Folding Bikes

[kmehrzad]

I have a Dahon Jetstream P8 and two Bike Fridays (New World Tourist and a Pocket Rocket). By far I like the Bike Fridays. The Dahon is a quicker fold and is okay for shorter distances, but the Bike Friday is great on long distance rides. It's very comfortable and, in my opinion, worth the extra money. Plus, it's built to your specifications.

[NbyNW]

I have a Dahon Speed Pro TT. Is that what you tried out? I don't know what a Sport Pro is. I'm 5'1" with a short reach and I've been able to adjust the bike so that the reach is comfortable for me, and comparable to my regular road bike. I have the bullhorn handlebars angled up slightly to mimic the angle of the brakes on my regular bike, and the base is as close to me as the joint will allow. You need a hex wrench to make that adjustment, so if the shop left you alone to play with the quick releases you would not have been able to adjust for the best fit for you.

The Speed Pro TT and Mu SL both use a Kore I-Beam seat post. You can change the saddle, but you won't have as many options as you would with a standard seat post. Alternatively, you can get a rail adapter and you could put any seat on the bike.

http://us.dahon.com/accessories/2007/kore-rail-adapter

I switched out the seat on my Speed Pro TT for a Biologic Velvet Saddle, which I can no longer find on the Dahon site, but thorusa still has them, third from bottom at this link:

http://www.thorusa.com/dahon/accessories/seatpost.htm

It's worked very well for me. Another place you can look for I-Beam compatible saddles is www.sdgusa.com

I love my Speed Pro TT. It's light and nimble. When I was commuting to work on it (about 11 miles round trip), it was able to handle Seattle's hills without a problem (gearing felt slightly different from my touring bike), and I could safely stash it under my desk during the day. Plus it made a great conversation piece while waiting at stop lights.

Longest ride I've ever done on it is 24 miles if I remember correctly.

If I ever get up to doing a century I think it would be fun to do it on my Dahon, especially if it were a ride that involved travel.

I haven't tried any of the other makes of folding bikes, but I'm sure you'll get feedback from people who have.

[NbyNW]

One quirky thing about my Speed Pro TT, which is a 2007 model and I'm not sure if it has been addressed in newer bikes is that it came with Shimano Tiagra brifters. The Tiagras have a trim-shift feature (I'm guessing most brifters do?) which is designed to work with a derailleur rather than the internal hub gear. If I accidentally do a trim-shift instead of a full shift, unsettling noises will come out of the hub and peddling will not feel smooth. It's not dangerous or anything, it's just a sign that you haven't fully shifted. Once I figured out what was happening I just made sure that I pushed the gear lever all the way in and that solved the problem. Just something to be aware of if you get a bike with that configuration.

Advantages to internal hub gear: you won't accidentally cross-chain, and you can shift while at a standstill, which is nice if you're stopped at the bottom of a hill.

[Sylvia]

You might be able to pick up a used BikeFriday. BikeFriday will sometimes have them on their site. I've seen them on ebay occasionally, and in addition, the bike shop where I ordered mine sometimes has used BikeFridays as well. I'm getting my bike at Dublin Cyclery, I know that's a bit of a drive from Soquel, but you could call them ahead of time and see what they have in stock and what their prices are.

This is their website. http://www.dublincyclery.com/

[roguedog]

I was looking to get Xootr's folding bike. It's gotten really good reviews and I like that they've used standard parts. And it's really reasonably priced. From the gallery you can see folks have totally customized it to their needs. there are racing ones, touring ones, and all the ones in between.

Seems flexible and reasonably priced.


http://www.xootr.com/folding-bicycle.html

[featuretile]

It's great to get so much feedback!

NbyNW - Obviously the person at the bike store knew nothing about the Dahon Speed Pro TT (not Sport Pro - oops). All he did was change the height of the seat. This is not my LBS. No one carries them except this place about an hour away. I am 5'3", so I guess it might be possible to fit, but I hate to buy one without trying and the problem is that at this bike shop the price is full retail, and you can get one online for substantially less. I don't really want to use up all their time getting it adjusted and then not buy it there. Not sure where to go with that. I also found your saddle changing info a good thing for the MU SL, since again, they did not know. But, I'm still not in love with these bikes and they are not inexpensive.

I will still keep trolling Ebay and craigslist for used Bike Fridays.

roguedog - I looked up Xootr again. I had not considered them because they don't fold up as much. But when I looked again, they could be disassembled further if you went on a plane. The gearing is still to high, but you can add a front derailleur and faster tires. I put in some questions to them and will see what response I get and let you know. Does anyone have one of those? I really feel hesitant to just order one without trying it out.

[NbyNW]

Wow, that's unfortunate that the bike store was not more knowledgeable about the products they are selling! How do they expect to sell anything? Maybe you can wait until they are clearing out their inventory for next year and go back and try the bikes again.

Also understandable about wanting to find a bike you love for the right price and wanting to be fair to the retail store. Can be tricky with folders since they're regarded as a niche item.

If I lived closer to you I'd let you take mine out for a test ride.

Another good resource is www.gaerlan.com. They have some good articles on their website and I have bought parts from them. They're about 4 hours from you, so they may be worth a phone call. They may also have other brands, but it seems that Dahon is their focus.