the tikit on Trial in NYC: Getting a folder past New York's toughest gatekeepers

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Patience, one of two lions guarding the the Beaux-arts building of the NY Public Library, knows that it's only a matter of time before folders may pass into the library unscathed ...

My somewhat ballsy Tikit on Trial experiment spanning 2007-2010, which tested whether I could ever so politely sashay my way into office buildings with marble front desks and starched uniformed gatekeepers - is now archived off the Bike Friday website.

The links below are copies saved by that giant, silent hoarder of everything ever blogged, the Wayback Machine. The articles are mostly intact - but for a quick pictorial tour, check out the Photo Gallery and YouTube movies.

0. Summary (archived)
1. The experiment (archived)
2. The results (archived)
3. Photo gallery (current)
4. The movies (current)

In a nutshell, it was an experiment to see how the the tikit, the Bike Friday commuter folding bike, fared as a piece of personal transportation in NYC. The criterion is that it had to be allowed into the building (that is, off the street, where it could fall prey to thieves).

I shopped and schlepped it around to see if it would be accepted like that other piece of human-toting wheeled transportation readily tolerated everywhere - the baby stroller. Eleven office buildings later, I got an almost perfect score - a promising sign.

Note that MOMA still has a glaring no-bikes-of-any-kind policy despite displaying Alex Moulton's famous demountable spaceframe bike in their collection.

Check the above links for the results.

JP Morgan here I come!


Mark Permann of AMEX says, "I don't leave home without it!"

Once upon a time... 


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