Friday Van Winkle?

[ornoth_cycling]

I know it’s been a while since I posted here. Truthfully, there’s been absolutely nothing to say, because I haven’t touched a bike since the first week in January. Yeah, I haven’t rode a mile in over four months; that’s the longest I’ve been off the bike since I started keeping records eight years ago.

Why? Work assigned me to a project in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. What’s that you ask? I spent most of the winter on a tropical island and didn’t do any biking? Nope. The roads are too busy, too narrow, and the drivers are insane. Yeah. It’s bad enough that even I won’t ride, and I’ve ridden in traffic through the Interstate 93 tunnel into Boston!

But this week I’ve got three items to tell you about: me, my city, and my bike.

First, me. While in Boston this past weekend, I managed an 8-mile ride, in the rain. I’ll get to the “why” of that in a second, but the first thing I need to say is: Ouch! I rode Beacon Street out to Coolidge, then up and over Summit Ave, across to Western Ave, and back via the Charles River bike path, and I’ve lost any pretense that I’ve retained any of my fitness. After the big hill on Summit Ave, both right and left calves cramped up pretty fierce. So once I get home from St. Thomas, I’m going to have a lot of stratching to do and base miles to ride to regain my prior fitness level, while simultaneously being extra careful to ramp up gradually. Ugh.

Next: my city. The DCR closed the Paul Dudley White (aka Charles River) bike path from the BU Bridge to Western Avenue for resurfacing back in October, and I rode the new surface for the first time this weekend. Basically, it looks like little more than a quick paving job. The surface is nice, but the narrow areas remain narrow, and the enhancements to the path were mostly just the addition of root barriers. I’m grateful for the paving, because it was desperately needed, but I think more could have been done. Still, it’s one of my main routes out of town, so I’m pleased.

Finally, and most importantly: the bike. Back in March I ordered a third bike for my stable: a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket. That’s a custom-built folding bike for travel that’s designed to mimick a traditional road bike. It finally arrived, and that’s why I rode this weekend, despite the rain, the cramps, and the fact that I was only home for a precious couple days.

The Friday came packed in its own suitcase, which turns into a trailer once you’ve got the bike out. I didn’t test the trailer, but it looks like it should work nicely. The only real complaint I have about the whole package is that they shipped me a black suitcase, rather than the blue one I ordered, but it looks like they’re going to rectify that post-haste.

Unpacking the bike was something of an adventure. It wasn’t difficult, but it took a bit of time to get the three-dimensional puzzle assembled and properly adjusted. It’s not designed for quick folding, like you would need for a daily multi-modal commuting bike; instead, it’s intended primarily for airline trips and long vacations, where you can take fifteen minutes to put together a bike that you’ll use on a week-long trip to, say, St. Thomas or Grand Cayman or Las Vegas or Seaside, Oregon.

I managed to get the thing put together in reasonably sort order. Not that there weren’t a couple glitches along the way. The rear wheel seems a little bit out of true, which I’ll have to look at more closely next time I’m home. The brakes needed a bit of adjustment, both the barrel adjuster as well as the left/right balance. And I’m a little annoyed that the seatpost isn’t one that remembers the front/rear angle of the seat, so that’ll require adjustment each time I unpack the bike. But overall, I was able to get the thing out of the suitcase—and, equally importantly, back into it—successfully in a reasonable amount of time.

The ride? I think it’s a little better than one might expect of a bike with 20-inch tires. It did a pretty admirable job of being rideable. The compact crankset has a good gear range, with sufficient granny to get me up Summit Ave with no complaints.

The steering isn’t quite as stable as a road bike, but that’s to be expected, since the 20-inch wheels generate less gyroscopic stability. Similarly, since the back wheel is lighter than the usual 700C, it was pretty easy for me to unload the rear and slip the wheel while climbing on a steep, wet roadway. The smaller wheels are, as you’d expect, more easily diverted by parallel-angled grates and expansion joints, and transmit more road chatter than larger wheels, but the latter effect is dampened by a lot of flex in the stem and seatpost.

I’m not much of a fan of the (split) handlebars. They don’t feel real secure in the stem mount, and the drops don’t feel very natural at all. I’ll have to experiment some more with the angle to find the right compromise between comfort in the drops versus on the hoods.

Oh, and one final thing that’s patently obvious but you might not think about. With no top tube, you can’t lean the bike against your thigh when standing at stops, nor can you grab the top tube to carry the bike down stairs or through doors. Bit awkward, that.

Naturally, I’m also curious about how the bike will feel during longer rides of 50k, 100k, or 200k, but time will have to provide the answer to that question.

But all of that is nit-picking. My overall impression is that the Friday’s a fine bike, and will play the role of a packable travel bike quite well. And I’m only eight miles into what will hopefully be a long and memorable partnership with this bike that will accompany me to all kinds of distant places, and keep me riding and fit on assignments like this recent five-month stint in St. Thomas, where I would never be able to ride if I didn’t bring along the Bike Friday.