Bike Friday for a touring bike?

On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 15:39:55 -0500, Tim McNamara
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

My thoughts are either a Bike Friday model.... or a
Bruce Gordon BLT. Or maybe even a recumbent?

Unless you really want to be able to fold the bike up for flying, go
with the BLT. It's the best deal in touring bikes. Also check out
the Rivendell Romulus.

I just returned (late last evening) from a cycling trip in New
England, thus the tardiness of this response. In our party of sixteen,
three were on Bike Fridays. Other than the "fold 'em into a suitcase"
feature I saw NO advantage to them. Even worse, one of the bikes'
wheels was slightly damaged in shipment causing a series of flats. The
party quickly ran out of 20" tubes and had to resort to patches to
keep going. This is okay for some (like me), but the guy who kept
flatting didn't share my faith in patches, thus he and his wife
skipped our day on Martha's Vineyard.

My girlfriend rode her Trek 520 (touring bike) and I rode my Fuji
Touring Series. These were fine choices except for some of the rough
roads around Watch Hill, RI. There we sort of wished we'd brought our
mountain bikes.

One of our group was on a brand new CoMotion equipped with S&S
Couplers. Seems to me if you want a "packable" bike that's a
reasonable choice for touring this would be a good way to go.

BTW, thanks to the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen for inviting us
(Naperville Bicycle Club, Illinois) to join their club ride out of
Tiverton, RI. It was the best ride of the trip.


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

John,

I had the same situation in the spring. I was committed to getting
back in shape and now I'm a cycle junkie. I ended up purchasing a
Sequoia Sport from Specialized. I just passed 1,000 miles on the OD
this weekend, and I cannot say enough about the bike. The bike
retails around $800 US and you get a lot of bike for the buck - IMO.
I've only made two minor changes (clip less pedals and 700x23 tires).
The 700x26 tires were SOLID. Only one flat in 1000 miles of riding,
and here in NE the roads are tough.

Good luck with your decision.

Dan


wrote in message . ..
I wanna do a honest to goodness bike tour someday
soon.... next year or so.

Ive always ridden bikes.... for fun and back forth to
work..... but have dreamed of doing a bike tour
someday.

Im not sure I do a fully loaded tour just yet. Id
probably start out with just doing a credit card tour
for a day or two in my local area.

And just for the record..... Im 45.... abt 200lbs....
and out of shape.

Having said al the above.... what is a good bike to be
buying to get ready for this touring?

My thoughts are either a Bike Friday model.... or a
Bruce Gordon BLT. Or maybe even a recumbent?

More questions later but I will stop and wait for
responses.

Thanks in advance!!

I just returned (late last evening) from a cycling trip in New
England, thus the tardiness of this response. In our party of sixteen,
three were on Bike Fridays. Other than the "fold 'em into a suitcase"
feature I saw NO advantage to them.

So.... are you saying that if you do NOT need the
folding ability at all ..... to absolutely NOT buy a
folder as a touring bike?

Peter wrote in message ...
bikerider7 wrote:
wrote in message . ..


I've used my Bike Friday (now almost 10 years old) on a number of
self-supported camping tours without any problems. All the components
are standard Shimano (mine doesn't have the optional 3x7 Sachs/SRAM hub,
but from what I've seen those are pretty durable devices) and the wheels
are 20" - very widely available. (I notice you mentioned 16" tubes - do
you have their recumbent model?

My mistake, I misremembered as 16" when in fact it is their usual 20".
However, I do not agree that 20" is so widely available (at least in the
places that I normally go bike touring), but we'll just have to agree to
disagree on that one.

As for the drive-train being "standard" my largest chainring is
(again, if I recall correctly) 60-tooth. That is not what I consider
standard. And yes, it is something that can break -- Southwest bent my
chainring the last time I flew with the bike.

Parts can be
FedEx'd (or equivalent) quickly almost anywhere in the world these days.

To each their own. I'd rather not put up with that kind of hassle
when all I need is a tube or spoke.

bikerider7 wrote:
Peter wrote in message ...

bikerider7 wrote:

wrote in message . ..


I've used my Bike Friday (now almost 10 years old) on a number of
self-supported camping tours without any problems. All the components
are standard Shimano (mine doesn't have the optional 3x7 Sachs/SRAM hub,
but from what I've seen those are pretty durable devices) and the wheels
are 20" - very widely available. (I notice you mentioned 16" tubes - do
you have their recumbent model?


