Strida - Personal Tips, and comments
Contents
1. Stridas have been used to ride the length of New Zealand and the length of the Nile What is a much bigger factor than the bike itself is the engine who is driving it I am lucky enough to test a wide range of new folding bikes my own and other brands including bikes with 120psi 700c racing wheel tyres and along my test routes which include steep hills tracks and urban routes the only places where Strida is noticeably slower is downhill where its single speed just runs out of revs on the flat and even up all but the very steepest hills Strida is within seconds of other bikes and often faster than some The Stiff Strida frame especially in latest form is actually very responsive and climbs hills well in the saddle The key factor is the engine in this case ME I am sure fitter cyclists will be faster this would apply to all the bikes As soon as Strida gets into the environment it was designed for ie mixed mode urban trains cars and walking along corridors etc it is usually THE fastest of all The 10 20 seconds advantage it has in folding unfolding usually obliterates speed advantages of other bikes if any due to gears Throw in a few long corridors shops where other folding bikes have to be carried and Strida wins hands down Myth 3 Strida has poor ergonomics For racing and where riding at 9 10 or more is normal then getting the best aerodynamics and power stroke is important to extract the last 1 10 second2. the belt may turn the bearing momentarily which is OK The snubber works by ONLY stopping the belt rising out of the teeth under high loads most of the time it is clear of the belt To adjust the snubber gap carefully slacken the lock nut and fixing bolt v tight and then the Bearing position can be adjusted then re tighten Also see strida com web site for more info 9 For quick folds 4 sec or less just fold the frame and leave the bars and pedals out then only fold the bars in on the move I prefer the small VP220 non folding pedals narrow rounded stiff and no hassle 10 For min space weight use a back pack or shoulder bag instead of the carrier BUT you loose the neat rear stand 11 When folded and wheeling along hold the bike more vertically even with the saddle to reduce weight on the arms There is a good handhold at the front of the saddle 12 When wheeling forward is normally best but as long as pedals clear the bike can also be dragged along backwards eg drag on RHS with LH bars now on rh side for a handle Try also Drag behind by holding onto front of saddle We are all different sizes so experiment until you find the most comfortable position we all have saddles at different heights 13 Use a cheap golf equipment carrying bags as low cost wheeled airline bags 14 getting rid of squeaks and noises Damn Rodents caught in the belt here are a few suggestions 1 The side of t
3. Strida Personal Tips and comments by Mark Sanders Version3b Nov 07 these will be continuously updated Many of these tips are covered in the Strida user manual and Strida Website I recommend that the Safety tips here should be emphasised to end users A Safety Tips 1 As Steedman so eloquently says on the website e wear a helmet it s not fashionable but neither is brain damage e as on any bike avoid flared trousers while riding your strida these can get caught in the belt no wheelies no stunts 2 Although Strida is one of the most maintenance free bikes as any mechanical device Do check and tighten loose screws page 17 and any other parts that may have been accidentally damaged check these bolts every month and dont let these unscrew Tighten TOP amp Bottom seat Screws very TIGHT to avoid Bum Skirm and broken pins 4 When unclipped Never let the Front tube run forward or hyper extend as below as this ultimately damages the top ball socket this plastic part is designed to let the ball pop out in this situation to avoid breaking the ball off But if this happens always replace the 3 plastic parts with new parts lf damaged 15 15 1 socket peg replace all 3 parts Ki f 215 11 steering ball socket right 215 12 steering ball socket left 7 273 ball m i he Sy f screw i o k Y FX j a 200 01 front tube a Y ee except in emergenci
4. eer amp he wonders why the snubber bearing is placed effectively at the centre of the rear sprocket rather than at the point where the belt starts to wrap around the sprocket Answer This is a good question The mechanical engineer is theoretically correct the ideal theoretical position for the snubber would be at the at the start of the belt wrap But this would restrict the bottom tube movement when folding ie when lowering bottom tube to the ground Also did some testing and found the position of the snubber around the rear pulley made marginal difference to the effectiveness of the snubber I think this is because when belt teeth jump they ALL rise up over the pulley teeth together so a snubber position is less critical than theory suggests It certainly works 100 on Strida Interesting factoids Strida and car cam shaft belts are reinforced with Kevlar for super strength However kevlar is a weird material with a reverse co efficient of thermal expansion ie unlike most materials it gets longer as it gets colder and vice versa In the early days of the Strida didn t realise this so in the winter when I was testing early belt systems I d set up the tension perfectly in the warm workshop BUT when testing it seemed to get loose back in workshop it was OK It took a lot of head scratching to work this out Lotus cars 1st introduced snubber in the 1970 s when they were developing their 1st belt drive ca
