The Saga of the Bike Friday Silk

 Regular reader(s) of my blog may recall I briefly owned a blue Bike Friday:

I bought this bike off eBay, hoping to fix two issues with my Bike Friday Crusoe:

- I wanted a better fold, and

- I wanted more tire clearance

This BF was interesting because it was the New World Tourist front frame (a bit heavier duty than my Crusoe), but with the Silk rear end. The Silk rear end folds the bottom bracket with the rear wheel, helping to keep the chain on the chain ring and fixing the #1 aggravation of folding a Bike Friday.

But after owning this NWT for a while, it seemed like it didn't ride as well as my Crusoe. Without the titanium seatpost, it didn't have the luxurious ride. And the heavier duty frame didn't have quite the zip of the lighter gauge Crusoe.

Due to these imagined failings, I ended up trading the NWT to my online friend David for a Velo Orange Nuetrino. David is subject to the same bike buying and selling compulsion as me, so he ended up missing the VO and buying it back. And he sold the BF on to another buyer. Shortly after getting it, this buyer found that the lower wires that support the bottom bracket had failed (a fatigue failure). Being a generous sort, David bought it back, and had the frame repaired by our local framebuilder Jack at Franklin Frames. Jack replaced the too skinny wires with beefy gussets:

and David had Jack paint dark green and black, almost matching my Crusoe. Some time later, I was looking for a BF with a better fold than my Crusoe but similarly sized, and David and I reached a deal for me to buy this back again.

So now I have two Bike Fridays, both dark green, and I honestly rarely travel at all anymore. Hmm. 

My OG Crusoe:

And the NWT/Silk:

There's a lot to like about the NWT. Here's the hinged bottom bracket and seatpost for the better fold:

And the fork with the bigger tire clearance:

And the swinging dropouts, that together with the hinged bottom bracket, allow a fixed gear Bike Friday. A bike nerd's dream bike!

It's still no Brompton, but it's a better fold than the Crusoe:

But... the folding seat mast doesn't have the magic carpet ride of the titanium mast on the Crusoe. The front fork fits a fatter tire, but the handling is slower than the sharp Crusoe (I've never measured it, but the Crusoe feels pretty low trail to me). And the derailer hanger option on the swinging dropout doesn't index as well, so I just run it in friction.

Both of these bikes are about 80% of what I'd want in a folding bike. I've thought about a custom BF with the Silk rear end but the light tubing of the Crusoe and better tire clearance, but honestly I'm too cheap to make this happen. My only hope is for David to come across this unicorn bike at some point.