FOLDING BIKE SNOB

Cambridge, MA.

While choosing my breakfast at Ottolenghi’s in London, I caught this man folding up his Strida.  It’s the first I’ve seen up close.  Strida’s are 19-22 pound rolling walking sticks that fold out into a triangular framed bike in seven seconds.

Strida’s inventor Mark Sanders came up with the design at Imperial College London, UK, when he was inspired by push-chairs to simplify folding bicycles.

They are meant to be very light, nice to push along when folded, unlike Bromptons, but not as good as other folding bikes to ride long distances.

Accordion style folder with a Toronto-style crate.

This rust free Universal must have been stored in someone’s shed for the last decade.

A cranberry cruiser in London Fields.

Freewheeler Folder on a autumnal London canal.

Ready for Londinium escape: Parked up outside a busy pub off Euston Street on a Friday night. 

In the battle for standing room on UK trains these Bromptons won.  Some days   Bromptons are ordered off for lack of room.   

So true! There is nothing quite as grounding as getting off a commuter train, racing the other folding bike commuters to unfurl, gliding past the walkers to the road, saddling up and pulling away only to faceplant because you’ve forgotten to tighten up all the screws.

Here is an early folding Dawes, a common commuter folder still today.

Reliable and robust Compact Hercules were made in the 1980s in Nottingham, England.  This one is still rocking the streets of Edinburgh.