Designers Dilemma – Releasing his Vintage Collectable Bike Fridays to the World

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The Designers Dilemma

Vintage Bike Fridays released for New Owners

 

The designers dilemma by Alan Scholz (Bike Friday co-founder)

Like many of you, I love bicycles. And like many of you I have more than one, ok more than a couple.  OK the truth! A LOT more than a couple. With the bicycle as my muse over many years I have designed or helped design dozens of bikes at Bike Friday. When including the years at Burley Design & Nomad of Fargo I have designed hundreds of other bicycle lifestyle related items from trailers to racks from unicycles to panniers, to small & large improvements to bikes.  One of the distinct features for me of the design process is that each one is fully absorbing while I am at it. The creative process for me means designing in my head even when doing other things. Like sleeping, raking the lawn & especially while riding to work. The last couple of years working with electric assist have been great that way. Ride, test, try new, design, improve. Each new  creation is special. In a minor way they are also my children and I like knowing and seeing them.

Here in lies the dilemma.

At Bike Friday I am considered a ‘pack rat’.  I have multiple projects going on at any time and I like to see previous works as they encourage memory of the creative process in them and the results of it motivate new ideas. I have ridden all the bikes I have designed and some for a significant time and miles. I have had favorites just like you. But how many bikes can you have?! It seems I have way too many! Looking around recently I realized I would need a large museum to keep them all in. Some hadn’t been touched in years. Many were designed by Hanz, and I really can’t remember all the ones we both shared in as that was the original magic of Green Gear/ Bike Friday. Two brothers against the odds.  A Museum is not on my life list. So the bikes gradually, simply, filled a lot of space. I hate to waste them in the attic any longer. Time to make them more useful.

I am committed to all these great bikes to give them respect by finding them a good new home where they will get more attention. My wish is to offer them to the Bike Friday community first. Many of these are one of a kind, some are early models that are collectibles and are certainly vintage.  I am thinking some of you may want a piece of Bike Friday/ Green Gear history.  Each of these has a story.  If you love bicycles, stories, and your experiences with your Bike Fridays, you might enjoy a new addition to your collection. We all seem to be born with gifts and unique circumstances. It would please me to no end for you to share a piece of the rich history I have had the privileged of being instrumental in.

Best in Cycling,  Alan Scholz  – Co-founder, designer and a man who loves bicycles


These bikes are the first wave of Alan’s collection being released

Contact us at Bike Friday if one of these beauties catches your eye.

Alan’s Pocket Rocket Super Pro:

Year built 2011
Frame number 26393
Frame Size 54cm

Vintage Collectible Sale Price: $6,500

This bike is the culmination of the original Bike Friday vision and decades of experience. Here is a little of Bike Friday’s history to give you perspective.

The Scholz brothers vision of the first Bike Friday was a great riding road bike that easily traveled by air. Alan and Hanz both grew up bike racing. They had many state titles between them and Alan took 2nd in Nationals on the Road (110miles) in 1971.

This first Bike Friday bike was designed using road bike geometry from 1970’s racing bikes from the Tour De France. That meant 73 degrees parallel head and seat tubes, with longer chainstays and 700c wheels. The Scholz Brothers wanted a road bike rider to recognize the feel of a good road bike when they rode a Bike Friday. However, to accomplish the goal of a bike easy to travel by air with (fit in a standard suitcase, so no extra fees and fits through the airport easily..) required smaller wheels.

“We surprised ourselves with the first prototypes,” said Alan. “We thought the little wheels would be less efficient than larger wheels and we found the truth is much less down sides and a lot more up sides to smaller wheels! We didn’t anticipate that!” Interestingly this misconception of small wheels has been a regular question by the public for the last 27 years. One of the most common questions we get is, “Don’t you need to pedal more with those small wheels?”.

The first Bike Friday we made, we tried to make one bike that did ‘everything’. A common cyclists dream! This model was called the Sport 14 with the original Diamond frame style and it included the full package of suitcase and trailer. Unlike normal road bikes it would take cantilever brakes to open up the possibilities of riding style and terrain with tire width choices. This inspired the original Bike Friday logo of the Bike Friday pulling the suitcase trailer. The full package to travel self contained with your bike was the vision from the beginning. The first customer bike shipped in early 1993.

