The latest addition to the “bikes I’d really like to have a play around on” is the fully suspended, folding Azub TiFly recumbent trike.
That’s an awful lot of name for one bike, so happily it’s also an awful lot of bike. Especially in the spec shown above, which includes a SON hub generator, Rohloff internal gearing and a Schlumpf speed drive (which is the internal-gear equivalent of a front derailleur and crankset). Congratulations to the lucky Laid Back Bike’s customer pedalling that lot away.
The front suspension on the TiFly is particularly elegant – the front wheels are either end of a vertically stacked pair of crescent-shaped titanium leaf springs:
Probably much easier to watch this video:
Sadly I haven’t had a chance to try it out in the flesh, but rest assured if I do come across a TiFly in the wild then I’ll use all the persuasion techniques at my disposal (up to and including a bacon sandwich) to have a shot.
PS: photo at the top from Laid Back Bikes, other photo and video by Azub
PPS: chapeau to Dave McCraw, who managed to come in at the front of a viciously windy Tour of the Borders on Sunday with an average speed of 34kph over 120km with 1600m of climbing. Not a bad demonstration of the capabilities of the High Baron…