Bike Friday is a brand of folding bicycle

Folding bicycle

A folding bicycle is a bicycle designed to fold into a compact form, facilitating transport and storage. When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings and workplaces or onto public transportation or more easily stored in compact living quarters or aboard a car, boat or plane...

 made by Green Gear Cycling of Eugene, Oregon

Eugene, Oregon

Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...

, United States. Cyclists often refer informally to the company as Bike Friday.

Hardware

The Bike Friday emphasizes riding characteristics rather than foldability. It packs into a suitcase and "rides like your best bike" according to Ed Pavelka, former senior editor of Bicycling

Bicycling (magazine)

Bicycling is a cycling magazine published by Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. It features bikes, bike gear, equipment reviews, training plans, bike maintenance how-tos, and more for cyclists of all levels.-Origin:...

magazine. The company's co-founders and designers hail from a racing background, rather than a traditional engineering background. The company history says they sought to invent a packable bicycle that rode well over serious distances, loaded or unloaded, to save airline baggage fees

Checked baggage

Checked baggage refers to items of luggage delivered to an airline or train for transportation in the hold of an aircraft or baggage car of a passenger train, which means it is inaccessible to the passenger during the flight/ride....

.
The range includes tandem

Tandem bicycle

The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement , not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side-by-side is called a sociable.-History:Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the late 19th...

s, triplets, road

Road bicycle

The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle...

, mountain

Mountain bike

A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...

 and touring

Touring bicycle

A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase , frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity , heavy duty wheels , and...

 models, a recumbent

Recumbent bicycle

A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Most recumbent riders choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons; the rider's weight is distributed comfortably over a larger area, supported by back and buttocks...

, and a tandem that breaks apart and becomes a single bike. Each fits into one or two towable standard suitcases.

Opinions

Cyclists owning a Bike Friday include broadcaster Phil Liggett

Phil Liggett

Phil Liggett, MBE is a British commentator and journalist who covers professional cycling. He currently commentates on the Tour de France and bike races for Versus, ITV and SBS...

, Race Across America

Race Across America

The Race Across America, or RAAM, is an ultra marathon bicycle race across the United States that started in 1982 as the Great American Bike Race....

 champ Lon Haldeman, and Heinz Stücke. The Folding Society's Buyer's Guide describes it as: "A high performance bike that folds. The sales pitch is that it rides as well as your best bike (aiming it by implication at the existing cycling enthusiast who feels a need for a folder), and this is quite a fair description.... Folding is not as easy as some of the others, and it is rather bulky when folded." Other member reports at the Folding Society seem to concur, both that it "really is a very good high performance bicycle," but that it "isn't the most convenient or easiest folder."

The same company's Tikit

Tikit

The tikit is a 16-inch wheel folding bicycle with an unusually fast folding mechanism that can be folded/unfolded in less than five seconds. The tikit is manufactured in the USA by Bike Friday.-Specifications:...

bike addresses the market segment more interested in a convenient, easy fold and less interested in high performance.

External links

• Green Gear Cycling, Inc. (official website)