riceowls

We currently enjoyed our trek t2000 so much that the idea of touring on the singles on the upcoming trips on a single rental bikes and renting quality tandems seem difficult to find. On the other hand, traveling with a regular tandem seems like a big hassle and $$$ drain for airline fees. I've been looking around and thinking about getting a "travel" tandem for the trips. I found used Bike Friday traveler tandem XL for sale and it could be a perfect fit for the 'travel tandem". Here are my questions for those who ride regular and BF tandems:
1) How difficult is it to go from a road tandem to 20" one? Will the handling be much difficult? How comfortable will BF be on 40-50 mile ride?
2) How hard it would be to unpack setup BF (say compared to SS coupled tandem) or one-piece tandem in Bike Pro case?
3) Can anyone comment on the 8x3 gearing on BF. It looks like 8 speed cassette and 3x internal hub. How smooth are the shifting vs regular system?
4) Any ideas how to "date" BF tandem bike? How to see what a fair price is? Anything too look into upon second hand purchase?

hockey

Bike friday Yak archives are available online. Lots of info..We sold our Cannondale road tandem and bought a BF family tandem. Rides well, carries loads with front and rear racks. The transmission is fantastic, but be aware that the Sram dualdrive has been discontined.
Check the serial number of the bike (bottom bracket or rear triangle). Call bike friday and they will email the original build list. The bike packs easily into two airline legal suitcases with plenty of room to spare.
We are very pleased with our purchase.

DeadGrandpa

I can comment on two or three of your questions, based on riding my own Bike Friday Pocket Llama, a folding single touring bike.
1) The 20 inch wheels are easy to ride. The handling is easy. If the bike fits, after 5 minutes you will have adapted to the 20 inch wheels. The comfort of a 50 mile ride depends on the bike fit, as with any bike. My experience is that the same route on the folding bike is about 1 mph slower than on my road bike. I've been told this is because the 20 inch wheel loses rotational momentum faster than my 29er wheels. One caveat is that the 20 inch wheels will find the bottom of every pothole or crevasse, while a large diameter tire will roll over those "divots" with little notice.
3) I have a 3 speed IGH and 9 speed cassette, and it works flawlessly. You can shift the IGH when you're stopped or pedaling, and the rear derailleur shifting is standard. I love the way mine works.
4) I don't know how to tell how old the bike is. Take a bright flashlight to look inside the tubes wherever you can see in there, probably when it is being broken down to fold. The tubing is steel and should have had a rust preventer sprayed inside the tubes wherever possible, maybe once a year. And of course, it should have been stored indoors. As to the price, I don't know. Check the Bike Friday website for current prices and assess the condition of the used one. Look at the teeth of the chain ring and cassette to see if they are worn or relatively new. Good luck.

act0fgod

We recently got ride of our Tandem Two'sday and replaced it with a coupled bike. We've only taken the coupled bike one one trip so far but took the bike friday on a half dozen.

1) As others have said you get used to it quick. At higher speeds it feels a bit twitchy. The difference in feel during rides is why we went to a coupled bike. When riding our coupled tandem on the last trip I was glad we had it vs the bikefriday. When climbing it's definitely a better ride.
2) Both the coupled bike and the bikefriday are a hassle to pack and unpack. I will say having the folding aspect of the two'sday was really nice and saved a ton of space in our tiny rooms on cruise ships. The one piece large bike box seems like it would be the easiest.
3) I don't feel like the internal hub on the shimano dual drive provides the same gearing range as a traditional triple. I'm sure the info is out there. It shifted fine.

To us the biggest drawback of the bikefriday was the twitchy and flexible feel. It was super nice to be able to fly and immediately turn the luggage into our trailer. With the coupled bike we have to figure out how to store the cases but it sure is nice to have the same ride when traveling as when we are at home.

merlinextraligh

We had a Bike Friday tandem traveler XL. We bought it to ride with our then young daughter. It was great for that purpose. We also used it a bit with 2 adults as a travel tandem. It was a bit whippy with 2 adults hammering, and did not exactly inspire confidence descending at 50 mph plus.

For 2 adults who are going to ride the bike hard, it would not be my first choice as a travel tandem.

For a bike that is flexible for different sized riders, growing kids, and occassional hard use by 2 adults as a travel bike it's not bad.

That said, I'd probably look at a Co Motion Periscope if I was doing it again now.

CliffordK

I was wondering if it was discontinued. I've seen notes on them dropping the IGH hubs, but hadn't seen that one confirmed.

Of course, my old BF Pocket Rocket has a Sachs, which may not be 100% SRAM compatible anyway.

Sturmey Archer does have a similar dual drive which should be 8/9/10 compatible.
Sturmey-Archer | CS-RK3 Silver