Strida’s publicity material brag about their folding bike’s “umbrella like folding.” While folding this bike is amazingly fast and easy, it does not fold to the size of an umbrella, unless you have a 20 pound umbrella with wheels.
While the Strida doesn’t fold exceptionally small, it can have a smaller footprint because you can hold it upright. That’s the theory, anyway. The reality is that I toss the Strida over in the handicap area of the bus along with everybody’s luggage and other folding bikes.
To be honest, it’s easier to just put the Strida on the front bike rack of a bus if there’s space available. While the wheel retention lever won’t push against the tiny wheels with enough pressure to stay in place, I found that I can hook the retention lever over the rear rack by placing the bike in the rack backwards. In other words, I put the rear wheel where the front wheel should go and then hook the lever over the bike’s rear rack. I had one bus driver give me some grief about it (she even called her dispatcher to ask for instructions), but mostly the bus drivers ignore what I do as long as it looks secure to them.
[ XXX measure square inches of area that bike takes up on the floor ]
[ XXX photo of Strida on train, bus bike rack, in corner of apartment ]
Read more about the Strida 5.0 folding bicycle.