This was good strength training!

[laura*]

I have heard that people have broken the handlepost by climbing out of the saddle on Dahons, but I wonder if that applies to the new ones as well?

I think so. I already had to replace the headset on mine and thus had that part of the bike all apart. The clamping area (height? width?) between the handlepost and steerer is about half that of a conventional threadless stem. There is just a single smallish clamp bolt - it's there to transmit steering forces, not resist flex. Finally, a large custom "bolt" threads into the inside of the steerer - it'll do a good job of keeping the parts together, but not so good at resisting flex.

Then add a 16 (14? 18?) inch lever arm on top of that wimpy connection, and you have the recipe to break parts!

I suspect my Dahon is really a 2010 model, not a 2011.

Dahon model years don't really have much relation to reality. My Speed TR is a 2008 that I bought in 2010 as "last year's" model. I think Dahon never even brought any 2010 TR's into the USA - there were too many older ones still in the warehouse.