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IT ALL STARTED BACK IN 1992, when Hanz Scholz set off to the land Downunder with the first prototype Bike Friday, and the rest is history.
Now, on the 13th anniversary of the world's leading performance travel bicycle, the Scholz Bros look back and salute the Classic Friday.
Why a diamond frame? "You couldn't get large diameter thin walled tubes in those days - the diamond frame was needed for strength," says Hanz. The single monotube design came later, around 1994, but many owners of the original design just love them. Here's a selection of happy Classic Friday owners.
The original diamond frame Bike Friday was called a Companion. It folded, went into a suitcase, and rode better than any other folding bike on the market. That wasn't too hard to do at the time, says Hanz.
WHAT DO YOU DO ON A CLASSIC FRIDAY? Pretty extreme things, it seems. Extreme bike/climber/kayaker/marathoner/adventure sports champ Peter Marsh hits the lowest point in the western world, Badwater (-280 feet) in Death Valley with his classic diamond frame New World Tourist, of an early nineties vintage. Check out his medals: www.sea-to-summit.net
 BIKE FRIDAY PRE-HISTORY by Paul Moore, Eugene OR Paul is credited with coming up with the names "Green Gear Cycling" and "Bike Friday". "We really appreciate the part he played in birthing Bike Friday," says Alan Scholz. "Paul is well qualified to be one of the pre-eminent "Bike Friday Historians!" Paul is pictured here in red with Alan at the GEARS Annual Daffodil Ride. You may from time to time hear from Bike Friday owners who claim to have a bike that pre-dates Hanz's 1992 trip to New Zealand. There's a good chance that they do. |
Hanz built a prototype Bike Friday diamond frame bike but took it over to Burley Design in early 1991. That bike only had a few hundred miles of riding on it by the time the bare frame went up on the wall at the factory. It was white originally, but I believe it was painted pink before it went on the wall. Good chance that it is still around somewhere.
Hanz built the second Bike Friday diamond prototype in late June or early July, 1991. That one is black and was for me to ride so that I could get acquainted, start the marketing and come up with a name. (The early marketing consisted of classified ads in all of the bicycle mags of that time followed up by a letter to those who responded. Included with the letter was a color photocopy page with shots of my bike and a couple others from the fall of 1991.)
I rode that bike a lot from the fall of '91 until sometime in 1993 and then on occasional trips for a couple years after that. That #2 Bike Friday did the local Flyway Century (Eugene's organized 100 from back in those days), several months of the "Sheldon Ride" Saturday/Sunday morning training rides, centuries in Big Bear, CA, Seattle, and Minneapolis, and flying trips to Interbike and Graceland! I showed the bike to Bicycling Magazine and Bicycle Guide editors at interbike in September 1991. Some of them rode it and were very impessed with it in it's earliest form. For that trip I used the suitcase trailer (with Burley hitch) that Hanz took to New Zealand a few weeks later. My prized Dahle heavy duty scissors emigrated to New Zealand after I absentmindedly left them in the suitcase!
Hanz's first trip with a Bike Friday took place in late September or October, 1991, not in 1992. Why the discrepancy? My best guess is that Bike Friday wasn't ready for a 10th anniversay celebration until 2002.
I still have my original frameset although it hasn't been a bike for a while. I recently took it over to BF to have it inspected before putting it back into use.
Several other people have bikes that were manufactured in 1991 - probably around 30 to 35 went out the door by the end of the year or in January 1992. Many of those were to acquaintances of Alan and Hanz, but around 10 were to customer all over the states and one with 20" sew-ups to a guy in Canada by the name of Talving, I think ...
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HAVE YOU GOT A "LINCOLN PENNY" BIKE FRIDAY?
Early in the piece, there was a shortage of steel to manufacture the endcaps on the lower seat hinge. Alan and Hanz discovered that the Lincoln Penny was just the right diameter. "We probably made about a dozen or so bikes with the penny in them. The frame number would be under #150."
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ALIVE AND KICKING: SOME CLASSIC FRIDAYS
Read about Kent Peterson doing the PBP on a Classic Friday!
John Borchardt runs with bulls
Jay Prensky rides his Classic Friday with the latest Air Friday
Richard Moeur's "Dino" equipped classic Friday
Joan Joesting's Perimeter Bicycling feats on a Classic Friday
Roger Henning crews PACTOUR on a Friday
OTHER READING
Jay Prensky says: "I love my Fridays! Here I am in the US Virgin Islands last fall, along Mandahl Road on the north side of the island. Doubt there had ever been a bicycle here before! Riding down there was an absolute hoot!"
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Emailable link to this article: http://www.bikefriday.com/bf/classic-friday