Strida has developed a folding bicycle design for city life. I decided to try the Strida out due to an assignment to Saab Group AB (the weapon manufacture, not the car manufacturer) far away from home and public transport. The point of owning a Strida is that you can bicycle from home to the train, take the train to a station as near your destination as possible and then bicycle the last part to your destination. Eliminating waiting for buses etc. are key to a more effective life. Also, the bike makes you a lot less vulnerable to public transport failures.

It takes about two week to feel really comfortable on the bike. Try it and you will see why. On the other hand, this is by far the most fun bicycle to use once you have mastered it so going to work becomes a lot more fun.

The bicycle takes about seven seconds to fold and unfold once you learned it. If you compare it to other designs, the Strida isn't so compact when folded, but it's just so fast to fold. The weight is about 8 kg, so I easily lift it over any obstacle including ticket control stations.

I use my Strida in Sweden all year in every weather: sun, snow, rain, ice. Offroad too, but its difficult. The first thing I learned that the dirt protecting shields over the wheels are decoration rather than useful. Therefore I used some plastics and steel wire to enlarge the shields. I have done it with many other bicycles toobecause in wet conditions, inadequate shielding will not only make you dirty, it makes the whole bike dirty. By the way, I noticed that the shields haven't improved much on the Strida 5.0 as far as I can tell from photos.

Below is how I extended the shield on the rear of my Strida:

There are two more weak points to mention. First, the brakes wear out in about 18 months and you will need to replace the wiring and the breaks. Unfortunately, replacement parts isn't easy to obtain. Further, looking inside the drum breaks, I got the feeling the design is excellent but some of the parts are made of way to low quality metal. There is lots of wear on the drum break mechanism. See photo below:

I recommend not to buy anything but the new model (Strida 5.0) with disc brakes.

Secondly, it turns out the plastic wheels are great except one thing: the 'gear' moled in the back wheel that the belt attaches around is quickly worn down. Again, the material selection could be better. I personally think they should have used a top quality aluminium gear attached to the wheel. Inspect photo below (ok, it's really hard to see but easy to feel when you bicycle).