Seasons Speeding Tikit Porteur

I've finished my most recent round of hacking on my Bike Friday Tikit.

Side view with lots of visual clutter, making it hard to see the bike.

I call it the Seasons Speeding Tikit Porteur.  Seasons because that is what Bike Friday calls the Tikit with an internal hub.  Speeding because that is what they call it when you put on drop bars.  Porteur because it has a (mini) porteur rack up front. 

i9 hub, new dropouts 

The new rear hub is a SRAM i-Motion 9 (or i9).  The i9 conversion benefited from some brazing of the bike's rear triangle.  I switched the dropouts to the pivoting dropouts that Bike Friday makes.  I also had to move the rear canti studs a bit.  I made a photo essay of swapping out the dropouts.  The i9 seems to work well and has a nice gear range.  I had originally planned on building a custom bar-end shifter, but gave up on that project.  The rear triangle will get fresh powdercoat soon.

 

The drop bars make the quick fold a bit wide, but remove the stem and it gets narrower than a stock tikit.  I don't need a compact quick fold very often, so this is a good compromise for me.  I can ride on drop bars all day long, but flat bars hurt my hands after 20 miles or so.  I really love the Tikit fold, it is very fast and all of the dirty bits on the bike get folded to the inside.

I made the mini-porteur rack a long time ago and it continues to function well.  It looks really dressed up with the black powder coat.

The Tektro V-brake drop-bar levers are a lot more comfortable than the Diacompe 287-V option.  They seem to work pretty well on the front, but the rear is a bit spongy from the long cable run.  The levers work better if your V-brakes have shoes at the top of the slot than at the bottom.

I hacked up my favorite MKS Grip King pedals to have a quick release MKS EZ axle.  This lets them pop off of the bike in an instant to make the fold smaller.  Taking axles out of $60 pedals and putting them into $50 pedals is an expensive solution, I wish MKS just offered these with the quick release axle as stock.

I'm taking the bike on a train ride with me soon and looking forward to giving it a real test. 

Published 17 April 2009 06:21 PM by AlexWetmore
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Comments

# Chad Parrish said on 17 April, 2009 02:55 PM

Nice build, you have reminded me that I really need to put the mustache bars back on after running flat bars all winter

# Mike Jenkins said on 17 April, 2009 02:57 PM

Nice, Alex.  

# Antoine said on 17 April, 2009 04:43 PM

Looks wonderful (and fast) with the drops. A shame you can't get some sort of quick-release stem-face so the drops could just swivel around when the bike is folded.

# dr2chase said on 18 April, 2009 03:14 PM

I'm a little curious to know how the i9 works out.  Another winter, another shurikenized set of derailer jockey pulleys, another stretched chain, I've started to think I might have an internally geared hub in my future.

# Alex’s Seasons Speeding Tikit Porteur « Combing my hair in a brand new style said on 19 April, 2009 09:17 AM

Pingback from  Alex’s Seasons Speeding Tikit Porteur « Combing my hair in a brand new style

# Gareth said on 19 April, 2009 09:21 AM

Fabulous Tikit set up

dr2chase - go for the internal hub - I have an alfine tikit and love it.

# Brett said on 22 April, 2009 04:39 PM

Quick comment on the i9.  I've had one on my kid hauler/rain/cargo bike (modified and souped-up Swobo Dixon) and it's a fabulous except for the fact that after several very rainy rides water got into the freewheel mechanism when the black plastic seal came lose and the freewheel bearings lost their grease.

The result was pitting in the freewheel and a replacement hub from SRAM (it was still under warranty) that is supposed to have an improved seal.  No idea how to tell which version one may have, but something to lookout for.

# AlexWetmore said on 26 April, 2009 08:05 PM

Brett -- Thanks for the comment on the i9.  I'll try to find someone at SRAM who can tell me how to identify the versions with the faulty seal.  A friend had an i9 failure and it sounds like it was similar to yours.  He'll be warrantying the hub soon.

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