My mistake, I misremembered as 16" when in fact it is their usual 20".
However, I do not agree that 20" is so widely available (at least in the
places that I normally go bike touring), but we'll just have to agree to
disagree on that one.

As for the drive-train being "standard" my largest chainring is
(again, if I recall correctly) 60-tooth. That is not what I consider
standard. And yes, it is something that can break -- Southwest bent my
chainring the last time I flew with the bike.

Not a very common occurrence though - and what would be the
possible downside? You might be limited in your top few gears
for a day or two using a 52 instead of your usual 60. Doesn't
strike me as something that's going to make a big difference in
any of my touring.

Parts can be
FedEx'd (or equivalent) quickly almost anywhere in the world these days.


To each their own. I'd rather not put up with that kind of hassle
when all I need is a tube or spoke.

Those I pick up in any local bike shop - I find that there are
far more of those that cater to kid's bikes/BMX and MTBs than to
road bikes. [Tubes are not an issue anyway - almost any size can
be made to work if you're careful with the installation. That
includes 700c tubes in MTB or 20" tires and 20" tubes in 700c -
it's not optimum but serviceable until you can get something
better.]

But if there's a serious problem I can call Green Gear at any
time (24/7) and they'll discuss how to get me rolling again as
quickly as possible including FedEx shipment of needed parts like
a rear triangle. The other bike I use for touring is my
Cannondale and I think I'd have a lot more trouble getting hold
of someone there on Thanksgiving day to talk about a quick frame
replacement.

bikerider7 wrote:
Peter wrote in message news:YkEQa.53609$GL4.13943@rwcrnsc53...

bikerider7 wrote:

As for the drive-train being "standard" my largest chainring is
(again, if I recall correctly) 60-tooth. That is not what I consider
standard. And yes, it is something that can break -- Southwest bent my
chainring the last time I flew with the bike.

Not a very common occurrence though


Well, my experience is that eventually, anything that can go wrong on tour
will (especially where baggage handlers are involved).


You might be limited in your top few gears
for a day or two using a 52 instead of your usual 60. Doesn't
strike me as something that's going to make a big difference in
any of my touring.


The 60 was bent so far that the 52 didn't have enough clearance either.
I dunno, can an outer chainring be removed and the rest of the
chainrings still be held together without a spacer? Since it happened on
my trip back, I didn't really have to try that experiment...

I don't understand your point here. I thought you were arguing
that the BF owner would have a much more serious problem due to a
bent chainring if he has a 60-tooth ring that's hard to find
while someone with a regular bike would walk into an LBS and get
a 52. I was just pointing out that switching the BF to a big
ring of 52 for the day or two it might take to get a 60 shipped
is not that big a deal for a typical bike tourist - the bike is
still rideable but you'd be coasting on more of the downhills.
The unconventional nature of a BF is not really a problem from
the standpoint of finding replacement parts since almost all the
components (incl. the crankset) are very conventional. And they
further back you up with responsive customer support that goes
beyond other bike companies with which I've dealt.

But if there's a serious problem I can call Green Gear at any
time (24/7) and they'll discuss how to get me rolling again as
quickly as possible including FedEx shipment of needed parts like
a rear triangle. The other bike I use for touring is my
Cannondale and I think I'd have a lot more trouble getting hold
of someone there on Thanksgiving day to talk about a quick frame
replacement.


Cannondale frames are very bulletproof.

Only if you're using very slow bullets. There's no such thing as
a bulletproof bikeframe and if you tried to make one it would
weigh too much to be useful.

I used an R500 for years
of hard-core touring.

So - I haven't had any problems either with my 14-year old R800,
but I don't kid myself that it's somehow immune from being
trashed by even a rather minor impact.

I really don't know what the BF policy is
on broken frames but I'm not sure that's something they would be
able to Fed-Ex in 24 hrs (I can, however, buy a new Cannondale
frame at lots of retail stores around the world).

Try it on Thanksgiving day in some arbitrary small town in the
US. I doubt if you'll even get through to their customer service
department until the following Monday. And most small towns
don't have bike shops, but they do get FedEx shipments.

As well, BF frames are heavy,
and that quick-release joint at the bottom bracket makes them
flexy. But if people like BF's (and I know a lot of people that
do), more power to them....my own experience (as you can tell) was
rather negative.

I can certainly understand that some people wouldn't choose BFs.
But the reason you cited of difficulty finding parts while
touring doesn't strike me as a valid one. I would recommend that
tourers choose the 406 wheel size rather than 451 (both are
labelled 20", but the 406 size is the common one for BMX bikes).

