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 JUST NINE SECONDS separated Bike Friday's Rob English from the winner of the CSC Manayunk Hill Climb on June 6th. Rob powered his tricked-out Speeding tikit (NOT titanium, but a stock "Just the tikit" frame sporting a mix of Campagnolo, SRAM, and Shimano parts totaling just 18.2 lbs) up the fearsome Manayunk "Wall" in 1:35:22. The Men's overall winner, racer John Minturn, reached the top in 1:26:21. So the big wheel bikes carried the day... just. English vowed to return in '09 to try and take it all. "I know I can find ten seconds on that hill," he declared afterwards, at the foot of the "Wall", a kilometer-long, 17% grade that's featured in the Commerce Bank Cycling Championship Race. Rob did win the Men's Folder Class, an all-new innovation offered by Tri-State Velo, the hill climb organizers, with prize money from Trophy Bikes, a Philadelphia bike shop and Bike Friday dealer. The folder class was a magnet for a wild assortment of bikes, from the good (a Brompton S2-Xl titanium folder), the rad (a classic British Bickerton, rigged with a bamboo brace to keep the handlebars from collapsing) and the ugly (a Walmart Schwinn that hinged in the middle). Race announcer Richard Fries, with some color commentary from Trophy's Michael McGettigan, fed the crowd some folder lore as the little bikes lined up. All made it up the hill - some faster (Trophy's Peter Dalkner, aboard the Brompton S2-XL, gave Rob English a run for his money, coming in just 8.8 sec. behind), and some slower (Rabbi Ira Stone, entering his first-ever hill climb on a standard Brompton, finished in 5:35 with a big smile - read his Manayunk musings). The Bike Friday tikit's attraction was strong - elite level racer Colin Sandberg, who placed 3rd overall on his full-sized bike, borrowed a standard Tikit from Trophy Bikes and raced the hill again, taking 8th place in the folder class! The climb was just the beginning for the annual ROUND UP FOLDER BIKE FEST, hosted by Trophy Bikes. And it was the first of three challenges for Bike Friday designer and rider Rob English. Saturday morning, Rob turned in a respectable 19:52 in the Philadelphia Amateur Time Trials, a curvy, 8-mile out-and-back along the Schuylkill River. He was about 2:37 behind the overall winner, Matthew Heitmann. This race had no official folder class, but did have a few other folders, including a pair of Swifts, one piloted by that bike's inventor, Peter Reich. [Rob suffered a chain drop that cost him dearly - read about it - Ed] Then it was time for the FAST FOLD SHOWDOWN, that classic test of mensch and machine: ride-fold-run-sit-cross legs-unfold-ride! NYC Friday dealer David Lam won the 2007 Showdown handily with his tikit.This year, he placed only 4th, behind Matthew McGregor-Mento on a Swift. Rob English was next, with Dahon's Steve Cuomo shocking the crowd on his Jack, edging English by 7/10ths of a second. Afterwards, there was only one sensible thing for us to do - retire to the nearby Bridgewater Pub, where we toasted that anonymous, long-forgotten tinker who first looked at an umbrella, then at a bike, and wondered, What if ... Some beers later we were surprised to see Philly's Channel 6 Action News devote 2 full minutes to folders, complete with footage of the hill climb and of McGettigan demonstrating a fast fold. Sunday morning came early, and it was a smaller group of folder fans that assembled at Philadelphia's beautiful Swann Fountain at the center of Logan Square to cheer the start of the Commerce Bank Cycling Championships. While the pros were fast, they didn't seem to be having that much fun; so Rob, trailed by a motley group of folders, cruised along the race course. He stunned onlookers with the lightness of his Speeding Tikit, then pulled laughs when he broke it down into a small package with a few quick moves. All in all, a great few days for folderdom. - Michael McGettigan RELATED LINKS |