The first few weeks with my Strida Evo

After not touching my two great “real” bikes (full-supension MTB, Cyclocross) for quite a while i now find myself biking daily when on business trips (3 days / week), sometimes even twice.
It turns out that, similar to cameras, “the best bike is the one you´ve got with you” :slight_smile:

My longest tour with the EVO to date was 14 km, followed by a pause of about 2 hours, then 14 km back. There was no fatigue whatsoever, i could have gone a lot further than that.
So for everyone asking “does this work for longer distances?”: Yes, it does work very well.

The only ground surface i could not ride on was sand, the narrow tires are really not made for it. Cobblestones are uncomfortable but doable. Everything else is just fine.

Folding, after being awkward at first, became second nature.

The Sturmey Archer hub performs ok: Different from what i imagined before owning the bike it´s no question at all what gear you´re in. You simply know.
There is a tendency to “slip out” of the 1st gear under heavy load though (best way i can describe it).

Swapping to the higher of the two mounting points for saddle & rack was a pain in the a**. The diameter of the screw is very small small for the force being applied. Additionally the material seems to be quite soft. I ruined the inner part of the screw and had to force it in with a pair of pliers …

Adjusting the saddle quite a bit higher changed the characteristic of the bike. Instead of “Dutch BMX” it´s simply “Dutch” now: Comfortably upright.

I modded / added 4 things so far:

  • Selle Royal Spa Respiro Soft. Great investment, there is real comfort now. It also provides a good mounting point for the rear light

  • DIY Cool Bag. Inspired by the hot summer in Germany this year I found a cheap cool bag on Amazon that is nearly the exact same size as the rack : 7,5 l by Aosbos. With the addition of some double sided velcro and 3 small steel food skewers i was able to mount it quite nicely :slight_smile:

  • Bent steering kit. I thought i would probably not need it but bought it anyway to try. It turns out this makes a lot of difference as i adjusted the saddle higher quite a bit and am now able to fully extend my legs while pedalling. This leads to less fatigue and more power. I use the 3rd gear a lot more often now, maybe 25 % of the time. Installation was very much doable even though i don´t have a lot of experience working on bikes.

  • Sigma Sport Mono front and rear lights. They look a lot cooler than the Strida ones imho, are also rechargeable via USB and are even cheaper (~45€ for the complete set). Usability is great: I can turn on both while riding and there´s an indicator light warning you when the battery is low. Despite its small size i found the front light illuminates a completely dark path quite nicely.

As you might imagine after reading this i am really happy with my little bike and would certainly buy it again.

Wishlist:

  • silent riding
  • slightly lower first gear
  • less weight (not a big issue)

Overall, given this set of wishes, i´d be really interested to test an Efneo-Strida :wink:

I´ll leave you with a picture taken on one of my morning tours :slight_smile:

Thank you for the details Karsten, great post. Regarding the change of the positioning of the seat pin,
Swapping to the higher of the two mounting points for saddle & rack was a pain in the a**. The diameter of the screw is very small small for the force being applied. Additionally the material seems to be quite soft. I ruined the inner part of the screw and had to force it in with a pair of pliers …

what I think makes this operation difficult it the paint or clear coat over spray in the upper hole. Before I ship a customer a new Strida I clean the exit hole in the tube and the threads in the tube so this won’t be a problem. I have read reviews on Amazon where new Strida owners have returned their new Strida bikes because they were unable to use the upper hole. A small round file, known in Canada as a rat tail file, or the end of the seat pin inserted into the exit hole can remedy this. For the threads in the tube, carefully turning in the seat pin and then backing it off several times will work, being careful not to apply to much pressure or that will damage the hex key socket.

I hope this suggestion will spare other new Strida owners the grief that a little over spray may cause. But of course what would be even a better solution is if Strida looked after this little detail themselves before shipping the bike.

Cheers, Bill

Yes, also a big thanks from here - and agree fully with Bill.
Usually I re-cut the threads, it’s a common metric M5 - but I’d recommend that for skilled mechanics only, too high is the risk to damage the frame for a laymen.

Btw - it is intended that the clamps overtake the whole weight (force), but not the seat pin.
You are able to check a possible downward slipping of the seat molding visually from the outside by watching the red lever’s position closely (and periodically).
The upper and the lower edge of the red release lever have to be both exactly in 90°angle related to the seat tube. Once the lever starts tilting (and the angles change, for example to 92" at the upper and 88° at the lower edge) - your clamps were too loose!
That can happen more at the beginning I believe, no need to worry.
But it is high on time to loosen the clamps first, then relocate molding and lever - and finally tighten the clamps (just a little bit more than before :wink: )

The problem is that there are just two right now; the very first in Taiwan and the second here…
You’re highly welcome of course and you could ride the whole day if you want - just there are (according to the IP info, pardon me :laughing: )
still about 1000 km between us…are you able/willing to jump over for a weekend or so?
According to my recent info (to be exact from yesterday :laughing: ) from efneo there will be soon a third test drive sent out - within weeks…then consider testing stage…new calculations…guess that may take some more months in sum.
Honestly I’d appreciate to have more test riders; I’m just the mechanic

Thankyou Karsten for the Rider’s Report. Your Strida Silver EVO looks awesome. It’s strange as I have the same model but it’s a real beauty on the photos.

A bit on the bent-steering – I LOVE it and in is NOT expensive to put on… yet it totally changes the ride characteristics of the bike (IMO) in that it puts the rider more “forward” on the bike and takes away some of the “rider weight” on the rear-wheel. I am not a tall rider (I am 1.69m tall only) so the stick handle-bar was fine but I love the bent-steering.

I also put most of my ‘carry weight’ on the front of the Strida to ‘balance’ out the bike. So on my EVO I have a front Bike bag attached to the front (to carry my spares etc) and the Strida clip on water bottle. (I actually have Strida clips on front and rear - but I try to only use the front unless I am doing the 70KM ride where I do need an extra). Personally I feel the Strida was too much weight’ed on the “rear” although you are taller and have the seat at the top of the “A-frame” so it’s more “Dutch” than “Dutch BMX” (I love that coin’ed term!). Initially I kept doing rear wheelies until I placed more weight on the front of my Strida. :laughing:

I´d see it as an additional incentive to visit Vienna again. :wink:
With my backing of the Mate X (based in Copenhagen) on Indiegogo this just might be the second bike-inspired short city-vacation to plan for next year …

This may be mine, I am expecting my first Efneo drive to arrive on the 16th, the same day I am leaving for Italy for two weeks, so yes a further delay in testing.

Stay tuned, Bill

You mounted a lunchbox?

Karsten was logged in the last time three years ago, possibly he moved on.
I’ll try to reply for him, most likely he used that bag:
https://www.amazon.de/Aosbos-Isolierte-Lunchbox-Kühltasche-wiederverwendbare/dp/B07VWQF9K8/
I can confirm that the given bag dimensions will match to the Strida rack.