jack_steady

Hi,

I'm looking at this Bike Friday NWT...seller is not the original owner and the bike is from around 2005. Shimano 105 shifters. Tiagra rear derailleur. Tektro brakes. Bike Friday crankset.

The asking price is a bit too much ($995) IMO for how old the bike is..what do you guys think? Otherwise, the bike looks pretty clean.

Thanks

Unable to post the link here :/

Tourist in MSN

The people on the folding bike forum would have better opinions. Most bike touring folks here do not use folders.
https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bikes/

fietsbob

Expect its between you and the seller.. Some list through Yak yak@bikefriday.com

And

FWIW the company Resells them refurbished .. https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/adverts


so keep looking ..

AusTexMurf

I paid close to $2500 shipped for my triple Family Traveller Bike Friday about 4 years ago.
It was a custom build and less than half the price of a new one.
It has served us well and I expect to be able to sell it to the right buyer w/o much loss.
I will just need to wait for that right buyer.
Ours came from Maine, sent to Texas.
It was my youngest two kids daily ride to school and longer rides around town for a couple of years. Ages 8 1/2 and 10 1/2 now.
We still take it out on social and longer road rides but they are good on their own bikes up to about 30 miles now as long as not on high speed roads or highways.

Bike Fridays are very well designed machines and worth their cost, IMO.
Our triple is very adjustable for different size riders and has nice racks front and rear.
Uphill isn't the most fun, but this thing flies on level ground and downhll. Strong riders can really get the triple going.

L134 

My take on something like this is that if I have a fairly immediate need (e.g., a planned trip in near future to take the bike on), the bike fits and works etc., look at what you’d pay for a new one, consider what your other options are or are likely to be in the required time frame and go from there. If there is no time pressure I would probably wait but if there is a time pressure and it fills the need, pay up and forget about it. I paid around $900 for one several years ago specifically for a planned tour. I probably over paid and sort of knew it but I had a great trip and plenty of other travel with the bike since so who cares if I paid 2 or 3 hundred too much? There is usually a lot of time that goes into finding those great deals. There are also usually a few listed on ebay at any given time. See what people are asking there.

riceowls

You can search over Craigslist Nationwide with searchtempest to gauge the prices. Is the case or trailer included? If not perhaps you can try negotiate the price down a bit. But I never saw NWT for less than $500-600 when I was looking for one. I ended up with a full size travel bike (breakaway frame) but we have BF twosdays tandem and it is awesome for traveling and very well engineered.

indyfabz

I bought one in the early 2000s or so when I had to start doing a bike-train-bike commute to another state. The idea was that if the weather turned bad in the middle of the day I could possibly get a ride from the office back to the train station or even back to town. I know people do it, but I cannot imagine ever doing fully loaded touring on an NWT. I found the ride harsh. I also found it flexy, with that long stem. The absence of a top tube is also annoying. And the thought of descending a long mountain pass on the thing gives me the heebie jeebies. It sits in my basement and only comes out when I need a backup commuter/errand bike.

fietsbob

I like the step thru nature,, and have a front pannier set on ,, most all the time Pocket Llama.

german IGH, disc brakes dynamo hub.. my foul weather-rain favorite

paid more.. almost new , a BTO refusenik (ordering customer did not like the color)







....

axolotl

indy, thousands of very satisfied NWT owners, including me, disagree. I've toured lots on my NWT and my new NWT Lite. I've gone down (and up!) mountains in North America, South America, Europe, & Asia on my Bike Friday. And I've never had to pay any of those outrageous airline bicycle fees since it packs into a regular suitcase.

indyfabz

I'm sure they do.

L134 

The touring I’ve done with the NWT has been motel to motel so not exactly fully loaded. Not necessarily a first choice for a bike but a nice niche solution. I also used it as a commuter for a couple years - no lockup location that satisfied me and office too small for a non-folder. Folded and unfolded the bike everyday. It did the job.

Handling is a bit twitchy at first but I find I get used to it quickly enough. Did some descents of over 10% in Austria in March. Narrow, windy, unfamiliar roads were the limiting factor for me, not the NWT. Would rather have been on a non-folder but without the NWT I wouldn't have been doing any riding. It does a competent if not exciting job.

qclabrat

900 doesn't sound bad, I bought a used Llama for about the same a few years ago before I passed it on to my brother.
Ended up replacing it with a lighter Airnamal Joey which suited my needs better.