by Larry Lagarde

This weekend, I was invited to display and demonstrate folding bikes at the New Orleans celebration of National Train Day 2009. Bikes are allowed to be taken aboard travel on Amtrak; however, only folding bikes can go anywhere Amtrak serves.

Since folding bikes are just now becoming popular, Amtrak wanted the public to see a variety of folding bikes that can be used when taking a journey on the national passenger rail network.

Here's a short video I shot at the event. Note the IF MODE full size folding bike on display. In addition, I brought a CarryMe DS , Strida 5.0 , a Kent Compact Nexus 3 , an E-Z Pack and the Kent Mini 8 folding bike prototype.



By far, the crowd pleaser was the IF MODE. Amtrak marketing manager Jerome Trahan noted that the RideTHISbike .com booth received almost as much attention as the historic passenger cars on display (that's pretty serious). Even New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin stopped by for a photo op.

If you're curious about Amtrak's policy concerning bicycles that fold, here's a copy of the official policy statement concerning carriage of folding bikes aboard Amtrak trains.
amtrak -folding-bike-policy_07. pdf

Labels: 2009-National-Train-Day