Within the first year we introduced the first Pocket Rocket, a road specific Bike Friday, with a Diamond Frame style. The Pocket Rocket was offered with full Shimano and Campagnolo Road Groupo choices. In 1994 one of the production team experimented with a mono tube main frame style and inspired the first mono tube main frame style Pocket Rocket. We shipped the first Pocket Rocket with this new frame style in late 1994, but kept the other Bike Friday style a Diamond Frame.

By 1999, we felt the Pocket Rocket could be improved so we made the Pocket Rocket Pro with new highly butted and shaped tubing in the frame and fork. The new frame set was lighter and more responsive with the same great-riding geometry.

In 2000, a young bike racer and engineering student at Oxford bought a red Pocket Rocket as the first bike he ever paid full price for. He raced it in local events and used it for training in several countries. He eventually moved to the USA to work for Bike Friday. His name is Rob English, now a renowned designer and frame builder. Rob and Hanz worked together to design the Bike Friday tikit. The fastest folding bike in the world, a very unique and complicated bike.

Rob English thought the Pocket Rocket Pro could be improved (lighter, stiffer, and fancier) and he teamed up with our long time tool maker Peter Kaspar to create the Pocket Rocket Super Pro. Six months after the first Super Pro, Rob and the Bike Friday Production team presented Alan with his very own Super Pro in his favorite color, Saphire Blue. Alan added some extra gold highlights to make this beautiful bike sparkle.

The Pocket Rocket, Pocket Rocket Pro and Pocket Rocket Super Pro are Bike Friday flagship bikes. After all these years there still is no one else in the world that makes a custom bike like these.

Alan has decided to let it go as he faces his ‘Designers Dilemma’ and focuses on riding new designs these days and doesn’t ride his old designs anymore. He hopes someone will really enjoy this special one of a kind bike!

– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation) interviewing my dad Alan Scholz

Special Details:

Bike Weight as shown: 15.9 lbs.
Alan’s personal Super Pro, designed by Rob English and Peter Kaspar, with extensive custom frame detailing
KCNC KR3 Headset, gold anodized headset
SRAM Red 10spd
Ciamillo Caliper Brakes
FSA SL-K Carbon Cranks
ABS Carbon Brake Levers
Gold anodized highlights throughout, including Nokon housing
Titanium seatmast to carbon seatpost
Ready for many more miles of adventure

Vintage Collectible Sale Price*: $ 6,500

*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Alan’s Yellow TiLite XL Tandem

Frame Number AL04
Size 58cm captain / 27.5in stoker
Year built 2000

Vintage Collectible Sale Price: $ 4,900

This is Alan Scholz’ personal Bike Friday TiLite XL Tandem, a ride-able collectors item with important Bike Friday history. The first XL Tandem was built in 1999 and the first Tandem “Q” was released in 2001. Alan made himself this yellow TiLite XL in between these other tandems after he had come up with the tandem “Q” design.

Hanz Scholz designed the first folding Bike Friday travel tandem in the late 1990’s called the Tandem Two’sDay. Then Alan Scholz designed the first Family Tandem after that.

Alan has always wanted to support his family, and others families, to ride bikes together as a lifestyle since he started his first bike shop in Fargo North Dakota, when he was 21 years old. Alan’s inspiration for the first Family Tandem was his 3rd daughter Sarah. He built it in time to put it under the Christmas tree for her to discover when she was 4 years old. They had many fun rides including going to school. This first Family Tandem did not fit into suitcases so two years later he cut it in half with a hacksaw and turned it into the first Family Tandem Traveler.

Several years later Alan created the XL Tandem as a light road tandem designed to race in the “Duet Classic” Tandem Stage Race. This Tandem Stage race was sponsored by Burley Design Co-operative (another bike company Alan co-founded).The Duet Classic drew tandem racers from around the world and was a great event to test the abilities of a 20 inch wheel travel tandem to match the 700c non-travel tandems – and the 20 inch wheels won several times! As we all discovered when the geometry is right, the frame is strong and light to fit the riders, it’s all about the lungs and legs, not the wheel size!

