*OFF THE DEEP END ON A FRIDAY* 9 Fridays and counting

SOME Bike Friday owners just can't get enough. We call it 'drinking the Kool-Aid' big time. Here's Bunli's story - we think he needs some intervention ...

Can there be too much of a good thing on a Bike Friday? Or too many Bike Fridays?No, of course not, and let me count the reasons why. Nine, and still ticking, is the number of Bike Fridays I’ve owned--and that needs to be explained to just about everyone else on the planet!

How did this mania for Bike Fridays start? Is it just the smooth-talking sales staff? Is it out of control, needing some senso-herbal-choco-yoga-recovery?

Somewhere halfway between my mind and heart there’s a need to be on the move, quiet and quick, open and making a green statement. So obviously, a bike is the answer.

A bike that’s fast when I’m in shape and forgiving for the other 90%. A bike that’s tough. There are a lot of spiffy bikes to choose from, and they may be the land’s end but they’re local. Shipping a much-loved bike by air was asking for trouble and heartache, and I got it.

So two little-wheeled New World Tourists, one for me and one for Shelly, were the answer. They were great for traveling light, for staying car-rental free in Stockholm and Santa Fe, in Copenhagen and Avebury, in Zurich and Amsterdam. But somehow, when we joined group rides, we ended up with the mountain bikers instead of the roadies.

We looked at each other and said, Shelly is great going uphill and Bunli never touches a brake lever going down, so we must be able to combine on a Tandem Tuesday and catch up with the roadies. Well, maybe there are success stories out there, but we ended up lugging uphill and instability downhill, with some sharp comments on the flats.

Back to the monobikes.

After packing the piggybank for a few years, I could think about upgrading, to try to keep up with those damned roadies. We confess to having Bianchis, too, and with one of us on a Bianchi, the other couldn’t keep up on an NWT (that’s me, not Shelly). So I proudly plonked down for a Pocket Crusoe with the 9-tooth Capreo freewheel. I was like Oople, the west wind, swooping here, flying there, and keeping up with those roadies at last!

Alas, all things change, and the Muses hardly let cycling smugness last for long. Disaster struck.

After locking up two Bike Fridays carefully but nonchalantly, we toured leisurely through the Van Gogh Museum and poof—they were gone. After a gnashing of teeth produced no results, we still had a marvelous ride throughout the Netherlands on 1-speed rentals.

TAKE FIVE ... Tom Brookes of Corvallis was the only person at the time of writing game enough to send us a photo of just TWO of his 5 Fridays - two Traveler XL tandems, with his family's three New World Tourists hiding around the corner. We suspect that slurping the Friday Kool-Aid is something people prefer to enjoy in the privacy of their own crowded garage, right? - LC

Lesson learned. Unless we were going to carry New Yorker chains and locks that weigh more than half the bikes, traveling in today’s cities means low end, not high end. Something less attractive to wanderers carrying boltcutters. Simple. Direct. The obvious answer is a fixed wheel, single-speed Bike Friday. Right, Walter?

But the hills and my softie quads, and even more, the taxis and trucks and uncontrolled skids—I don’t think so. Hey, the pool of insurance policies open to me is already fast dwindling. So two, 8-speed Pocket Tourists fill the bill, around town and in the travel cases.

If you’re counting, we’re up to 7 Bike Fridays now—but whoa, we still can’t keep up with the roadies.

What good is that? How did we end up with for sure, very practical Pocket Tourists that pack and don’t break when the orange-alert TSA messes with them, but we’re still at the back of the bus with the mountain bikers?

Slowly, it seeps in. I don’t need a Bike Friday for all seasons. And it’s not about the bike, it’s about riding. I need a Bike Friday for all personas. Something to get around towns, that fits like a glove, and that travels everywhere. And something to keep up with roadies in far-flung places, not just at home.

For example, how could we pass up a Cycle Oregon that goes around Crater Lake? But how do we get our noble steeds from Toronto to Sisters? And still keep up with the roadies?

Well, duh, bring on the Pocket Crusoes—two this time—with Capreos, in time to toughen up for Cycle Oregon. Now we’ve reached 9. It wasn’t exactly rational, but not irrational either. I know, it’s not rocket science, and we should have been able to make do with 4. Shoulda woulda coulda.

And who knew the tikit was coming?

- Bunli Yang

byang@e4.on.ca