Rear pannier on a tikit (at least until the new rack is out)

I put on the rear rack the other day. Actually took it off and was thinking of returning it but decided to play with it some more. I was hoping to use the Ortlieb rack adapter I had used on my SRD but didn't have enough heel clearance when mounted on the tikit rear rack.

So tried my Detours TEECO pannier on the rear rack. That and the much more stable foot print when folded made the decision for me. The tikit rear rack stays!

I use the TEECO every day on my commute (about 16 mile round trip 3x/week) and it worked just fine on the rear rack as pictured.

With the pannier locked between the two cross bars it is much more stable than it looks. Didn't budge a bit today. Even bunny hopping across the expansion joints on the Mopac bridge over Barton Creek doing 30+ MPH during rush hour.

I've been bugging BF about an ETA for the "other" tikit rear rack that was discussed on Yak earlier. Just got an email tonight.

"It looks like the taller rear rack for standard panniers won't be available until next year."

Put me down on the list! If anyone else hears anything about the rear tikit pannier rack please let me know...

2008 style tikit rear latch

Figured I'd post some pics so you could get an idea of how the the new latch setup works. I got my BTO (built to order) Express tikit in early March (was a late Feb build). Was a little surprised that there wasn't an over latch bolt as I had been reading about it on the Yak. After studying my tikit it appeared that the new setup did everything the previous design did without the bolt. No big surprise there since we are talking about BF here!

This picture shows the two "paddles" that cause the rear wheel to release when unfolding. There is a pin in the lower paddle that locks the rear assembly in position (you can just see it in the center of the lower paddle in the 2nd pic below). When you release the clip on the rear seat tube and raise it the paddles connect and the top one pushes the bottom paddle out and releases the paddle latch from the pin. The rear wheel can then pivot out into place.

By raising the seat mast when folded the pin also will release and allow the tikit to over fold. I fold my tikit multiple times daily and the setup has been rock solid.

Vik has additional info from a post that Rob English put on the Yak about the new latch.

GPS tikit

I had my Garmin 60CSx on my SRD and now it lives on the tikit. I use RAM mounts and have an additional window suction mount in the car. Makes it easy to move back and forth as needed. I even use it on my friend's boat with the same suction mount I use in the car. Have lake maps and it works great.

There is a ball mount on the handle bar riser. I wrapped the U bolt with shrink wrap tubing to protect the bar.

The rest of the mount consists of 3 more pieces. The factory face plate from Garmin is bolted to the RAM face plate (bottom of photo below). This has a quick connect so it moves easily from the bike to the car etc. The rest of the mount pictured is a locking mount.

The big round handle in the left side of the picture just spins freely when locked with a key.

When I mount the unit I just drop the wrist strap over one of the aero bars in case something breaks so the GPS doesn't take a nose dive into the pavement.

Used it on an adventure we took in San Antonio Texas today on the Mission Trail. Was able to find a route uploaded on the Internet for the trail parts and did some road routing in the Garmin software before we went. Much better than the maps we had from the National Park Service site.

A couple of short rides

Well, have a couple of rides planned on the tikit.

3rd MS 150 of 3 for 2008...Valero MS 150 from San Antonio to Corpus Christi Oct 4-5, 2008. 1st 2 were on the SRD I just sold. http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/martincohn

Running 5K and riding 45 miles for Livestrong in Austin Oct 25-26, 2008
http://austin08.livestrong.org/martincohn

Will be the my 1st real endurance/torture test ;-)

Koolstop brake pads

With the brake levers that came with my Express tikit the brakes were a little soft for my liking. The travel agents probably had something to do with it. Had tried to flip the H bars to solve some comfort issues and that required mountain brake levers. Nice and tight then.

But this solution didn't solve my sore wrists that I got on longer rides. History of carpal tunnel here.

Ended up going with bull horns and aero bars and original brake levers with travel agents...sigh.

So tried some Koolstop Salmons on the rear (had to order online). Much better! Found some black/salmon pads at the LBS for the front. Had to actually dial the fronts down a little as I was a little worried that I would endo they were so tight!

The longer Koolstop pads fit the 16" wheels without problems.

List o upgrades (post BF)

SRAM chain
Got tired of dropped chains. Not 100% fix but big improvement.

Brooks Swift saddle (I ordered w/o saddle)
Broke in quickly with my big butt. Very nice.

Extra H20 mounts

Speedplay Frogs (I ordered w/o pedals)
I run cleated sandals year round.

Koolstop brake pads
Salmon rear and black/salmon front.

New bars
Bullhorn and aeros

Mounting multiple H20 bottles

Needed more water for longer rides. Planning on doing the Valero MS 150 in Oct on the tikit.

Again after some research on the Internet found a nice site with lots of options...

Went with the Elite VIP WC9115 Universal Cage Mount 22-50mm

Picked up a couple of sets and am playing with a couple of locations. Just trimmed the bands long so I can move if I want to. Will trim them down when mounting is finalized.

Went with an Arundel Sideloader carbon mount for the horizontal bar as it seemed to be the most secure cage for the application. My first bit of carbon fiber ever. Damn that stuff is expensive! Other cages are stainless Kings.

Can fold the bike with all cages on. Even with bottles in place.

tikit handlebars

Started with the H bars that came on the tikit. Switched them over so curve was on the top of bar. This set up required installing mountain brake levers and resulted in a long reach. Many folks will have a problem here but with my big paws worked OK.

Decided I needed additional hand placement options as I was making the tikit my only bike so did some research at the various LBS in Austin and looked around the Internet. Have a history of carpal tunnel problems to deal with.

Went with some Syntace bullhorn bars and Profile Split Second aeros. They are set up high for comfort vs low for aero. Have lots of hand positions available now.

Had to go with a shorter handlebar stem to make up for the longer reach. Redid the brakes and cables. More info on brakes in another post...

So far so good. Things to do: trim the aero bars down and rework the cable length for the front brake. Have a spare brake cable so just waiting until I do some more dialing in with the ride position.

Bike still folds, rolls, and fits under the desk at work.


If I want it to be a smaller package just loosen a few hex screws and rotate the bars. Resulting package is smaller then when I had the original H bars!

tikit time...

Well have started posting to various email lists etc. about my Bike Friday tikit. Have several questions to answer so a picture is worth a thousand words and I'm too lazy to type that much...