Design folding bike: the STRIDA, distinctive and light

A folding bike you recognise before you see it moving: the STRIDA’s triangle. British designer Mark Sanders drew it between 1983 and 1985 as his graduation project at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. It has been developed further ever since, but the shape has stayed (read its history).

STRIDA 5 QR+ Red Devil: the triangular frame

A distinctive folding bike, in a museum too

The STRIDA 1 is part of the applied art and design collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the STRIDA was shown in the bicycle design exhibition at the Cube Design Museum in Kerkrade. Not a bike you forget in the rack, but one people turn round to look at.

Designed to take along

It folds in a few seconds. Then you push it along beside you on its wheels, onto the train, into the supermarket or the lift, without lifting it. Folded, a STRIDA measures approx. 113–115 × 51 × 23 cm. The wheels are fixed on one side only, so you change a tyre without taking the wheel out of the frame.

Folded STRIDA, side view — Folded, it stands on its wheels and you roll it along beside you.

Light, and without a chain

A STRIDA LT or 5 QR+ weighs 10.9 kg, the SX with 18 inch wheels 11.9 kg: light enough to carry up the stairs. It runs on a belt instead of a chain, so no oil on your trousers or in the boot (why a belt).