5. es take off and clean Loose bearings in wheels take out and use bearing fit glue or self adhesive masking tape Loose BB bearings addjust Loose BB bearing outer shells in mouldings take out and use bearing fit glue or self adhesive masking tape Freewheel noises is belt too tight or use squirt in aerosol grease motorcycle spray on chain lube The only other thing if you catch the little blighters is to put them on on squewers over the BBQ C Strida Myths Myth 1 Belt drives have poor efficiency I recently met the guy from Gate coms who developed the belt for Strida and car camshafts and motor cycles he reminded me that belt toothed belt drives like strida s are used to replace chain and V belt drives as part of government energy efficiency schemes He explained that Motor cycle manufactures like Harley Davidson and Kawasaki have been using belts for years for the best life long efficiency and to be clean and maintenance free chain wear on a motor bike is a real pain and uses a lot of energy There are more losses by using hub gears and tensioners idlers on bike chain drives than when using a belt Allow the chain to get dirty or use a non aligned derailleur gear ratio and the belt wins hands down on efficiency Myth 2 Strida is slow cannot be used for long distances Although Strida is designed primarily for urban use see next myth and choosing one specifically for touring might be questionable
6. es see tip 3 below 4 Instructions for fitting tyres to plastic wheels 1 Always install a new or flat tire tube with the bike on its side ie so that the wheels are HORIZONTAL 2 Align the tire to be completely concentric with the wheel ie equal gap all round 3 Then pump up and make sure the tyre stays concentric Always do the above when tyres are flat But it is not necessary when just increasing tyre pressure Other points for Plastic wheels 1 Never use more than 65psi 4 5bar pressure on Plastic wheels warning If pumped up to 65psi in cold and then bike is left out in the sun the pressure can go up VERY high ie 80Psi and has been known to pop off which is VERY loud sounds like a gun shot The Plastic wheel is normally very strong and abuse resistant but if someone has pumped up a tyre or let a tyre expand in heat to about 100psi 6 8bar then the rim could be permanently stretched and may need renewing B General Tips 1 Push off when setting off rather than trying to just stand on the pedals For simplicity design aim Strida is single speed now fashionable amongst urban riders This means the gear is optimised for most riding situations this makes it slightly high for setting off but with a small push off this is not a problem CRE Tall Riders GY eee put saddle on as oO Y a far back as possible O BY 3 Emergency replacement of the top ball plastic pa
7. he belt can squeak against the sides of both the front pulley and the rear pulley flanges or side belt retainers this is because althought the tooth face of the belt has no rubbery material the sides do and we all Know what happens with rubber against a smooth surface to check this apply water to the belt as its temporary unlike oil and see if that stops the squeak if it does there is a choice a put up with it knowing its just the belt or b carefully applying some candle wax to ONLY the sides of the belt NOT the teeth 2 The BB moulding can sometimes squeak a bit I think some have more rodent reinforced squeaky plastic than others I have found a solution is to strip the BB down carefully clean the insides of the moulding and the tube can get debris etc especially if used in bad weather and off road Then re assemble carefully put a small amount of grease or better candle wax where the plastic meets its self BUT NOT where the plastic touches the tube Then re assemble bolts tight but not to breaking point the M6 top screws thro the tube can be tightened v tight by using a 10mm thin spanner in gap next to pulley 3 Same instructions with seat mouldings they can squeak Also make sure clamps are really tight this also avoids squirmy bum syndrome Thats about it other possible strida noises include Brake cables rattling in tubes push them in to stop this Debris in brak
8. m shaft engines which used to jump in cold Canadian mornings and wreck the engines but their snubber where crude did not have bearings and just forced the belt to stay engaged Snubbers especially with bearings are very neat because they do not touch the belt in normal use only when the belt is about to slip they allow the belt tension to be reduced and so improve efficiency and wear V3b Mark Sanders Nov 2007 Fitting Fenders with 18 wheels on a STRIDA Use a washer over the top mudguard screw so that the screws clamp at the bottom of the mudguard fixing slots rather than at the top as normal Please see picture then if necessary used a hair dryer to heat up and bend any low parts of the mud guards so that they did not rub on the tyre thats it It took under 5 mins Result Ultra close fitting ie cool looking Fenders that look almost invisible The bike still folds up OK fenders do con tact each other due to narrower tyre and magnet holds fine as
