The weather yesterday was grim, it kept raining, and as my bike workshop is actually our back yard I didn't get to work on the Strida until today. So here is the next installment of our tale as promised.
The engineering
If I have my have my history right Mark Saunders designed the original Strida back in the 80's. Various detail changes have been made over the years and as I understand it my Mk 3.2 would have been built in the early noughties. It is a very simple design, basically a triangle, a wheel at the two bottom corners, bottom bracket bolted to the bottom tube, the entire front tube is a stem, and the steerer comes off the triangle's upper point which hinges when you fold the frame and when you steer the bike; darned clever ball and socket joint.. The wheels are plastic with conventional tubed 16" tyres, cable operated drum brakes, a normal saddle but fitted to a huge plastic clamp which has to be moved up and down the rear tube to adjust the height. It can be ridden by someone up to 6' 3" apparently and Mr Saunders is a very tall man so I'm told.
The tubes are all alloy nicely finished with a few marks and scars. This is a used bike after all. First task; go round every bolt and ensure it is torqued up. This is where the devil in the detail design starts to prod you in the bum. Many of the fasteners are dome headed allen bolts. Shallow headed little things and some of them have, imo, ridiculously small socket sizes for the amount of torque they are meant to be cinched up to. The drum brakes are a mix of inspired design and nasty nasty pressed steel components with BSO cable adjusters which probalby cost a couple of pence each. Alloy component screwing into a steel bracket. It is a recipe for electolytic corrosion and siezure. Good job I had a tin of GT85 to hand. Let me say, these faults are not the sole province of Strida's, they often afflict mid range bikes around the £500 mark. Heres' a couple of old publicity shots of a Strida for your entertainment. Battery is flat in my camera phone at present so I can't get anything real.
Will ask the nice people at Strida in the Netherlands what a completely new set of fasteners will cost me. OK, everything tightened as it should be, front brake adjuster freed off and adjusted, let's go for a ride remembering the back brake is completely u/s.
The first ride
Mentally I was prepared for the unconventional riding position. Your legs don't extend anywhere near as much as they do on a conventionally framed bike, the bars feel like they are in your lap, and you sit bolt upright. In fact, I think riding a Strida probably does wonders for your posture! Of we went, one gear only, quite easy to spin out on the slope down from my house. Steering is twitchy compared with 700c or 26" wheels but in minutes your used to it. Here comes the upslope, put some force into it, DAK!, cmon push those puppies, DAK!, DAK!. Aha! The belt is slipping under load. I'd been warned to expect this by another Strida rider on Twitter. Still fettling that is fairly simple. So change tactics, when confronted with any kind of hill spin like crazy thinking 'pedal faster not harder' and for the most part the slippage disappears. I ride on grinning like a maniac and saying 'Good morning' to every cyclist I see. The 56" gear means you aren't going anywhere fast so you seem to just kick back and relax, sit bolt upright and watch the world go by all the while grinning like a loon. Yes this is one happy making bicycle. By the time I arrive at my destination 3 miles away I'm singing and whisting and having a whale of a time. Off I hop, and the bike is folded in 15 seconds. The great joy of a Strida is, once folded, you push, or pull, it around on its own wheels. Simples.
Destination was Halfords, by the way, to buy a flourescent pink springy trouser clip thing. Today I'm wearing baggy shorts but Mon-Fri I'll be riding in normal clothes, so a trouser clip is needed. Yes I could have gone to my LBS but both of those are only a few hundred yards away and that is no test. The first ride has certainly taught me a few things, I need to move the saddle back a bit, I need the seat a little higher and, if you don't like attention from drivers, pedestrians, goggle-eyed kids, or local bike club members then don't ride a Strida. On my way back from Halfords I'm overtaken by three pre-teens whilst on the approach ramp to the footbridge that crosses our local racetrack dual carriageway the A24. We;ve all ignored the cyclists dismount signs if they exist. I can't keep up with them, due to the constant DAK! DAK! but on the other side of the bridge is a long old downhill run. God forgive me the temptation was too much! I weigh more than the three lads put together so I let gravity do its stuff, passing the first he bursts into hysterical laughter and his mate turns just as I flash past, they are pedalling and I'm freewheeling. They call to the kid in front, he looks over his shoulder and... the race is on, he's up on the pedals and I'mhunched forwards spinning as fast as I can, trying to avoid the DAK!, we come to a bend, a sharp 90 degree and I oversteer a bit as the inside pedal hits the ground, he brakes and I WIN! As I cycle off he stops and shouts "Oi mate! Cool bike!". You could not make it up.
6 mile round trip done in comfort, and I even fell brave enough to ride off a couple of kerbs. It is a perfect bike for pedestrian/cyclist shared use routes, you aren't going fast and you have your head up so can see everything
Back home I raise the saddle some more and move it back in its clamp. I may need to look for a saddle with longer rails. Adjusting the belt tension takes a little while, most of which was spent trying to find a 7mm spanner for the adjuster screw which moves the entire bottom bracket assembly forwards. Quick test ride reveals the DAK! has been banised (for now).
Tomorrow, we ride the train to work. Watch this space
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Thanks for taking an interest. Keep it clean legal decent honest and truthful and who knows I may even post it.