Traveling With My Strida Part 2

Traveling With My Strida Part 2

Some of you may have read part 1, Traveling With My Strida and Travoy. In that post I detail my first trip flying with my Strida and a Burley Travoy folding trailer. This post, Part 2 details my recent trip to Halifax with my Strida and Travoy trailer. I have also traveled with a Strida without a Travoy trailer, the blog post and packing details can be found here.

There are packing details included in both of these previous post not included here. So if you are planning a Strida adventure like mine I would suggest you read all three posts.

I planned my Halifax trip using my experiences from my earlier two trips. One of the difficulties I experienced on my last trip was fitting my Strida EVO equipped with 18 inch wheels and the Travoy trailer into the Strida padded bike bag. It is possible, but it isn’t easy. So I designed and had built a Custom Strida Bike Travel bag. The Custom Bike Bag worked as planned and was easy to load with my EVO, Travoy Trailer and travel accessories.

New Strida Frame Pannier Bag

I also tested the new Strida Frame Pannier Bag.  This new small Pannier Bag held my phone and my tool kit. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much storage capacity the Frame Pannier Bag has. The bag was able to hold all of my tools including a Airbone Mini Pump and a spare tire tube. Most of my ride from the Halifax airport to downtown Halifax was in heavy rain, the pannier bag is water tight!

Other New ideas

Based on my first experience I packed my new travel bag differently. One new item that I packed was a extra seat pin. The Strida seat pin is located under the seat mount and holds the seat mount from moving laterally. The idea of an extra seat pin came from helping a traveling Strida customer and their experience with a broken pin. If one experienced a broken seat pin from rough handling of your bike during transport the chances of finding a new seat pin would be nil!

Other Last Minute Ideas

My EVO is equipped with a alloy beltwheel. I like the alloy beltwheel because it is stiffer than the plastic standard Strida beltwheel. But the thought did cross my mind that if the beltwheel was bent during transport my plans would be greatly disrupted. So I swapped my alloy beltwheel for a standard plastic beltwheel which is more forgiving with rough handling. Similarly with transport damage in mind I removed the pedals for transport. I also removed the saddle and trailer hitch. This did add a little extra time for assembly on arrival but the peace of mind was worth it.

Rain Rain and more Rain

Did I mention rain, yes it was raining for most of my journey. I was prepared to keep my luggage dry with large orange garbage bags but I was not prepared to keep myself dry. But it didn’t really matter, I enjoyed the ride. For my safety I did pack small Strida safety lights that I had flashing for visibility. The route was not ideal, but I planned my flight to arrive on a Saturday morning and traffic was light. Including a stop for lunch and many stops to find my way the journey was about 3.5 hours and 50 km.

More Learning Insights

I like to think I am a person prepared for most eventualities, but there is always something new to learn with these Strida travel adventures. I travel with an extra tube and a small tire pump and this trip they came in useful. It is important to know that my flat tire was self inflected. I attempted to add air to a low tire and I caused the flat. I use a floor pump at home and a small Airbone mini pump when traveling. It is important to lower the tire pressure when flying so the air pump is essential. I also discovered how one uses a small mini pump is even more important. With the Strida in a upright position I damaged the valve stem.

From now on when using a mini pump I will invert the Strida and use the pump in a more comfortable position.

Traveling With My Strida Part 3

Will there be a traveling with my Strida part 3? I hope so, West Jet who are Strida friendly do have flights to Europe from North America so a Strida adventure in Europe may be in the future.