An Introduction To My New Bike Friday Folding Bike

April 23, 2008 by Darren Alff

My new Bike Friday folding bike arrived in the mail yesterday and I immediately whipped it out of the box and started putting it together.

It took me about a half hour to get the bike out of its suitcase, read all the instructions, put it together, and get it out the door for my very first ride!

My new bike is a Bike Friday New World Tourist, and my plan is to use this bike for my upcoming trip to Aruba.

I leave for Aruba in just two days, so I haven’t had a lot of time to experiment with the bike and really get a feel for it, but I absolutely love it thus far.

I went out on my second ride with the bike today… and later tonight I will package the bike back up and put it inside its suitcase in preparation for my flight to Aruba.

I want to show you how the bike folds down and fits inside its suitcase, but I’ll do that a bit later. In the meantime, I produced a short little video from my spin around town today.

You will note that in the video I am carrying a pannier on the back of the bike. This is not a normal pannier though. It is a Lone Peak briefcase/pannier… and it is the one and only bag I will be taking with me on my trip to Aruba. It looks like a normal pannier, but it also unclips from the bike and acts like a normal briefcase/messenger bag that you can throw over your shoulder or carry in your hand. You can get one here.