Alan then design the Tandem Q, inspired by the James Bond movies. This special Tandem could be turned into a Single bike with a few clamps and cable adjustments.

This Special Yellow Tandem, now for sale, is an XL TiLite Alan built himself and designed to make into a “Tandem Q”. However he never made the final changes – a frame cut and clamp still to be added to fully turn it into a Q. It has some of the early Sport Road Bars and unusual shifter set up that Alan likes. He has ridden it on many tours with his wife Theresa.

– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation) interviewing my dad Alan Scholz

Special Features:
Bike weight as shown: 30.5 lbs.
Has Titanium boom tubes and seat masts
Scalloped frame details done by Alan
Ultegra 6500 same-side drivetrain
Bike can be set up for 406mm or 451mm wheel sizes depending on the caliper brakes you install on it. Bike is currently set up with 406mm wheels.
Packs into 2 suitcases
Could be turned into a “Q” with a cut and a clamp.
Ready for many more miles of adventure

Vintage Collectible Sale Price*: $ 4,900

* Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Alan and Hanna’s First Air Bike:

 

Frame Number AL03
Size 56cm/Med
Built year 1999

Vintage Collectible Price: $ 3,800

This Air Friday has an interesting Scholz Family History. First built as Alan Scholz’s first Air bike he then handed it down to his daughter, me, Hanna Scholz (now Bike Friday President) to be my first Air bike.

The Bike Friday Air bikes were originally created for triathletes doing the Ironman in Hawaii. Knowing that athletes could really have their race messed up when their baggage was lost, Alan and Hanz designed a bike that could fit in an athletes carry-on luggage (the Airline regulations before 9/11 were more open). The Air Friday frame fit into a carry-on roller case and the wheels fit into cloth bags that looked like musicians cymbals. The whole package could just be walked onto the airplane and put in the overhead compartments. When 9/11 happened and the airlines tightened up their regulations, metal tubing in bike frames were no longer allowed.

This one of a kind paint job was an inspiration from my daydreaming about fun colors and wanting my bike to be super special. I spent many hours in the paint room experimenting and came up with this. There has never been another like it, as I became so busy with my growing business responsibilities, I never made it back into the paint booth. I always wanted to and fifteen years later, I still think about fun creative paint jobs sometimes.

Unfortunately the frame, originally built for Alan, was just not the right size for me and has never been comfortable to ride. The un-painted stem was an attempt at improving the fit. This unfinished work of art has been sitting in the attic for way to long so I decided someone should have some fun with this special bike! Perhaps I could be convinced to come back to the paint booth to finish the stem…
– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation)

Special Features:
Bike weight as shown: 21.7 lbs.
Ultegra cranks and rear derailleur
RSX STI shifters
Sachs 3x Dual Drive hub
Stem can be painted color of your choice. (Perhaps by me)
Can be made ready for more miles of adventure (rider needs to be 150lbs or less)

Vintage Collectible Price*: $3,800

*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan and Hanna will sign the frame before it ships to you*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Hanz’s racing Two’sday

Frame T9 (the 9th tandem Bike Friday ever built)
Size 56cm/Med captain & 29.5in stoker
Built year late 1990’s

Vintage Collectible Price: $ 6,000

This is a special ride-able collector’s bike. The Tandem Two’s Day was the first Bike Friday tandem designed in the late 1990’s. This beautiful ultra-light Tandem Two’sDay was built by Hanz Scholz to race in the “Duet Classic” Tandem Stage Race. This Tandem Stage race was sponsored by Burley Design Co-operative (another bike company Alan Scholz co-founded). The Duet Classic drew tandem racers from around the world and was a great event to test the abilities of a 20 inch wheel travel tandem to match the 700c non-travel tandems – and the 20 inch wheels won several times! As we all discovered when the geometry is right, the frame is strong and light to fit the riders, its all about the lungs and legs, not the wheel size!

