Passing thought
August 25th, 2009
I was helping my brother on deciding on his folding bike (that is the 4th Foldie in 2 months, someone stop me) and we went through the iterations of Dahon vs Brompton vs Bike Friday. Finally we decided on a custom Tikit for the specific set of needs. In the process of brain storming, we realized that these companies have strong similarities to computer operating systems. If you are aware of OS’s and folding bikes, you will appreciate the similarity.
- Brompton <-> Apple OSX. Fully proprietary and focussed heavily on industrial Design. Works extremely well out of the box but hardware upgrades are a pain in the ass if not extremely expensive
Accessories cost a bomb too. - Dahon <-> Microsoft Windows. A product that works. Lots of proprietary components but is well supported due to large distributor base. They try to be pretty but stop short of exemplary. They probably have the best bang for buck setups. You can find extremely high end hardware too but at the heart the design is a compromise. he hee.
- Bike Friday <-> Linux. Customize everything. Very robust core design and allows for customizing to do literally anything one wants. You can get a pre-specified flavor of the bike or geek out totally on setting it up in your own unique way.
The lesson is that all three options are viable, it is a question of what you really want
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September 5th, 2009 03:58
Meh.
Since when was OS X fully proprietary? The entire OS sits on top of BSD. Further, since when have Macs been expensive to upgrade? They’re nearly entirely standard equipment, protocols, and connectors.
Industrial design, I grant you, but your perception of Macs and OS X seems quite dated. Which leads me to perhaps a better OS for the Brompton: Mac OS 8 or 9, and the machines which ran it. Which *were* proprietary.
The problem with the Bike Friday Linux thing is that Linux’s huge downfall is twofold: (1) it’s kludgy and (2) it’s not well supported. (\RTFM\). But the Tikit is neither: and indeed, Bike Friday’s support is far better than Brompton’s (to say nothing of Dahon).
September 5th, 2009 08:35
Foo, Point taken. The comparison was fairly tongue in cheek, and not to flare any nerves.
You got sensible points though. OSX has changed the game, but have you checked with Apple on how much it costs to upgrade memory (I mean by apple, and not you buying off the shelf and opening the box)?
Regards to linux, your view holds in the desktop arena but when it cmes to enterprise grade servers, Linux servers rule the roost. They are not kludgy but extremely versatile. Just not very accessible for the everyday Johnnie.
As goes to Customer service, Bike Friday is top notch. Actually, Dahon has been extremely good to me too… Never dealt with Brompton Factory
As far as Tikit being one of the best options out there, you are correct but it is far from perfect.
Note, I am not talking off the top of my head, I have bought and ridden, quite regularly in the past few months, a Bike Friday NWT, Tikit, Brommie and a REI branded Dahon Mu. And truth be told, Each of them is a great bike in its own accord.