More mountain climbing fun on a Dahon folding bike (pics & video)

[laura*]

Unlike last month though, I now have lower gears in the form of an mtb triple crankset. The D7 doesn't have a front derailleur, so I had to remove about 3" of chain and put it on the middle ring. The chain was sagging in the middle ring until I removed the extra links, so I think the rear derailleur isn't designed for multiple front chainrings.

There is a way to mount a front derailleur on the Speed series frames. Thor ("thorusa" I think) sells a "braze-on" style clamp. This allows fitting a "braze-on" style front derailleur. In the Shimano world, that limits you to a road bike derailleur. (Shimano's clamp-less mountain bike derailleurs use a different mount.) Of course, this does nothing about the limited capacity of the Dahon rear derailleur.

Now to view your videos...

Edit: Watched the descents! The fastest I've gone on my Dahon is I think about 33 MPH. I'm scared to go faster because at high speeds the bike reacts funny to steering input - it'll go through one cycle of wobble or shimmy.