Fixing a Bike Friday flaw

  

I’m the owner of a Bike Friday New World Tourist and have overall been really pleased with it but there was a nagging problem when it came down to the fold: the steerer mast would get stuck. This only happens when the quick release is cranked down to proper tightness so I initially kept it intentionally loose but this had the undesirable side effect of adding play (like that of a loose headset).

I took the bike into Velo-Sport in Berkeley since they’re a Bike Friday dealer but they were utterly useless in offering any help. They charged me $15 for looking at the bike and offered the advice to just deal with it.

Unsatisfied, I got on the horn with Bike Friday in Eugene and explained the problem. The tech I spoke to seemed to be all too familiar with the issue and made it seem like they’ve been dealing with it for as long as they’ve existed. His advice, and ultimately the solution, was to file away the threading on the fork’s steer tube. This is done by Bike Friday before the bike leaves but apparently mine was not filed enough. Filing the front and back third circumference of the threading is sufficient but filing away all of it is fine also.

I’m looking forward to foregoing the embarrassment of wrestling the mast loose to fold the bike up. People would ask me, “Is it always this difficult?”. Doh! Well, won’t be difficult anymore.

12.Jan.10 Folding Bike