9. n ride hands off don t try this at home folks Myth 5 Strida is dangerous on impact especially to the male species Unfortunately I have tested this myth several times and thankfully remain intact again please dont try this at home Last time was when it was dark and I didn t see a very high kerb 10 25cm Another time I missed off the screw stopping front drum brake rotation see A2 above ona prototype What happens in these situations is just like on a motor bike the bike pivots about the stopped front wheel and catapults the rider UP When this has happened to me I landed on the ground luckily with minor scratches and then the bike landed on top of me good job its light Myth 6 Strida is fragile My Stridas regularly go through the checked luggage system at airports some time in an unpadded bag and sometimes naked the only precaution is I wrap an elastic bungie around the folded frame Ok I have several Stridas and so can afford to take less care than owners But with a some scratch protection eg in a bag and with say pipe insulation to protect pristine tubes there is no reason why any user shouldn t do the same The best Strida for this type of abuse is the Strida3 with GF nylon wheels as these along with hub brakes can withstand a lot of abuse which may damage conventionally spoked wheels and brakes D More FAQ s 1 Snubbers Question I Have a friend who is a good mechanical engin
10. rts should be properly replaced asap as A4 above REPLACING BALL 3 Continue until ball pops back into socket 2 Twist belt as shown which gives high tension 1 Wrap strong belt or similar around joint leather belt fits 2x Use handle eg broom 4 If magnet catch on rear wheel rattles unscrew and put a small rubber o ring between the plastic washers 5 If the brake cables rattle inside the front and rear tubes either push more of the cable into the tube from top or bottom to push cable against the inside of the tube or pull more cable out of the tube to pull the cable away from the inside of the tube 6 Keep tyre pressures high as possible ie 50 60psi for Plastic wheels and higher for metal wheels This has THE biggest effect on overall feel speed and efficiency 7 Keep belt tension as low as you can tolerate This improves efficiency and reduces wear On bikes without rear belt snubber I run the belt tension so the weight of my arm average presses the belt to approx 2 5mm of the bottom tube this means that in the wet setting off up hills the belt can occasionally pop over a tooth On bikes with a snubber the belt can have same low tension and belt will not pop 8 On bikes with a rear belt Snubber the snubber bearing should have a small gap approx 0 25mm between it and the belt So the bearing does not continuously turn with the belt occasionally high spots on
11. s The snag is the same setup advice is passed down as hearsay eg on cycling forums etc as the norm for all bicycle use which is total rubbish In town good visibility from a close handle bar upright riding position is more important than lying flat with bended back and straining neck for aerodynamics Hence the classic dutch BICYCLING POSTURE RACING ADULT MALE 50 TILE ii ILIOPSOAS MUSCLE SYMMETRICAL L FRONT VIEW as LF 12 BICYCLING POSTURE CRUISING ADULT MALE BICYCLE TOP VIEW a gt 5 75 10 75 PEDAL EA 159 f 90 TILE ISCHIAL TUBEROSITY ADJUST 245 285 ADJUST 6 8 continental bikes Many folding bikes aim to please the racing cyclist enthusiast some are even designed by racers but is this appropriate for urban use I felt not and during the stringent masters degree program from which Strida was evolved I met up with a top UK ergonomist He helped me to do tests with a fully adjustable test rig and understand the riding habits of potential users mainly urban multi model commuters in the 5 to 95 ile range from this work the upright riding position for favoured and the bent arms that taller riders like me get from being close to the bars does not matter as arms are bent when riding Myth 4 Strida has poor handling Originally the ergonomic test rigs were also used to adjust the steering axis trail etc that goes into giving a bike i
12. ts handling characteristics Also a lot of cycling books and handling theories were studied For the 1 Stridas eg Strida 1 s I followed the traditional handling theories about what makes a bike handle well and the handling was OK but NOT perfect so the myth was partially true back then At the time I put this mismatch between the traditional wisdom of bike steering geometry and the actual feel of the early bikes down to the short wheel base When Steedman bought the company he was keen to perfect the Strida And he wanted to improve its handling so he consulted all the experts in the industry and they all came up with various theories about what would improve the handling most suggested various angles and tweaks based on traditional theories and most were wrong We had a special fully adjustable test rig and so could try out the theories and other settings This was harder than expected because of the lack of Strida virgins ie the human soon learns to adapt and so familiarity with the bikes handling soon spoiled objectivity In the end we changed 2 key factors 1 we added ball bearings to the main loadbearing lower joint 2 We used the geometry settings from the rig most preferred by strida virgins The steering geometry of a Strida from Strida 2 5 is now quite different from the theories but it works For a bike with such a short wheelbase the handling is now really good a well balanced rider ca
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