The other day, I looked at a new bike from the kids over at Bike Friday, the Tikit.
Well, I have been looking around and found some interesting bits of information.
First off, how about weight. Other bikes at Bike Friday (at least the small ones) seem to be around 20 to 25 pounds. Other folding bikes I have found online start around 25 to 30 pounds. This bike, it looks to be somewhere in the 22 to 24 pound range.
How much is that, really? Go to the store, pick up a gallon of milk (maybe you should go back and get a hand basket first, I’ll wait). Put that gallon of milk in the basket, now pick up another gallon of milk and put in the basket (aren’t you glad you got that basket). Now, pick up a half-gallon of milk and put in the basket. If you have skim milk, you are around 20 pounds, and if you have whole milk, then you are around 25 pounds.
That’s it. That is the weight of this bike.
When it comes to size, it seems I made a grave mistake. I was basing the size of this bike from the tires, which I thought was 20″ wheels, but seems instead to be 16″ wheels. That makes all of the difference.
With the wheels being 16″, that would put the folded length something about 3 feet long. That also would put the folded height to be about 2 feet tall. I still can’t make out too much about the width of it folded, but it is probably only about 2 feet at most.
Originally, I though this meant that other bikes folded smaller, but I would be incorrect. The other bikes, like the example below, can fold to about the same size, but most of them require unscrewing components and folding over main support pieces.
Here is an example:
Here is the full bike in all of it’s glory.
If you look, you see the the main frame tube, has a hinge in it, just in front of the pedals.
Now if we look again at the Tikit.
I couldn’t find a picture of the Tikit unfolded, but here is another of their bikes, the Pocket Rocket (insert joke here).
And look at the folded bike here.
Now, for this bike, much like the Pocket Rocket, the frame meets the seat stays and chain stays (the two arms that meet at the back wheel), just in front of the pedals. This is also where the bike folds. This means that the bike does not reduce the strength of the frame so it can fold, but rather moves the point where the stays and the frame connect to make, what I think, a more durable frame.
So, we have a bike that is as light, if not lighter than other folding bikes, can fold as small as the best of them, and does all of this without having to “break” the frame to make it fold. That’s sweet.
Maybe the name should have been makea, chInI kA, or Kamaniya; which are finnish, hindi, and pali for sweet.
Whatever, sweet!
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