Bike in a cloakroom?

For about a week now I have had a folding bike, the rather odd-looking triangular framed Strida.

Well, it kicks ass. Not only does it eliminate the need to walk even sub-kilometer distances it goes in cloakrooms. On Thursday last week I took the Strida on its maiden voyage to an opening at the Hayward Gallery. Rather than search around for (usually inadequate and distant) bike parking facilities I spent ten seconds folding it, and then wheeled it into the gallery lobby...

Along with my coat and sweater I checked it into the cloakroom at the Hayward. The woman behind the counter and the ancienter-than-god dude barely flinched. If anything I felt the most awkward, asking to coatcheck my vehicle. It leant down discreetly behind the door. Even cooler, when the event was over I skipped the queue and walked in through the side-door to the cloakroom and picked it (and my coat) up, and then was immediately opened by this quite cute Aussie. Bonus.

It gets better. Confidence boosted, on Tuesday I took it to a nightclub in Leics Sq, past the bouncer (again, no flinching) and into the cloakroom. A bike, in a cloakroom, in a West End nightclub. Fantastic!