Cycling UK Forum

My Birdy is great. I miss the small fold of the Brompton I swapped for the Birdy, but I wouldn't go back to the Brompton. For one thing, it looked so geeky to me, whereas the Birdy looks cool. Shallow though that is, it makes a difference to me.

I have even gone off road with the Birdy. Nothing too drastic, but with some cheap MTB-style tyres from SVC, I tackled some bridleways. The suspension handled it nicely.

I will be touring on it in the summer. It came (secondhand) to me with front pannier carriers and a rear rack, so a light tour along the Danube in Austria will be within its capabilities, I'm sure.

cyclistjohn wrote:

ThomasDylan wrote:
I'm a Birdy owner. What's yours? Am sorely tempted by the new Strida 5 on the Dutch Strida website (http://www.strida.nl). Now, if it only had gears...

Even without gears, the 3's great fun, so I'm sure the 5'll be even better. I'm wondering when we'll be able to buy them in the UK?

Here's the forum URL:

http://stridaforum.com/forum/index.php

How do you like your Birdy then?

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. I've just ordered a Strida 3 – but now I really want/need the Strida 5. It doesn't look good though. On the FAQ's on the Strida UK site http://www.strida.co.uk/faqs/ it states:

re: strida5
as of mid-2006, the strida5 was released, primarily in asian markets. it is significantly more expensive. and even more so in the UK because of high duty and VAT. for that reason, we will continue to sell only the strida3.

In the forum some guy had to 'go behind' Strida Uk's 'back' to get his hands on a Strida 5 http://stridaforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=67&highlight=#67:

Ordered my Strida 5 from Strida NL in Amsterdam, but then got an e-mail to say that I needed permission from Strida UK, they refused so got in touch with their MD who said it was because they had no intention of selling it until their stock of Strida 3s was sold & that I couldn't buy one from NL because they (UK)could not service it or carry spares.

What do people suggest? Perhaps if enough people request the 5.0 they will start supplying.

Cheers
Shaun

Well, I got the recommended Mike Dyason track pump head and it seems fine, but I haven't fitted it yet! It came without instructions, so if anyone has one, which way are you supposed to twist it?

I'll be driving through the NL over the summer, so I'll pre-order and get the Strida from there.

Strange how the NL retailer is happy to offer both machines in parallel and not the UK one. Having said that, once you fit the extras included on the 5 onto a 3, it pretty much ends up costing the same, so I can't see many 3s being sold.

Just had a weekend in Blighty, was nice to see rain after such a while...