The maker of Bike Friday folding bicycles is recalling 3,800 tikit brand bikes because the handlebar stem can break, causing a fall and injury.
Bike Friday’s “tikit” recalled
The Eugene, Oregon folding bike maker is urging all tikit owners to stop riding the bicycles and to contact dealers or the manufacturer to schedule a free repair.
Parent company Green Gear Cycling and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission received six reports of stems breaking; two cases resulted in cuts that required stitches.
The bikes were sold online and in dealers from 2007 to September 2012 for between $900 and $5,000, depending on the model. They came in various colors.
See the special tikit recall webpage at BikeFriday.com for details.
Tikit owners will be directed to a detailed stem replacement form that asks for the bike’s dimensions, frame number and type of folding system as well as how urgently the owner needs the bike to be repaired.
Bike Friday will send out the replacement stems to owners or dealers and will reimburse any labor costs, according to the website.
1 comments
Green Gear (the company behind Bike Friday) has been very good at communicating with its customers about this issue, if it had contact information. I have a Tikit, and they contacted me directly and via the Yak mailing list (for Bike Friday owners) over a month ago. In fact, my replacement stem arrived yesterday, despite the fact that I put myself down as the lowest priority (since I use my Tikit when traveling, not every day). It’s a shame that the recall occurred–they said it was due to a supplier who didn’t make a part to spec–but I give them lots of credit for responding quickly to the problem, and I hope they or their supplier has insurance that will help cover the cost of what must have been a pretty expensive testing and repair program.