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MOVIE: Bike Friday @ Escape NY, 2009 The BF Club of NY comes out to champion their trusty traveling companions |
 The BF Customer Evangelist reports crankside from NYC WHAT DO WE DO ON A FRIDAY when it comes to bike events? Like many businesses, we're trying to keep unnecessary costs at bay in this recession. Flying bikes cross country from our factory in Eugene to New York not only costs a lot of money, it creates the kind of carbon emissions cycling is supposed to alleviate. At times like this, we turn to the fold for help, and we're always amazed and gratified at the response ... This year, the New York Cycle Club kindly offered Bike Friday a table at their 2009 ESCAPE NEW YORK post-ride shindig in Sakura Park. Cool bananas! Despite our worldwide distribution and some 35,000 readers, Bike Friday is still a relatively obscure brand due to its size and resources, especially in NYC. You have to need one to know one. New York is a place we really want to be seen, particularly our multi-modal, office-friendly tikit. As I'm paused in NYC, I thought I'd simply yellow-cab it with my two pink Fridays: my princess pink size small tikit, and my Power Raspberry Pocket Rocket Pro Petite described here. Yes, taxi - how else would I get two bikes up there? Wait ... of course! Rig up the TravelTrailer, pack one of the Fridays in the suitcase and tow it up to the park! DUH! Be creative and practical with toting and towing a Friday, like our customers do! I decided to pop the Pro Petite in the case, rather than the tikit, simply because I've done that countless times, and can do it in about 10 minutes - and use the tikit with its easy-commuting flat bars as the horse. Some further thinking resulted in a sticking point: showing two tiny Fridays sized too small for an average Joe/Josephine would be an incredibly underwhelming display. I appealed to our New York dealer David Lam at bfold.com, who usually comes to the rescue. This time, because his stock of Fridays was somewhat low, and his allegiance is not just to Bike Friday, but a slew of folding bike brands, I was out of luck. So I appealed to the Bike Friday Club of New York and other Friday aficionados, asking those riding the event to swing by after with their Friday, park it just so, and help field the "but don't you have to pedal more?" questions. I also asked for a couple of helpers not riding their Fridays to hang with me all day at the booth, enticing them with BF schwag ... Before we knew it, we had at least half a dozen Fridays stylishly angle-parked, some from the outer boroughs - even past Round*Up host David Seidman from Philly showed up at late notice. |
That was another logistical hurdle - how to stand these bikes up in a park, give that I'd be towing the display in the suitcase? Leaning bikes against tables, trees and on the ground is not a good look ... I went online a couple of days earlier and found these clever, super minimalist Topeak Flashstand Slim pocket folding stands. Designed mainly for 700 cc bikes, they're a little chintzy (what a wonderful word that is) and flimsy (the annoyingly plastic height extender broke off one of them but still works kinda) but are OK for all but the shortest cranks - like my 155's; my bike wants to lean over too far. Pocket Rocket Pro owner Steve Chang came disguised as a Cervelo rider and almost needed defibrillation when I tried to see if the Flashstand fit over his spendy carbon crank. Ah, now you know why you have a Friday - throw it on a banana truck, in the back of someone's trunk ... it's made for the rigors of travel - no - make that life. Speaking of other bikes, we had a cool Calfee bamboo bike commune with us for a while - sporting a pink chain. See it in the above movie, and read about our own Bamboo Fool's Day stunt... |
"We want this to become known as a foodie event!" she said, understanding one of the cornerstones of marketing: find out what people want, and give them plenty of it. I have stopped attending bike events that lazily dole out bottled water, bananas and those fluorescent trans fat cookies, while collecting substantial funds to give away to worthy causes. It's great to care about the causes you're donating proceeds to, but it's great to also care about the people who show up with that cash. And, I can't help it, not only am in marketing, I'm also cheap but choosy. A fast flat fixing contest in heats took place under the gazebo but there wasn't a 20" wheel on the podium, so none of the Friday folk could enter it, right? TREK and Vermont Bicycle Tours generously gave away a bike and a tour at the raffle, and I chipped in by donating and demonstrating my 3-in-1 reversible Traffic Cone Bag, attempting to convince the dwindling roadie crowd of its possible relevance to their century. "Um, on a century, you wanna pick up a loaf of bread on the way home? Then ride to de Niro's restaurant and look cool? The ride to your investor meet next day? You're a metrosexual? And hey, it's made by a little Chinese woman on West 37th St who came to this country with $300 in her pocket and no English .. no not me, but ..." Bike Friday was born of mad inventors, and if you work there long enough, the inventiveness bug bites you. I mean, check out this puppy by crazy Chris Nelson. |
The core team: Danny, Lindsay, Melanie. Lindsay's Pro Petite Lindsay's Pro Petite sports the temporary fit stem that always needs hasty explanation in case they think BF really is a Frankensteinian operation. Um, isn't it?
And thanks Zico for gifting me with a case of your coconut water. It's almost all gone! I need intervention! Read more BF in NY multimedia below - The Gal |
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Bike Friday Club of NY includes links to NY bike clubs
Bike Friday in NY stories More than just Manhattan