Traveling with my Speed 8


Greetings,

This is a little write-up on how it's been to travel by 
plane with my Dahon Speed P8.  I hope I didn't prattle
on too much.

Some pictures can be found at 
http://jonathan.biengroup.net/sanfran_2004.html

Regards,

Jonathan Krall


Traveling with my Speed 8

So far, I've taken two plane trips, both within the
continental United States, with my Dahon Speed P8 folding
bicycle.  For a suitcase, I used the "mini jumbo"  case
that Gaerlan sells for this purpose ($75, including
shipping). 

Following instructions from the Gaerlan web site, I
practiced packing my bike before actually going anywhere. 
I also made up some instructions for my own reference.  A
copy of these is taped to the inside of my case, in case
the TSA people open my case and need help re-packing. 
These can be seen here (sans cell-phone number): 

  http://jonathan.biengroup.net/Dahon_pack_x.jpg

The first trip, a week in Hilton Head, SC, and nearby
Savannah, GA, went well. 

One hitch was that, when I unpacked my bike, the front
wheel was far enough out of true (that is, slightly
bent) to rub against the brake.  Happily my sister
Elizabeth knew something about truing wheels and, with
some prompting from her, I used my spoke wrench (part of
multi-tool that goes wherever the bike goes)  to make
the adjustments.  Basically, to correct a bent spot, one
turns the spoke-ends near the spot one direction on one
side of the wheel and the other direction on the other
side of the wheel. 

In any case, I got up and running and was able to get in
some fun riding, including a quick ride on the beach
(very wide and flat), which is quite fun, even with the
1.35-inch wide tires that come on the bike.  Downtown
Savannah also made for fun riding, as there wasn't too
much auto traffic among the historic houses and squares. 

One thing I caught onto right away was that I needed
either a larger carrying capacity or a camera that is
small and light enough to tuck into a bike-jersey
pocket.  Since I have yet to figure out how to
effectively pack my bike rack (if I ever get into
serious bike touring, I'll need to work on this), I
opted for a tiny digital camera, the Cannon SD300. 

My trip a month later to San Francisco went very
smoothly.  After my first round of plane travel, I
learned to use cable ties to control the tendency of the
bike parts to settle towards the bottom of the suitcase,
thereby adding stress.  In any case, neither wheel
needed to be trued when I got to San Francisco.  I
probably should have worked on it anyway, as the rims
are slightly bent, which seems to affect braking. 

After assembling the bike, which takes me 30-45 minutes,
I warmed up with a quick ride from my downtown hotel
(near the Moscone center), out towards Haight-Ashbury. 
Lacking a map (oops) I never quite made it, but did pass
St Mary's Cathedral, which is much bigger than it looks. 
Just in case I didn't get another chance, I got a shot
of myself and my ride in front of this landmark. 

Later in the week, using a map I found on-line, I set
out for a leisurely ride around San Francisco: from the
Embarcadero, past Fisherman's Warf, along the bike path
around Ft Mason, uphill to where the Presidio overlooks
the Golden Gate Bridge, south past the wide
pacific-ocean beaches to Golden Gate park, and through
the park towards downtown.  This turned out to be a
beautiful 25-mile ride. 

While on this ride, I took note of the little oval signs
that were placed on recommended bike routes all over
town, indicating the routes and the places they lead. 
These helped quite a bit whenever I was unsure of my
direction.  Every town should have these. 

For my third ride, I got in some hill climbing on the
streets overlooking China town.  Very fun. 

Lessons learned:

 - While on the new-camera learning curve, a lot of
shots will be lost.  While messing about with my camera
on the first ride, I accidentally switched it to "sepia"
mode (how many people are dressing up in
psuedo-19th-century garb and taking shot of themselves
with these things anyway?).  I didn't discover the
problem until halfway through my second ride.  Oops. 

 - There is a particular spot on the suitcase where the
front axle presses against the side of the case, pushing
it out just a bit.  Naturally, the case tends to get
scuffed at this spot.  This, it turns out, is a lousy
spot for a "fragile" sticker. 

 - Riding is a good way to see things I might never have
seen otherwise.  Seriously.  I'm a good driver, but am
not enthusiastic about driving (and, worse yet, trying
to park) in a congested city like SF. 

 - The maids don't seem to mind the bike in the room if
you tip them.  However, my Dahon suffered one of its
infamous spontaneous blowouts (a known problem with
these bikes, this is the third I've had in the 6 months
I've owned it) while the maid was cleaning the room and
she was worried she'd be blamed for it.  The concierge
reacted to my bike with frowns, but never objected.  So
far, 4 out of 4 hotels have put up with me and my
various bikes. 

 - Bike maps are unreliable.  The San Francisco map
indicated paved bike paths near the Presidio and through
Golden Gate park.  These turned out to be a dirt hiking
path in one case and a set of "no bike" paths (paths
clearly marked to prohibit bicycles) in the other. 
Perhaps it is the politicians who set biking policy who
are unreliable. 

 - While on the Dahon-Speed-P8 learning curve, I found
that the chain jumped off the chain ring quite often
(about once every 15 miles), often getting caught
between the chain ring and chain guard and bending the
chain guard.  This is an issue for bikes with short
chain lines (15 inches from bottom-bracket to rear hub
on this bike compared 17 inches on a typical mountain
bike) and happened so often that I used to call it my
"Mexican jumping chain" (apologies to any Mexicans who
might be reading).  After about 250 miles of riding, I
got better at avoiding shifting while under power and
bent the chain guard back into position.  I've rarely
suffered this problem since. 

The Dahon continues to be a good conversation piece,
though the comments come more from bystanders than from
people who are being outrun by a guy on a funny-looking
bike, who either ignore me or give me funny looks. 
 

--end--