This Tandem Two’s Day was an extraordinary bike that blew so many assumptions away. A custom sized tandem that folded (to fit in a car trunk) and packed into two standard Airline suitcases and was still light and could win tandem stage races against non-folding bikes with 700c wheels…….so many amazing accomplishments.
– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation) interviewing my dad Alan Scholz

Special Features:
Bike weight as shown: 31.4 lbs.
Hanz did some extra detailed finish work on the frame, its lovely
60t chainring for speed
Ultegra drivetrain and integrated shifters
Folding seat masts with the keyhole style
Packs into 2 suitcases
Can be made ready for many more miles of adventure

Vintage Collectible Price*: $ 6,000

*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Vintage Sport 14 built 1994

Frame number 215
Size 52cm / Sm
Year Built 1994

Vintage Collectible Price: $1,300

This ride-able collector’s classic was built within the first year of Bike Friday’s history. This was the bike design featured in our first big advertisement in Bicycling Magazine titled “No Joke and About Time”. The original Bike Friday “Sport 14” frame design later developed into the New World Tourist model which has become the most popular in Bike Fridays history. Founders Alan and Hanz Scholz started the Bike Friday design using classic road bike geometry (73 degree head and seat tube angles with longer chainstays) for excellent bike handling characteristics. Then they figured out how to fit it into a suitcase.

This bike includes many vintage features. The frame has dual brake mount braze-ons so it can be set up for 406mm or 451mm wheel sizes. Currently the bike has 406mm wheels. The rims themselves are hand-drilled in-house to work with the high-quality hubs. This bike has the keyhole style folding seat mast with ovalized tubing, a scalloped seat clamp, and hinges built with a multi-part construction (we changed to another design later in 1994). The chain stays are asymmetrical and the main frame down tube is offset in order to give clearance for wide chain rings when the bike is folded. Fun Fact: we often got calls from customers concerned that their bike was “crooked”. The main frame is the original diamond style – we changed to a mono tube main frame around 1995 that was inspired by an employee’s personal bike experiment.

– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation) interviewing my dad Alan Scholz

Special Features:
Bike weight as shown: 20.1 lbs.
True Temper 4130 Cromoly Frame Tubes
Hand drilled rims – as we had to make them to fit the nice hubs we wanted to use.
Adjustable Stem Riser
Cantilever Brakes for 406 wheels
Suntour Barcons
Suntour XCE drive train and hubs
Detachable Trailer hitch

Vintage Collectible Price*: $1,300

*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Vintage Sport 14  built 1993

Frame number 94
Size 54cm / Sm
Year Built 1993

Vintage Collectible Price: $1,600

This rid-able collector classic was built within the first year of Bike Fridays history. This was the bike design featured in our first big advertisement in Bicycling Magazine titled “No Joke and About Time”. The original Bike Friday “Sport 14” frame design later developed into the New World Tourist model that has become the most popular in Bike Fridays history. Founders, Alan and Hanz Scholz, started the Bike Friday design using 1970’s road bike geometry with a 73 degree parallel with road bike handling characteristics and then figured out how to fit it into a suitcase.
This bike is one of the first bikes to use frame-mounted cantilever brakes and it has one of the few seat masts built with this multi-piece construction (we changed to another design in 1994). The chain-stays are asymmetrical and the mainframe down tube is “crooked” in order to give clearance for wide chain-rings when the bike is folded. A fun fact is that we often got calls from customers concerned that their bike was “crooked”. The mainframe is the original diamond style, we changed to a mono-tube mainframe around 1995 inspired by an employees personal bike experiment.
One of the many special frame features of this bike is that the brake braze-ons are set for you to be able to swap between a 406 and 451 wheel sets. Currently, the bike has 406mm wheels.

Special Features:
Adjustable stem
Adjustable cantilever brakes for 451 or 406 wheels
Suntour group-set
Stronglight chain-rings
Hand drilled rims – as we had to make our own to fit the nice hubs on the market then
Special rear rack with quick release connection to seat-mast – we only made a few of these

Vintage Collectible Price*: $1,600

*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna


Vintage New World Tourist built 1995

Frame number 629
Size 55cm / Med
Year Built 1996 – one of the last original Diamond Frame New World Tourists before we changed to the mono-tube main frame as standard.

