A biography of Frida

As my profile description tells you, I dabble in archaeology a little and this means that, periodically, I have to travel to several "middles of nowheres" during regular office hours. Oddly enough most of these far-flung, secluded, inaccessible locations are pretty tricky to reach using only public transport, my favorite means of transportation. I could use a car, but that would require a driving license and several years of zen therapy or hypnosis to make me like driving. So a couple of years ago, I bought a folding bike. This is not a review, but more of a biography.

Back breaker ?

I make use of public transport, primarily the train, on almost a daily basis and had seen many a type of folding bicycle before getting mine. Some of the general design features always struck me as odd and/or clumsy.
Folding bikes are free to take with you on public transport, so lots of folding bikes are basically quasi normal sized bikes with a hinge in the middle. By definition these bikes "fold" but in reality they are transformed into a unstable v-shaped things of material that quickly clog up many a trains walkway. A normal bike is more practical in space saving terms, alas not money .
Other more size-conscious bike designers like Brompton make a cute little bike that folds up into …. a brick of iron which breaks the back when taking it aboard.

Finding Frida (Makes for a proper movie title, doesn't it ?)

All other bikes I encountered had some problem with it I felt. I understand that dealing with a smaller form factors and other needs demand compromise in some areas, but I felt the compromise in most folding bikes was terribly off balance. Be it stretching the definition of folding bike to breaking point, or creating a bike that is small enough to fit in your pocket, but could only be driven by durable bunny, most did not cut it for me.

Until this one day when I was traveling back home in a very busy train. I was stuck on the trains balcony with several other poor, sweaty, tired and perhaps grumpy people. Halfway a woman with a bike needed to get in. Arrrgg, I hate that, whenever somebody needs to get in a crowded train with a bike, ankles are going to get bruised, pants are going to get dirty, dispositions become measurably less sunny and the mood generally get somewhat more grim. But no, The woman and what seemed to be an… unicycle(do not try this) … hoped on, found a free spot between the sweaty people and all was well! After some of the people got off, making the balcony a bit more pleasant I asked her all about this strange looking bike. She told me it was a Strida and she even demonstrated the folding action on the balcony, mind you it was less crowded but not by much. Fast folding, elegant design, very light and pretty obscure, just my thing !.

Prythee

 I had done some research into folding bikes and I expected this particular bike to be on the pricy side of the spectrum. To my surprise this was not even close to being true. The version 5.1 back then generally cost 500 euros more then half what a boring Brompton costs. That settled it then.
I figured out who sold this thing and chose a reseller at walking distance from a train station I regularly passed. This would proof to be quite a strategic move.

I ordered the even more rare black powder coated version. and not before long I was cruising along on my space age folding bike. I had about a month before I really needed it for an excavation for which I wanted this alternate form of transport, so I needed to test it thoroughly of course.

Very quickly I found it a perfect companion for travel. It indeed was light, less then 10 kilograms and in fully folded mode I could fit underneath chains or even overhead in the trains storage compartment. The storage and space footprint of me and this bike was smaller then me and a backpack.
I perfected my folding action technique to the point where I could do the basic steps under 4 seconds and I developed a folding sequence which started while riding the bike and in one swooping fluid motion we transformed from riding a bike to walking with a futuristic cain without losing momentum.

In the time honoured tradition of antropomorphesizing various non living items, I named my bike Frida. This was because it is a "fiets", bike in dutch and it is a Stida. Fiets + Strida == Frida.

Living, working and playing with Frida

It turned out that Frida was quite the talk of the town, or rather the talk of the national railway service. Lots of useful time got wasting talking to a ton of strangers about the bike. A bit like I once asked a strange lady about her unicycle(do not  try this). It also turned out that there was a lot to talk about. The drive belt often was a hot item or the ceramic disk brakes on both wheels got a lot of attention.
People marveled at the simple but ingenious folding action, the excellent looks of the vehicle, the weight of it all.

But then everything went a bit pear shaped.
During the end of the excavation, on my way back, my drivebelt snapped in the middle of a crossing. It simply broke and I could see the metal strip that provides the supposed ruggedness that should ensure the kevlar belt would do up to 50.000 miles. Now I did use it quite intensively but surely I hadn't hit the 50.000 mile mark.
Having this failure in the middle of the week was particularly annoying as I could not get to a shop that sold these non standard kevlar belts. What was even more irritating was that the shop that sold me the bike did not have a spare on shelf. On the other side, the belt was, of course, replaced for me eventually without cost and I was told this had to be an fabricating error in the belt. Non the less I did buy a spare for any future episode.

Since then I wasn't all smooth sailing at all. I have had various breakdown and needed to replace parts or fix them.

