My New Folding Bicycle

[Dahon TR folding touring bicycle - don't bother]

I just bicycled across southern Wisconsin on a new Dahon TR folding bicycle.

Here are some equipment notes:

1. The box the bicycle comes in has a disclaimer on the outside that the buyer is responsible for having the bicycle checked and set up by a professional bicycle mechanic before using it. Which is to say, Dahon attempts to transfer its quality assurance responsibility to the user by printing a disclaimer on the box. That is both dishonest and lowlife and probably not legally effective. If you ship a dangerous product to a consumer, a disclaimer will not absolve the seller from liability.

2. The reason they attempt to do this, is that they ship the bicycle not completed. For instance I discovered after a few miles that the spokes on the front wheel, so far from adjusted, were finger loose. The nipples spun freely. They had been no more than put in place. I could have been killed if I had discovered this in worse circumstances. Thanks a lot Dahon.

3. The spokes on the front wheel are in a radial spoking pattern. Radial spoking is used only on the hottest track bicycles because one doesn't care about lateral strength on a smooth indoor track. But the Dahon TR is designed and sold as a touring bicycle, with pannier racks front and rear. Touring bicycles need laterally strong wheels because they are to be used in a maximum variety of circumstances including bad roads. Radial spoking gives the least lateral strength of any of the standard spoking patterns. This is just plain dangerous even if the spokes had been tightened.

Having a radial wheel fail on a downhill from hitting a pebble or even a minor irregularity in the pavement could have gotten me killed where a standard three cross lacing or even a la de dah two cross lacing pattern would have been strong enough to keep the wheel from failing laterally. Once again, thanks Dahon.

4. The only reason I can think of for using a homicidally-dangerous-on-a-touring-bike radial spoke pattern is that it takes about ten minutes less time per wheel to assemble. And it would have taken perhaps as much as five minutes longer to actually tighten the spokes. Which saves Dahon maybe a buck a wheel in labor cost. Great to see that customer safety comes first at Dahon.

5. Even the design is crap. There is a dynamo generator built into the front wheel hub and a light on the fork that it powers. The light is low to the ground so it is of little use when it is on. It is of no use at all when there are front panniers mounted because the panniers block almost all the light from it. But here is the class design move by Dahon: there is no way to disengage the dynamo. So one has to do the work of driving the dynamo at all times. The resistance is noticeable. Up hill and down, at the beginning of a long day, in the middle of the day, and especially when one is tired, there it is, sucking one's energy. Whatever number of miles you feel comfortable doing, figure on being able to do 5 to 8% fewer miles per day on the Dahon TR. The Dahon TR is a bicycle with a built-in headwind.

6. There is a large rear light on the rear rack. It is a steady light. Steady lights have long since been superseded by flashing ones and especially by powerful flashing strobe lights from Cateye. Fortunately it doesn't matter much because the Dahon light won't be visible anyway because it is too high and will be obscured by your tent bag or sleeping bag stuff sack overhanging it from the top, and concealed from the sides by your rear panniers. I was able to get a decent result by mounting a Cateye flashing strobe on the little reinforcing crossbar on the rear rack. It stuck out far enough to be visible from most directions. If I could improve the design with a standard Cateye product and a screwdriver, imagine what Dahon could have done with a whole factory full of tools and workers if they had given a damn about their products, let alone their customers.

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