Bike Friday Folding Bikes

Folding bikes: To many people, the mere concept seems bizzare. Images of futuristic, palm-sized bikes that can fit in your pocket and cartoonish scenarios of bikes folding up as they are being ridden crop into our heads at the mere mention of folding bicycles. However, Bike Friday, a company in Oregon, has been quietly making some of the nicest folding bikes in the world for a while now; bikes that are so well-built, sturdy, and downright normal-riding that you forget they're, well, weird-looking. The New World Tourist is a typical example. Its 20-inch wheels and compact frame seem a long way away from the seat and handlebars, which are perched precariously atop implausibly thin tubes. But it works. In fact, it works so well that a lot of folks forget that they're on a compact, foldable bike. These bicycles are ideal for traveling. The New World Tourist folds to fit in a standard Samsonite hardside suitcase--not included in the base price--and is offered with a variety of different component packages. The base model features solid components, including niceties such as a Sachs 3x7 rear hub and a flat, mountain bike handlebar. It accepts tire widths from 1 inch all the way up to 1.75 inches and has some very sturdy Tektro linear-pull brakes. The New World Tourist will accommodate riders from 4 feet 6 inches to a towering 6 feet 8 inches tall, and every model is custom built to fit the customer. This is a tremendously versatile--and unusual--bicycle that's fun to ride and performs as well as many other traditional models.