A short selection of non-fatal breakdowns

• The tires wore out very fast. Not the stock tires had any profile on them to begin with, but the sides started to burst. Replacing the outer tires with more rugged wider better tracked tires costs the small amount of 30 euros. (Maximum fatality rate : Burst tire whilst crossing busy city street : 8.5)

• The magnetically ceramic pad wore out and FELL out of the caliper housing, instantly blocking my disk brake. If i was riding the thing at speed and the real or front wheel suddenly blocked, I'd be eating cobblestone. Replacing ceramic brake pads 5 euros per caliper and about 15 minutes.(Maximum fatality rate : When locking the tires solid when at speed on paved road :  6.7)

• The rubber mudflap on the read tire fell off somewhere making the rear tire fling muddy wet water up my spine whenever it had rained. This, in the Netherlands, is not the most unlikely scenario. Getting a non standard part and modifying it to fit and securing it with a bolt now, 4 euro's and and hour in the shed. (Maximum fatality rate : Complication due to cold caused by cold sludge water up your bum : 3.2)

• Somehow the brake cable for the rear brake got snagged somewhere, shearing off the small metal aglet at the end. This made the twisted metal unwind and makes the cable susceptible for kinks and bends which at one point make my brake work…. to enthusiastically. A damages unwounded bit of cable got stuck in the cable sleeve making breaking possible, but stopping the breaking action a bit more fiddly. This I fixed by rewinding the cable, making an aglet with some tin solder and un-denting the thing. (Maximum fatality rate :  Heart-attack or exhaustion cause by heavy peddle action due to break being stuck slightly : 5)

• One morning I was walking along with Frida in unicycle(do not try this) mode and I noticed she lagged on every rotation. I turned out that somehow the disk brake had suffered some trauma and the disk scuffed against the calliper housing making an irritating noise and causing friction a little. I park my bike outside the University a lot and perhaps some twat hit it with his bike. You never know at such places. I remedied that with bending the disk back using my chain lock.

• I also succeeded in dislocating the balljoint at the top of the frame. It is impossible to simple push this back by hand and I did not like the idea of jumping frantically in the frame in order to get it together again. Luckily I broke down in front of a hardware shop so I went in and bough me a nice crank clamp normally used for glueing things together. This baby poped that sucker back into with ease ! (Maximum fatality rate : Being impaled by either frame-ends at high speed : 9.7)

• Now this has not happened yet, But I predict it will. The Luggage rack is made of very flimsy plastic. It can only hold about 5KG and when folded the bike leans on this part. Now someday not very far from now, some (sleep)drunk student (perhaps the one that bend my brake disc) will stumble, fall and land on Frida and snap goes the luggage rack. The same probably goes for the big plastic gearwheel. which needs only 1 neatly delivered kick, and that would probably render it non functional. These items are available in aluminum and I am even thinking of getting these in advance, not waiting for my bike to be unusable for a number of days while I wait for the parts. Both items are 30 euro's a pop. (Maximum fatality rate : Death due to utter annoyance : 2.1)

Several upgrades are available, some for bling but some with real functionality and comfort encasing value. I'd like the bend handlebars that give about 10cm more clearance between knees and hands. At 30 bucks this is reasonable seeing as the kit comes with new breaking cables which obviously need to replace the old ones on account of length.

Mmm Upgrades !

Tending to Frida's fragile health

You might say that I moan and complain quite a lot about my little Frida. Why not put it on Ebay then and get rid of it ? But I do not want to get rid of it. I think It is a great little bike and an amazing design. The 500 euros I shilled out for it are, as to be expected, well spend. What I got was great value for money, mind you to the sum of 500 euros, which means that on such a product inferior components will be used.

It must be due to some scumm manager type that wanted to push the product in the market so aggressively that the quality suffered like it has. With all the new parts I would like or have already bought I perhaps spend  650 Euros and many an hour on the bike. Well, let me tell that manager tosser If the bike was 700 Euros with the proper components I would have bought it anyway. Probably most Stida users would have no problem with spending perhaps 800 or more on what remains a very functional and good concept.

Luckily I do not mind tinkering with tools and stuff, so my weekly or monthly hour of maintenance for Frida does not bother me the slightest. I normally took care of my other bikes too, albeit not that often as is required with Frida, and I find it to be fun.

I might create a section on the blog describing certain procedures in mending and upgrading a Strida called Pimp-My-Strida. Ow no, lets not do that. Although I can peddle my bike pretty quickly, I do not think I can outrun a legion of litigious Empty V (MTV) lawyers trying to sue me for brand-name infringements.

Most maintenance jobs you can do fairly easily just using the provided T-shaped In-bus key provided with the bike located under the seat and I won't be talking about those trivialities.

Conclusion

For now I'll just provide, what I think every buyer should do from the get-go when getting a Strida.

1. Get a spare belt
2. Get the anodized aluminum cogwheel
3. Get the bended steering bars
4. Replace the flimsy tires with better wider one immediately
5. Get the Aluminum luggage rack and replace the reflector with a standard rear light on batteries
6. Get at least 1 set of ceramic break pads for both wheels
7. Bolt down the rear mudflap with a nut and screw

Sooner or later you will have to do several of these anyway. If you do not like tinkering, spend the extra dough !

All other features you can get are pure luxury, but these are more or less essential. They also do up the price quite significantly, but you'll still end up with proper value for money far below the price of a Brompton or other A-class bikes and a far more practical bike then almost all other hinge based monstrosities.

See the 650(ish) euro version as the Stida as the Inventor meant it to be before some pencil neck manager type stuck his ugly nose into the business and fitted it out with sub standard rubbish to lower the price. There is a reason why a Brompton costs a whopping 1300 euros you know! You could drive of a cliff with that thing and the bike would come out relatively unscathed. There is quality engineering in that bike (it just looks and operates rubbish). 

I'm still pretty content with the freedom I have with this nifty little bike despite all the breakdowns, so I'll happily continue using it until the frame snaps or something lethal of more catastrophic happens.

Almost a Unicycle(Do not try this)

Disclaimer : I can not be held responsible for any damage or injury to real people or anthropomorphized folding bikes cause by action taken on account of content presented on this blog. Even, and this must to absolutely clear, even if you do fall down a cliff with your Brompton.