Over the last two years I've been using my Pocket Rocket for Bay Area Century rides. It has turned out to be an outstanding Century rider. It's also rare as the San Francisco region tends to attract the latest (most expensive) carbon fiber wonder bikes. My Purple Pocket Rocket has been the only folder on the Tour de Menlo, Sequoia Century, Tour de Cure and other rides about the beautiful coast range near San Francisco. I have one other bike — a SOMA (56 cm) equipped with very low gears and good for some of our 15 percent (plus) hills, but the Pocket Rocket continues to give the best combination of great comfort, excellent ride characteristics and the incredible ability to fold up and fit nearly anywhere. I've upgraded the Rocket a bit — changing the Tiagra triple crank to a compact, upgrading the brakes (the stock Tiagra were pretty good, not much difference) and when touring using an 11 x 32 cassette. However, most of the time I stick with the Capreo gearing (with the compact crank) which is fine up to about 9 percent grades. [Note: The Capreo hub cannot be fitted with a different cassette so Bike Friday supplied me with a new wheel / hub — very inexpensive and well worth it for touring] Perhaps the best part of the Bike Friday experience was the personal fitting. No matter what I ride NOTHING fits me as well as my Purple Pocket Rocket. The relationship between seat / pedals and bar is simply … perfect. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? In a heart beat!

I purchased a BF several years ago to travel to Europe, upon my return I began using the Tourist for daily use. This year while training for a competition, I needed to lose weight quickly so I loaded the BF with front and rear panniers and put weights in and biked to work. The bike was very heavy (25 lbs in EACH pannier) but the handling remained super stable due in part to the small wheels but also the quality of the frame. I highly recommend this bike not only for daily commute but for heavy loaded touring. Awesome bike but I will part with it soon because I will upgrade to a Rolhoff Lama!

Regards,

Peter from Montreal.

Yes, that Carley Simon song, Anticipation, a 1971 hit, is how I was feeling about my Tikit since I ordered it in February, then decided to upgrade it while it was being built.  At last, we settled on the final components, then off it was shipped on April 22nd. ANTICIPATION since then and even since February.  As the days dragged on , I kept looking at the FedEx website to track the shipment.  Finally it arrived in Connecticut this morning, so I was Anticipating it every few minutes I’d look out the window for the FedEx guy.  Nobody came.  I kept looking at my iPhone to see if there was more detail in the tracking.  At one point it said Package Delivered.  I said to myself they must do the paperwork in advance because I didn’t hear the FedEx guy/gal.  I opened the front door.  There it was. 

Ohboyohboyohboy.  I’m 67 years old but I was like a little kid.  I knew I better open it, read the instructions, go slow, because so many times I’ve messed up brand new stuff in my haste.  I opened up the suitcase and there it was in all its glory.  I looked at the manual, then spotted the DVD.  I figured I’ll look at the DVD and see if it gives me enough info to get started.

I’d play little sections of it making sure that I was doing stuff right all along.  I’d rewind a little, look it over a little.  Within an hour I was out riding.  And folding and unfolding my
Tikit.

What a work of art, really.  Within five minutes of my getting on it someone remarked, nice bike!!!!.  But the real fun was folding and bringing it into stores.  Yeah, there’s nothing like that feeling.  No locks no chains, no nothing, just me and my bike and all the conversation that follows.

I’d like to thank the entire Bike Friday staff for making this a very sweeeeet day.  I look forward to many many rides, tossing it into the back of our SUV from time to time, without all the hassle of the taking off the front tire of my roadie.

It seems to have a lot of range in the gearing, more so than the one I traded in, New World Tourister.

Thanks to all, very much.

God’s peace to all,
Deacon Mike Oles