Actually, quite a few people have reported following our experience with Bike Friday with interest. So here goes yet another installment.

The latest chapter began when we got a message from David Omick. David Omick and Pearl Mast are the "Circus Bears" whose blogs first introduced us to the Bike Friday brand. David and Pearl had run into trouble with a low quality chain supplied with Pearl's bike, with rusting bolts, and with a rusting steering tube insert. These problems paralleled ones we experienced as well, and David thought a joint missive to Green Gear (which makes the Bike Friday) would help them improve the product.

So we sent an email about the quality issues to Green Gear management, and got some pretty quick responses. They did not concede a quality issue, except to note that they had recently upgraded the rusting bolts on their rear carrier to stainless steel.

Component quality, though, was only part of my issue. I was concerned about the related question of the costs of upgrading to better quality components. This opened the whole matter of how the bikes are priced and what prices are set for upgrade parts, and for accessories.

We have written up this second set of issues in a Crazyguy "Review", which you can read here. We also posed a related question in a Crazyguy "Forum", which you can follow here.

A third set of issues popped up when Green Gear reviewed our specific purchases and discovered that they had made quite a few errors in determining what we should be charged for the various component swaps we had done. In most cases they had overcharged. That is, they had asked for even more than the full retail amounts they normally charge, or they had given less in credit than the minimal credit they offer for parts swapped out. It was nice to learn that some money would be coming back to us, but we wondered how the errors had come to be. We also wondered if Green Gear would now review other people's purchases to see if they too should be due refunds. We could never get a straight answer to these two questions.

So, if you are into it, go read the review and/or the forum. And if you have bought a Bike Friday recently and want to know if there is a refund in your future, leave a message in the Guestbook and we will tell you all the rest of what we know about this.

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