Lightning Review: Strida 5.0 Foldable Bike
The Gadget: Strida’s 5.0 Foldable Bike. The Price: From $799 for the standard colours (white, red, brushed silver, matte black, yellow, pink, orange and dark blue). A limited edition cream model is available for $899. You can also add a whole heap of optional extras, like a kickstand ($30), LED headlight ($40), saddle bag ($35), water bottle bag ($30), rear top bag ($50) and a bike bag ($100).
The Verdict: Folding bikes are only going to get more and more common as fuel prices continue to increase and people from the outer suburbs try and find alternative ways to get to the city. At the moment in Sydney, if you want to take a full-sized bike on the train with you during peak hour, you need to buy it a child’s ticket. The Strida 5.0 folds up nicely so you can cram it between your legs and not have it take up too much room on public transport.
The first thing you notice is that it’s built extremely well. It weighs about 9kg, which can get a bit heavy after a while, but at least you can still wheel it around like a stroller when it’s folded up to take a lot of the weight off. Folding and unfolding it is incredibly simple, but does take a little bit of practice to be able to do it efficiently – Strida claims it can be done in six seconds, but it generally took me between 10 and 15, even after two weeks practice.
One of the great aspects of the Strida 5.0 is that when you want to take it on a train, you can easily sit on it, which takes up even less space and gives you a place to sit on crowded trains. It can get a bit uncomfortable after a while though, be careful if your hemorrhoids are flaring up.
Riding the bike itself is a mixed bag. For one, there’s no gear system, so you won’t want to be using this for gruelling hills or difficult rides unless you like the fact that your legs feel like jelly and your business shirt is soaked with sweat. But the biggest problem is the weight distribution – the design of the bike means that when you’re riding, most of the weight sits entirely over the rear wheel. This causes big problems when you need to put in that extra effort on hills – every time I tried to exert myself by standing up to pedal, the front wheel actually came off the ground and I almost had a very intimate date with the pavement. you can counteract this by leaning (occasionally obscenely) further forward than you would on a normal bike, but it takes a lot of getting used to.
You would never use this as a recreational bike. But that’s not what it’s for, really. It’s an urban transport vehicle, meant to help you navigate through the city or supplement public transport. With that in mind it does a really good job, so long as you can a) afford it and b) get used to its quirks.
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Comments
The price is the killer here..
Priced below $500 it would get more people seriously looking at it.. Below $200 and they’ll be everywhere.
Is it a belt drive or chain??
The wheels look like a good compromise between compactness and being able to get over small bumps..
Can we get a video of you riding this Nick? Pleeeeeeeeease?
Dont compare strida to those common ‘fold in half’ Jobs – those are a real pain to carry.
My Strida is one of my favourite things – its well made, strong and light and folds in like 2 seconds !! And then its party piece – you wheel it along – nearest thing to an umbrella you can ride on !
It rides amazingly well for a single speed and because its strong and stiff it takes most hills pretty well – just not that fast coming down them, as your legs run out of revs. I get the impression that the reviewer may be too small for it and would prefer a traditional bike ?
Warning though – this bike is not for the shy – it looks so distinctive I get stopped everywhere by people asking me about it.
cool looking – i’d probably go for a classic foldable though, with a few gears
I’m 60 and haven.t owned a bike since I was 15. I’m holidaying in France. I took shelter from rain in an arcade with a bike shop, saw this strange bike and an hour later was ridng full-lock turns in the park with my new toy, soaking wet and loving every minute. The bike is very responsive and creates confidence because you can stop quickly and change direction in a flash. Amazingly the little wheels didn’t catch in the tram tracks either. I made a video of the store owner folding and unfolding the bike, an operation which took a while to get the hang of. I can now do it in about 15 seconds. This is how I will explore the sights of Bordeaux, and it will go on the plane with me back to Australia, in the padded travel bag. This looks like being a great travel companion when on holiday, and should be good to duck down to the shops or to take a weekend pedal through a country town. Two of these will fit in the boot of the smallest car.
This bicycle is exceedingly difficult to ride. However, the bigger problem is that Strida through their US distributor Areaware does not offer any refund. Here is their policy.
“Any bike received damaged must be reported immediately. It will be replaced by the factory if it is returned in its original packing and has not been ridden. If the bike has not been ridden and is in original packaging and customer simply changes their mind, there will be a 30% restocking fee plus any shipping and handling charges. If the bike has been ridden it may not be returned. Authorizations must be received from the factory prior to return.”
This means for all intents and purposes, there is not return policy. Secondly, in addition to being deceptive, Areaware is extremely insulting to its “customers.” I was told that they hoped I would “enjoy my purchase.” Nine months later it sits in its packaging in my garage. This is an experimental bike, they need to have a fair return policy. This bike I have has been ridden around the block. That is it.