Anyone have a Dahon or Brompton?

[emily_in_nc]

Hi ~

Just wondering if anyone here has a Dahon or Brompton folding bike? My DH and I have Bike Friday Pocket Crusoes that we love, but we have just bought a 30' sailboat and eventually hope to go on extended cruises on it. We'd like folding bikes that are even quicker and easier to fold than our Crusoes, and that fold up smaller for ease of storage on our boat and transporting in a small dinghy, so we're looking at bikes with 16" wheels rather than the 20" wheels on our Crusoes. We also don't anticipate needing a huge range of gears as we have on our Crusoes, which are touring bikes with triple cranks. It would also be nice to have a bike that doesn't get grease on our cushions, dinghy, etc. when folded. Our intended uses are mostly just to tool around towns along the way, go to the grocery store, internet cafes, and get a little exercise, not take extensively long rides. Utility bikes with flat bars is what we have in mind, with 3 to 7 speeds, probably.

Bike Friday makes a new "Tikit" model, which fits the bill but is $1100 on up. I'd rather not spend that much money on a bike that will be exposed to salty air and water, and might be more prone to being stolen in coastal areas, the islands, etc. than our careful guarded bikes here in NC. So, I'd rather get something relatively cheap that we can afford to replace if it's stolen or rusts out over time.

We've started looking at Dahons and Bromptons online, and some of their models look pretty good for our purposes, but they seem to be one size fits all, which concerns me since I am only 5'1-1/2". I ride a 44 to 46 cm road bike and need a short reach to the handlebars. I also don't want a bike that is a piece of junk (Wal-mart level), but it doesn't have to be as fine as a Bike Friday for this particular use.

I don't think there are many on this forum who ride folders other than Bike Fridays, but just thought I'd check in case someone is lurking...

Any feedback on these bikes, or any brands I might have overlooked that might fit the bill, would be very helpful. Thanks!

Emily

[DirtDiva]

No idea really, but here are some reviews: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/folding.

[uk elephant]

I don't ride one either, but I see tons of them around here so they can't be all that bad. The brompton's especially fold up very small. A friend uses his brompton to cycle from the train station to the office every day and seems happy with it.

[farrellcollie]

I have a dahon 20 inch speed8 and a downtube viii. I like the downtube much better - the dahon propriatary parts is quite annoying - although I think now they have gotten rid of the stupid saddle design where you could not use a regular saddle. I don't know anything about the smaller bikes.

[farrellcollie]

Also - bikeforums.net has a large folder contingency with several threads on the 16" bikes.

[emily_in_nc]

I'll definitely check out the review link, DirtDiva, and the bikeforums.net folders group, farrellcollie. I did see a couple of used Bromptons on ebay, and based on what they were asking ($900 and $1100 for opening bids), I'm thinking they are going to be at least as much if not more than the Bike Friday Tikits (which start around $1100, no used ones yet since it's a new model), so if we want to keep the price lower, we'll probably be looking at Dahons eventually. This is not an immediate purchase, just something for the future.

Emily