It's SO SICK. I've been traveling a fair bit in the northeast with a Dahon Speed Uno (same bike as OP but singlespeed, though I have mine doctored up with an automatic 2-speed hub!) and can say this is the ultimate way to travel, in my opinion. When you are straight hitching you've got to walk often, and when you are stuck on your feet, everything can seem far away, so much so that you actually do less cool shit, wreck your feet, and your lows are fuckin low. With the bike that just isn't the case! If the hitching spot sucks, you hop on. If you are sick of having the same "hi I am a hitchhiker etc" convo with another ride, you hop on the bike. No sleep spots in town worth a shit? Cool - get out of the range of the tweakers (and the cops) by riding to a less developed area. And in crews of travelers and folks posted up on the street, you become "the homie" when the time comes to dumpster-dive, buy beer, scope cool spots, and just generally be a scout because you move at five times the speed of the average hobo in-town.
It does not slow you down hitchhiking. Straight up. You'd think it might because it adds bulk - but whatever is lost in this regard is gained (an then some, IMO) in the fact that you can pedal to the best spots for catching a ride. Throw a sling onto the seatpost and the cargo rack and when your ride stops, as surely as you throw your arm into the loop of your pack as you run for the ride, you scoop the bike too - and at 24 pounds, it isn't hard to do.
Also super fuckin' cool is the fact that you can, if you want, only bike the terrain you want to ride. Sick of going uphill? Stop, fold it up (20 seconds), and throw up the thumb. If the wind sucks, or the rain is driving and maddening, this would all be horrid on a pure bike tour, but the hitchbiker cheats - and finds a warm dry spot in a car. This winds up creating a series of transitions that feel pleasantly discombobulating. Pedal, hitch, pedal, hitch.
I know I sound like a used car salesman but this shit has revolutionized my setup and made vagabond life immensely more enjoyable out and out. But there are a couple drawbacks. One is that hitching with a non-bike-hobo partner sorta sucks, because then the bike turns into a relatively useless hunk of metal. Other than dumpster runs or scoping shit, you are still bound to walking speed, and sorta feel like a dick rolling around in a seat while your partner wrecks his feet. So it has made me take a more solitary path, even when I'd rather roll with a crew. This can be solved by traveling with other hitchbikers.. hence my proselytizing to OP the virtues of the bike hobo lifestyle. Other than that, it sucks that with a bike, you've got to check baggage when you fly, which limits options, slows you down, and costs you cash. And when in crowded spaces like street festivals, you are fucked and just have to push a loaded bike through a crowd, or carry a huge hunk of folded metal. Neither is fun or good, nor is either out of the norm for backpackers or bike tourers.
Credits to the legendary
@Wawa for posting their setup in the thread "Bike Bums? Gotta do it up." Since that thread and particularly their posts in it, I immediately got a folder and am so thankful for inspiration I found there. Cheers to OP - a brilliant friend of mine - for making the purchase. A great way to learn the road.
