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WHEN SUE COOPER and I arrived at the starting point for our first tour with the Bicycle Adventure Club (BAC) we found several people (including the Club Chairman) setting up some funny-looking bicycles with small wheels. After listening to testimonials, and, more importantly, seeing the bikes in action for a week, we stopped by the Bike Friday factory one morning in Eugene. By lunchtime we had done a test ride, worked through bike dimensions and features, received assurance from a computer model that two bikes could be built to our specs, and made the down payments. Our BikeFridays were delivered to us in California in January 2002. Since then we have each ridden our Friday over 16,000 miles. Part of that mileage has been on eleven BAC tours, and part has been on day rides taken as we have explored the US and Canada in our truck, with the Fridays quick-folded in the rear seat. We have a choice when we take our bikes on an overseas tour, for we also own S&S coupled Co-Motions. Our Fridays have accompanied us on BAC tours in Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Nova Scotia, and New Zealand. Our Co-Motions have gone touring in Hawaii, Italy, and Ireland. Overall, I would rather pack and carry the Fridays. They are easier to pack and unpack than the Co-Motions – requiring perhaps half the time. On one trip we had to pack and unpack our bikes three times in five weeks, and we had to carry them onto four European trains (in addition to negotiating airports). We took the Fridays. |
I have replaced a few components on my Friday – the bolt at the seat mast hinge after about 500 miles, the headset after about 9,000 miles, and the frame quick release bolt after about 12,000 miles. My Friday has had one mechanical problem that caused down time on a tour: a retaining spring inside the SRAM hub broke one morning outside Gettysburg. Sue, who is 70 pounds lighter than I, has had no mechanical problems. Not bad for a cumulative 32,000 miles of riding! Bike Friday personnel have always been extremely responsive. In Gettysburg, a new spring arrived overnight from Oregon, and the local bike shop had me back on the road before lunch. (The current model of the SRAM hub has eliminated this spring.). We discovered another aspect of BikeFriday support when we sent our Fridays to Oregon for their first overhaul. When BikeFriday found a hairline crack in my seat mast, they voluntarily replaced the mast and repainted the entire bike at no additional cost. That’s a pretty good warranty on a bike that was 5 years old! -- Sue and Wilson Cooper, wrcooper38@gmail.com |
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