Vintage Collectible Price: $1,450

This ride-able collector classic was built in the   mid-’90s with Bike Friday custom hand-drilled rims. It has keyhole style folding seat mast with ovalized tubing and a scalloped seat clamp. The Diamond style mainframe was the original New World Tourist design. This bike also has the original right folding rear end that allows for a more compact fold. We changed that design to left fold in the late 1990s to allow for clearance for a wider range in drive chains options…
Founders, Alan and Hanz Scholz, started the Bike Friday design using 1970’s road bike geometry with a 73 degree parallel with road bike handling characteristics and then figured out how to fit it into a suitcase (make the wheels smaller!)
One of the many special frame features of this bike is that the bike can be set up for 406mm or 451mm wheel sizes depending on the caliper brakes you install on it. Currently, the bike is set up with 406mm wheels.

– History written by Hanna Scholz (second generation) interviewing my dad Alan Scholz

Special Features:
Hand drilled rims – as we had to make them to fit the nice hubs we wanted to use.
Suntour XCE 3×7 group-set (21spds)
Trailer hitch
Front Rack braze-ons – One of the first Bike Fridays to take a front rack

Vintage Collectible Price*: $1,450
*Sold as is, this frame no longer includes frame warranty
*Alan will sign the frame before it ships to you
*Includes Certificate of Authenticity and Letter of Provenance signed by Alan and Hanna

———————————————————————————–

See a special beauty that catches your eye? Contact us and we will start working on the adoption papers.

 

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12 Responses

  1. Ahhh….don’t sell them. Make big frames and mount them on the walls in your building. That’s priceless history you will never get back.

  2. I get two sentences into this and the name that pops into my mind is Skip Hunt, who I’d not thought of for years, and I wonder if this is simply from mention of Nomad or is it because you mentioned unicycles, so am I remembering a unicycle in the front window at Nomad, or hanging on the wall (and if so, it had never occurred to me that y’all would have built the unicycle)? Skip Hunt built dulcimers and I think his place was across the street from Nomad, more or less, so maybe if you looked out the front window you’d see both a unicycle and Skip’s shop? Memory is a strange thing.

  3. I’d love to own Hanz’ signature Twin Air tandem – having flown it in its single suitcase to the 5 boro bike tour in NYC way back in 2003 – but unfortunately my captain prefers his Bacchetta Aero recumbent!

  4. Hi there!
    I have a 1999 pocket rocket, freshly tuned up and in perfect condition. I will be selling it online but curious to know if you guys would want to purchase from me, as it looks like you sell them as well. Let me know what you think!

    1. Rebecca, we don’t buy bikes back, but we do take trade-ins for new bike orders. So unless you want a new Bike Friday to replace to old one, we don’t have what you’re looking for. However, there is our Facebook group and our forum (yak.bikefriday.com) that would be a good place to post an ad. Good luck!

  5. So cool to see these!
    I do have some to add on the history of some of these bikes here.
    Hanz built that first tandem in ’93 or ’94 (no later), for me and him to race in the Burley Duet as I had been working with them on the first full on racing Bike Friday prior and they had built me the first Pocket Racer (silver with diamond front) with a mix of Dura Ace and Ultegra STI.
    I had moved from 700c to 26″ on my Tri bikes and contacted Alan and Hans about building a purpose built race version of the Bike Friday. The red /yellow Sport 14 pictured was sent to me to try out and take notes for revisions. I did everything from centuries to TTs on that bike in less than a month and was hooked!
    When I arrived in Eugene just prior to the Duet Classic, Hans had just completed the bike except for the stems and powder coat (originally silver) which was all completed within 48 hours of Race Day 1. While I was there, I visited the home of J-Disc downtown and they made a one off mirrored silver J-disc for us to use in the time trial stage later in the week.
    It was a grueling race, but the tandem was awesome and an instant hit.
    I went on to successfully race my prototype Pocket Racer in triathlons, biathlon and road races for several years.
    *side note: while I was there Hans gave me a track frame that he had built and riden to championship but had been hanging in the rafters. He helped me to media blast and powdercoat it when we got it down and apply a fresh set of ATP/GG stickers to it. It had a triple triangle design similar to what GT bikes of the era had and 700c wheels.

    Glad to see that you’ve continued with the brand your dad and uncle created.
    Best Wishes!

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