By Stanley Freedman
First impressions of my New World Traveller were not favourable, but as is often the case, they were wrong.
I was due to attend a conference in Seattle in the spring of 1995, and, enthused by Chris Juden’s article in the CTC gazette, I took the opportunity of ordering a bike from Green Gear, to be delivered to my hotel. There was indeed a Samsonite suitcase waiting for me when I arrived, and I couldn’t wait to get up to my room, spread some newspaper over the thick pile carpet, and start to assemble my NWT, but I was ultimately frustrated, because although there was a free toolkit and even a boiled sweet among the contents of the case, there was no seat pin. It was Saturday, and there was no reply when I phoned Green Gear, but a message left on their answering machine produced an appropriately contrite call on Monday morning, and they shipped me two seat pins (they weren’t sure if I needed a 27.0 or a 27.2) which duly arrived the following day. I then enjoyed getting to know the bike on the numerous cycle paths around this very bike-friendly city. At first, I felt as if I was on stilts, very high up and remote from the wheels, but after about 15 minutes, it felt no different from a normal bike. It wasn’t until I got back from the first ride that I remembered it was a folder. There was none of the flexing of the frame I had experienced with a previous, cheap folder. After the end of the conference, I had an idyllic day, crossing Puget Sound by ferry, and exploring Vashon Island. The folding properties of BF, as I now call my NWT, were very useful in that I was easily, and without embarrassment, able to take it up to my room and not have to worry about where it was to be locked up for the night. It took me over half an hour to pack it back into its suitcase for the first time for the return flight, whereas now, I generally reckon on ten minutes.
Back in London, I couldn’t resist the temptation to show off BF, and took it out to our regular Sunday morning club run. This is a relaxed, mainly social affair, but within a mile of setting off, I was struggling to stay with the group. However, as we arrived at the short steep Hertfordshire hills, I found myself passing people. This amazing facility to go up hills, especially with a full touring load, encapsulates, for me, all that makes BF endearing.
My NWT predates the use of the Sachs hub gear. It has a Suntour triple chainset, a 12 - 28 Shimano cassette at the back, and Shimano front and rear changers. This gives a bottom gear of about 23 inches, which I have only once used, but which is a marvelous psychological prop. I opted for the “sport wheels upgrade”, without being aware of the full implications, ie that there are two “20 inch” wheel sizes, the 406 mm, obtainable anywhere, and the 451 mm, available only at very specialised dealers. I first realised what the situation was when I thought that I would put on some wider tyres for my first tour, to Normandy in the spring of 1996. I then came up against all the hard choices which others have written about in the last issue of this newsletter. The only other 451 tyres were the Primo, 37 mm. These were alright at the back, but wouldn’t clear the brake at the front. Fitting 406 wheels would mean changing the brakes, and that in turn entailed finding brakes with both a deep drop, and which were Allen-key fitting. I opted to do nothing, but to tour on the “narrow” tyres, as I have done ever since, with the precaution of carrying at least one spare tyre, and, fortunately, have yet to come to grief.
In the four years since I acquired BF, it has had a new head set, a new quick-release on the steering column, and gone through countless tyres. It has become my touring bike, quite irrespective of its folding properties. I have toured on it in Normandy, Norway, Spain, Montana and most recently, South Africa. I retired in October last year and fulfilled a long-held ambition to cycle from London to south-west France, where I now live. It was on this trip that I solved the problem of the erratically performing wireless computer. I put the display module in my front panniers, really close to the sensor. This had the advantage of not letting me see how slowly I was going, or how few miles I had done that day, so that I went at my own relaxed pace, and still had an accurate mileage available at the end of the day. From Caen to Beziers took me 11 days, with one front wheel puncture as the only protest from my reliable friend, BF.
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Last updated: 6 June 1999
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