost, stem riser, pedals, front fender, and handlebar clamp.  The stock handlebars don't even require you to loosen the handlebar clamp.  It's a big change from my New World Tourist where I remove the handlebars, saddle, derailleurs, left crank, and pedals.

I think it'll be a winner.

If you want more details on the Tikit I recommend reading the review by The Folding Society.

It's hard to find details on the components on the stock Tikit.  I expect that they are still figuring out the best component list.  Here is what my bike came with:

  • Flat handlebars with SRAM MRX Gripshift, Tektro V-brake levers, foam grips, and a bell.
  • Microshift rear derailleur.  I have no experience with this companies components, but it seems to be okay (it's better built than the plastic Shimano Sora rear derailleur)
  • Tektro V-brakes.  I've had some problems with the return spring popping off of the spring tension screw.  When I go to the SRAM i9 I expect to use a hub brake in the rear and better V-brakes up front.
  • The wheels have Joytech hubs, un-branded rims, and 24 spokes.  The front hub is narrower than a normal hub.  The stock cassette is made by SRAM, 8sp, and 11-28.
  • The headset is made by Diacompe and appears to be 1 1/8" threadless.  I haven't pulled apart the front end to figure out exactly how their steerer and headset arrangement works.
  • The tires are Schwable Marathon.  These tires can ride a little rough, but are a pretty good choice for a utility oriented bike.
  • The saddle is a pretty typical plastic/gel saddle.  I actually found this to be more comfortable than I expected.
  • The crankset is a generic 130mm BCD crank.  The large Tikit comes with 175mm crank arms.  The chainring has 53 or 54t and there is a matching chainguard ring.  The bottom bracket is a generic cartridge bottom bracket.
  • The seatpost is a Kalloy Uno.
  • Planet Bike Fenders.  The rear one has a custom stay that allows the bike to stand on the fender when folded.

When I first saw a Tikit I was a little underwhelmed by the component spec, but upon riding the bike I realized that it really wasn't too bad.  The spent money on some of the most important parts such as tires.  I think the first model really should have used an internal gear hub, but the derailleur setup does work pretty well. 

Posted 08 August 2007 05:22 AM by AlexWetmore | 11 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
More Posts