*HOPENHAGEN ON A FRIDAY* David Kroodsma pre-Copenhagen interview with BF's Customer Evangelist

Pictured above: In a midtown deli, The Galfromdownunder gifts David with a copy of her book, The Handsomest Man in Cuba, while the Speeding tikit quietly listens from under the table. About the tikit.

by the Galfromdownunder

I'VE only just gotten wind that David Kroodsma, HuffPost's winning Hopenhagen Ambassador is winging over to NYC, where he'll be briefly groomed for the blogostage then dispatched to the 2010 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Sometime during the nose powdering and sound checks, a suitcase carrying a Bike Friday New World Tourist will land at the 'Post's offices. He's planning to arrive in Copenhagen the climate-friendly Bike Friday way: unpack, assemble, hitch up the suitcase trailer and go.

Pictured right: 6' tall climate expert with global cooling device made for 5' tall operator

Even if a sleek conference limo threatens to pick him up at the airport and whisk him off to a 4 star inn, we like his style. His dad, Donald "Pops" Kroodsma, very kindly loaned him the keys to his Bike Friday New World Tourist. How can a son refuse such an offer of independence?

I woke David up at 8am with an offer to roll out the recycled, Green (Gear Inc) carpet for him before the paparazzi arrived. It was a cold, fast ride to the Sheraton New York - very fast, because I'd just taken delivery of a double chainring, Princess Pink Speeding tikit sporting Bike Friday's new, high-end Capreo-compatible front and rear hubs, custom made for us in Taiwan. But more gear geeking later ... 

Pictured right: Pushing bikes uphill in Costa Rica. Photo from David's Ride for Climate blog: Managua to San Jose, two weeks with Pops

You can tell when you've met another touring cyclist. Even if someone may be picking up the tab, you're loathe to waste anyone's hard earned currency. Initially David and I headed to the hotel cafe, where the tikit generated a flurry of questions and admiration from the wait staff. But on scrutinizing the least expensive $19 breakfast option involving bagels and little else, we looked at each other and wordlessly headed out into the freezing wind in search of a more modest carbo load. That's when you know you've met a cyclist.

"2 years, 16 countries, 21,000 miles, San Francisco to top of South America," said David, scarfing a butt-average breakfast sandwich and coffee, which, including my wrap and tea, came to a hefty sum of $17 - this is Manhattan. 

He saved up $15,000 and just went for it, living very cheaply on the kindness of strangers and hardness of floors. Read the intro to his forthcoming book, "The Road to Tierra de Fuego". Later, some sponsorship kicked in. All along he gave lectures and presentations about climate change, including in Eugene, Oregon in 2007 - home of Bike Friday. His intrepid dad joined him for 2 weeks in Central America, where the Bike Friday and David's mountain bike soldiered rim to rim through sweltering temperatures and Costa Rica's famously appalling roads.

As the Hopenhagen Ambassador, David will be reporting for the Huffington Post, a popular news website with a bent towards all things good, green and liberal. His undoubted action-figure good looks and earnest idealism must have thrilled the contest judges - he reminds me of a young DiCapreo on a heroic mission. Yes, he'll also get to rub laptops with the dashing Al Gore and other sustainability luminaries ... 

"Copenhagen is the city with the highest percentage of people that use bikes - over a third of the community use bikes - by 2020 they hope to increase that to 50 percent. So it's going to be really exciting to get to the airport, unfold the bike and ride away!"

I asked him if one really could make the kinds of quantitative assertions we see in popular science press, like "if x number of people stopped driving and rode bicycles, there would be y reduction in emissions and therefore z less global warming." David prefers to talk about designing an environment that is conducive to lower emissions, rather than individuals.

"Cities need to be designed with facilities to encourage biking and walking. It's not enough to say "drive less". Collectively, we have to design cities better."

I gifted him with one of my reversible Traffic Cone Bags and a copy of my Cuba book, which he accepted with markedly more enthusiasm than the bag. 

"I probably wouldn't use the bag as much as this one," he said, pulling out his favorite Arkel pannier.

"In Mexico I painted it brown to look cheaper, so it wouldn't get stolen, but Arkel are giving me a new one so it looks "nice" for Copenhagen."

"I thought that was The Look!" I said, admiring the patina that spoke of Louis Vuitton suffering the Karakoram Highway with Marc Jacobs nowhere in sight ...

"And I probably wouldn't need to be this visible in Copenhagen because ... they have separated bike lanes!" 

Had he heard of the separated bike lanes now popping up in New York City? Of course. Yes, car-choked Manhattan is nonetheless up with the best of them, building greenways, bike lanes and passing bikes-in-buildings bills, thanks to local advocacy groups like Transportation Alternatives. 

We hotfooted it to the offices of the Huffington Post to make his 10.45am training session. 

On the way David wanted to try out my new Speeding tikit - although at 6 feet tall and 180 pounds he was doing it more for fun than to test ride. I had to hastily voice over in my movie that this is not an example of the famous Bike Friday fit.

"A Bike Friday is definitely in my future," he said. "I want a New World Tourist or maybe a Pocket Llama"

Finally, he posed a question for his blog to the Bike Friday Fold: 

"What gives you hope that we can solve global warming? Reply and I’ll include it in the next post." Read more

My answer? You'll have to watch the video (coming soon) and see!

And David ... don't forget to pop into our Copenhagen Bike Friday Dealer, The Danist Cyclists Federation, where you can test ride a tikit, um, more your size ...