Hi there, STRIDA freaks!
My late brother used to carry his Mk1 Strida in the trunk of the car that killed him in 1997; a couple of years ago I decided to look for it, and did find it under my mother´s roof, with some bad “injuries” and wrapped with the rubber belt… So in “old“ internet I started navigating, to see if I could find spares, till I found this forum where sadly I found STRIDA true story… I started then looking for a second hand Mk1 on ebay and, not only I found one in London but in the occasion I had a niece going to a university there, so she and a mate did manage to wrap and fly with it to Portugal and, by Christmas 2011 after ONE HOUR unpacking, my new old Strida was finally at home. But, as the previous owner pointed, “she” was in such a good condition that I decided to keep it and, my wife is the proud new owner! I found later that it is a Mk II (aluminum grey with a better frame locking system and a better front pulley “cassette”.
So I kept riding my Carmel Globe in a daily basis until last summer, when I positively “tumbled” on a brand new MkI! Here at home, isn´t it amazing!
And, of course from then on I have been using it almost every day from home to the work, a four miles distance, fifty percent all the way and back ,or combining it with bus or subway BUT…
That ZAMAK rear drum started to make my head going nuts! After a two months use, the rear wheel after some strange tec tecs suddenly “full braked”!.. it was the outer “flange” that had “jumped” out of " the toothed part so, after reading my manual I "peanned” the flange in it´s place again and I was very happy again, but some months after that “she” decided to full brake again…as soon as I arrived home there it came out again, the rear wheel but, if the flange was in place, I did find some metal pieces, like nails recessed in the brake shoe… well this was so odd I decided to take a better look on all parts and that was when I found a deep groove in the drum! The metal pieces where the missing zamak in the drum!!! I decided to loosen the braking cable a bit, so when using only the rear brake the bike does not stop;
NOW yesterday the “full brake” thing happened again, and when I took the rear wheel out again, to my horror the grooves in the drum are countless!!! There was metal ships all over the place… and the flange was out again!
I peened the flange again but decided to change the drum brake with my brother´s (it already has a first groove… that I noticed once and that made me even wonder where he had used his Strida and how could some little stone get inside and damage the drum…)
This is not THE SOLUTION for this problem, I think…
I think I will have to change the fixing way of the front pulley “cassette” to the tube frame, as it twists a little when I pedal and might be the reason why the belt stresses the flange pulling it out … but… WHY ZAMAK instead of STEEL ?!!!
I decided also to loosen a bit more the wheel, in fact it did not go totally free until now as the imprecise ball bearings system made me keep it just a bit tight and I also decided to make a special washer with that part the fit in the axe groove, as I found that when tightening the outer nut for preventing it to loosen up and fall, it did tight the wheel again…now it turns freely I can say, but braking… I am thinking about putting a wider cable to tighten the gap with the outer skin, to see if even with a loosen cable I can brake again…
If any one of you Sriders can give me some useful advises I would really appreciate, as I would like to keep riding my classic black Strida with that gorgeous British flag around, delighted with so many ahhs people make with that 5 seconds folding/unfolding thing…
Hello Paulo,
welcome at Stridaforum!
Wow, thanks for the impressive introduction and for teaching,
never before heard of ZAMAK!
I guess they’ve used that back then because it was easy to produce and lighter than steel,
who cares about durability…
But you need not to wonder, many synthetic materials become brittle by the time and some simply collapse 
According to that Old stuff about the past generations of Strida
must the plastic parts of your bike at least be ~ 22 years old, most likely more…
However, the only thing I can suggest is to get in touch with other MK1 enthusiasts.
I do know also that in Vienna must be at least one MK1 (in running condition!), sadly I’ve never seen it in reality…
inseq’s MK1
Good luck!