Yay, a fellow Strida user from Toronto. I haven’t had any of the bolt issues you mentioned, though I should probably tighten them now that I’ve had the bike for a year and a half.
I am still using my Strida almost every day, but when anyone asks me about it, I just say “it’s a prototype, you cannot buy it” and that shuts them up quick. I have no intention of promoting a product that can’t be easily bought or maintained. The allure of a curious person coming up to me has long since vanished.
Updates:
- Savedbybikes is officially dead, because the site is now gone, and the North American distributor no longer mentions them. The new Canadian distributor is all the way out in British Columbia, so the distributors in New York City are actually closer. If it weren’t for the mechanic at Curbside Cycle having experience repairing Strida bikes, I would’ve tossed mine out by now.
- I still have yet to shell out the money for a bottom bracket spanner wrench, which will cost at least $60 on Amazon because no bike shop in Toronto sells it. Will probably do so by Christmas because I also need to buy new brake pads.
- The alloy freewheel hasn’t skipped once. I guess it’s an essential expensive upgrade after all.
- I’m not riding the Strida in heavy rain anymore; only in light showers.
- It feels as though my top speed isn’t as high as it was with the plastic freewheel because I can no longer “run out of revs” when pedaling.
- Expecting the worst in a few months, as we’ll see if the Strida survives a second Canadian winter, and the first with the alloy freewheel.