My Green Goblin

A stock hyperfold tikit in 2007, except for the seat post, saddle and stem

Bike Friday’s tikit has been a runaway success since it debut in early 2007. I was blessed to inherit one when a friend decided to get a newer model. (this is another long story which may or may not be told ) As it did not have all the requisite and some propprietary parts on it, I had to do some searching and a bit of of elbow grease to this bike up and running. The rear 36 hole XTR hub is laced to an Alex brand 16 x 1 3/8 24 hole rim. The front hub is a narrow 90 mm width and is laced to an 18 inch,yes 18, 28 hole no brand Taiwanese rim. On the front, the silver extension between the stem and frame is a $5.00 / 28.6 mm seat post. Just saw off the seat clamp.

For hilly rides there’s an option of an inner chain ring 39T and the usual 52T for flatter roads. As this is not the flashier ‘Speeding tikit’ model due to an absence of a FD, I’ll have to stop, find a stick and shift manually. I dug out an old suspension seat post to take out the jarring when this bike goes onto dirt roads once in a while in Thailand. The result is weird but it was a very satisfying build, esp the wheels (but not the spoke cutting AND threading) and as it’s a ‘fast folder’, what better way to travel than with my ‘free tikit’ It’s reaching 1000 kms in just over a year.

origins

Old XT short cage RD and XT 7 spd cassette

Old mtb parts never die.........

the fold is not a visual work of art, but it does get me on the trains and buses

In Sukothai, the front rack came in handy for this photo

Early 2010

Thoughts of putting on a drop bar and 11-23 cassette sometimes creep into my dreams, not for now but you never know…………

An almost perfect front end

I had a few handle bar changes on the tikit, trying to find the perfect fit. Basically a not to wide bar since I was squeezing in between traffic most times. The 6 dots in front of the bar is the Civia brand town bike trademark, and a 15 degree bend at the ends are just right for city riding. I’ve also settled on a cheapo Easton bar stem with a perfect 90 mm reach. Then a friend gave me his SRAM MRX comp (Shimano compatible) 8 speed shifters, and the rest is history , ie. super smooth crisp shifting for 2011.