Peter wrote in message . net...
bikerider7 wrote:

Cannondale frames are very bulletproof.

Only if you're using very slow bullets. There's no such thing as
a bulletproof bikeframe and if you tried to make one it would
weigh too much to be useful.

Of course. But as far as frames go, my experience has been that
the touring Cannondale frames can take a lot of abuse and that
I'd be much more worried about the BF frame breaking.


I really don't know what the BF policy is
on broken frames but I'm not sure that's something they would be
able to Fed-Ex in 24 hrs (I can, however, buy a new Cannondale
frame at lots of retail stores around the world).

Try it on Thanksgiving day in some arbitrary small town in the
US. I doubt if you'll even get through to their customer service
department until the following Monday. And most small towns
don't have bike shops, but they do get FedEx shipments.

Are you suggesting that BF would build a new frame over Thanksgiving
break? They do have good customer service -- I'll give them that -- but
it took 6 weeks for them to build my P.R. frame (and BTW, the frame they
built me didn't come close to the measurements I had sent them...but
their lack of quality control is another topic entirely).

And as for Fed-Ex'ing parts, one can always order stuff from
Bike-Nashbar, Colorado Cyclist, etc.

Peter wrote in message news:fPYQa.58882$OZ2.10305@rwcrnsc54...
bikerider7 wrote:

Are you suggesting that BF would build a new frame over Thanksgiving
break?

I'm not sure, but I did call them years ago on Thanksgiving day
because of a problem with my rear triangle. I was expecting to
leave a message on an answering machine and was surprised when I
got a live response. He asked if I was in a hurry and I replied
that there wasn't any rush at all - I was at home and had other
bikes available. I still got a new rear triangle in less than a
week. I presume it would have been even faster if I had
indicated I was stuck in some small town in the middle of a bike
tour.

Interesting...your BF developed a problem in the rear triangle and
that didn't concern you? Granted, I don't know the details of your
particular situation but I know quite a lot of BF owners that
had frame problems which to me is a really bad sign.


They do have good customer service -- I'll give them that ...

And as for Fed-Ex'ing parts, one can always order stuff from
Bike-Nashbar, Colorado Cyclist, etc.

And which of those have a 24/7 phone number with a service rep on
call to discuss technical issues and repair/replacement options
to get you back on the road as quickly as possible?

No idea...I have only dealt with LBS's and since I always try to buy
the most reliable, non-exotic stuff on the market, I have never had to
make an emergency long distance call to a service rep (my BF being the
exception of course).

My mistake, I misremembered as 16" when in fact it is their usual 20".
However, I do not agree that 20" is so widely available (at least in the
places that I normally go bike touring), but we'll just have to agree to
disagree on that one.

Are you telling me that people who tour on their bents (recumbents) are
going to be out of luck when it comes to replacing their tires on the
road?? Some bents use the same 406 tires that the Bike Friday bikes
use too and that is where I got my replacement tires and tubes from. I
have seen MANY PEOPLE tour on their bents for more than 1 year at a
time and they don't seem to have any problems whatsoever finding
replacement tires and tubes.


As for the drive-train being "standard" my largest chainring is
(again, if I recall correctly) 60-tooth. That is not what I consider
standard. And yes, it is something that can break -- Southwest bent my
chainring the last time I flew with the bike.


They bent your chain ring and yet your front derailleur survived?
Most recent Bike Fridays have a chain ring guard (a metal piece) that
surrounds the chain ring, preventing the chain to bounce out during
shifting and also probably provides some measure of protection from
damage in airline luggage handling. If a regular bike gets damaged by
the airlines with both derailleurs bent as well as the chain ring, you
have no choice but to push your bike. With the Bike Friday and a Sachs
3x7 or a 3x9 hub, even if the rear derailleur got snapped off, all I
have to do is shorten the chain to make it a single speed bike with a 7
or 9 speed internal hub still intact. You can at least tour with it
until you find a bike shop that can sell me a rear derailleur and new
chain!

(bikerider7) wrote:


However, I do not agree that 20" is so widely available (at least in the
places that I normally go bike touring), but we'll just have to agree to
disagree on that one.

You can get ISO 406 (20" BMX) tires in many grocery stores and all
Walmarts. They are as broadly available as ISO 559 (26" MTB) if not
more so, and way more available than ISO 622 (700c).

The ride qualities of the 20" wheel size don't suggest touring to me,
but there's no disputing that the tires and tubes are available
everywhere.

Chalo Colina