bike friday new world tourist vs. dahon speed tr

[Frank Mattheus]

I'm looking at getting a folding touring bike. I tend to do a lot of
one or two week tours, where I hop on a plane and ride straight from
the airport. It's always a hassle getting a bike box at the end of a
trip, and find that I always have one wasted day getting things ready,
and then getting to the airport with a huge box is a pain as well.
Not to mention travelling by train at times during the trip. (Located
in Europe).

I was just wondering if anyone had toured with both the dahon speed tr
and the bike friday new world tourist and had any suggestions one way
or the other. Is one easier to fold (not so important for me), folds
smaller (more important), handles rough terrain better (even more
important), or just plain handles better (most important).

Thanks,
Frank Mattheus

[Brian Wilson]

We have a Dahon Boardwalk and a Dahon Marine, they are cheaply made bikes,
and have lots of weird custom Dahon components.

Both of them had problems with the wheels going
out of true in the first couple hundred miles. So bad
that they became unrideable and I had to retrue them while
on vacation.

36 spoke 20" fat tire wheels should be nearly indestructible,
I attribute this to very poor build quality.

Front hub is 75mm wide, making upgrades or emergency
replacements difficult.

The rear wheel on one broke a couple spokes and is out of commission
right now.

For kicks I tried putting a pannier rack on the front of my Boardwalk.
Looking at the photo at http://dahon.com/us/speedtr.htm
I want you to imagine a set of panniers on the front rack.

Normal front panniers on that rack will hit the ground unless
you are going in a straight line. You'd need very short panniers.

I have the standard rear rack which is good for carrying a rack top
bag. The wheel base is so short that I can't put any rear pannier
on without my heel clipping it. In fact I have trouble with my
heel clipping a Burley trailer hitch too.

On that bike it looks like they have a normal rear derailleur.
Our bikes have a special Dahon derailleur that is ahead of the
rear axle. The cable pulls the derailleur onto the small cog
so the twist shifter works backwards.
Shifting was good for about the first 100 miles.


Thanks for asking, I feel better now.


Brian

[alex wetmore]

Post by Brian Wilson
We have a Dahon Boardwalk and a Dahon Marine, they are cheaply made
bikes, and have lots of weird custom Dahon components.

I don't think that they fold up to fit in a standard airline suitcase
either.

I have a Bike Friday NWT. I just biked home from work on it. In
contrast to your Dahon's almost everything on my Bike Friday is
standard. The only exceptions are the headset (1 1/4" threaded),
chainrings (oversized to make up for the small wheels), and the wheels
(406mm but with normal 100mm front and 135mm rear hubs).

It rides pretty well. It folds pretty well.

I'm thinking about selling it, but I'd be buying another Bike Friday
to replace it. I'm interested in their new "tikit" model which is
less suitable for touring but better suited for quick folding. I
don't use the Bike Friday much for touring, it mostly does 10-20 mile
rides in the mornings when we are on vacation. Something that folded
quickly and got out of the way while being in the trunk of the car
would be an advantage, so the tikit is probably better for me. I'm a
bit concerned about the smaller 16" wheels, but think that I'll
probably be fine.

http://www.bikefriday.com/tikit

alex

[Brian Wilson]

Post by alex wetmore
I don't think that they fold up to fit in a standard airline suitcase
either.

It takes some work but you can do it, we used $5 thrift store suitcases
and the bikes flew for free. Someone did a web page with photos detailing
how to get them to fold small enough. Google for it.

Brian

[Eric Nielsen]

Post by alex wetmore

Post by Brian Wilson
We have a Dahon Boardwalk and a Dahon Marine, they are cheaply made
bikes, and have lots of weird custom Dahon components.

I don't think that they fold up to fit in a standard airline suitcase
either.

As far as Dahons are concerned, Gaerlan cycles recommends the Speed
P8 over the TR as more suitable for packing:

http://www.gaerlan.com/bikes/customd/customd.htm

They also have a page which shows how to pack a P8 into a standard
airline case:

http://www.gaerlan.com/dahon/pack.htm

[Keith Ayres]

Post by Brian Wilson
We have a Dahon Boardwalk and a Dahon Marine, they are cheaply made bikes,
and have lots of weird custom Dahon components.
Both of them had problems with the wheels going
out of true in the first couple hundred miles. So bad
that they became unrideable and I had to retrue them while
on vacation.
36 spoke 20" fat tire wheels should be nearly indestructible,
I attribute this to very poor build quality.
Front hub is 75mm wide, making upgrades or emergency
replacements difficult.
The rear wheel on one broke a couple spokes and is out of commission
right now.
For kicks I tried putting a pannier rack on the front of my Boardwalk.
Looking at the photo at http://dahon.com/us/speedtr.htm
I want you to imagine a set of panniers on the front rack.
Normal front panniers on that rack will hit the ground unless
you are going in a straight line. You'd need very short panniers.
I have the standard rear rack which is good for carrying a rack top
bag. The wheel base is so short that I can't put any rear pannier
on without my heel clipping it. In fact I have trouble with my
heel clipping a Burley trailer hitch too.
On that bike it looks like they have a normal rear derailleur.
Our bikes have a special Dahon derailleur that is ahead of the
rear axle. The cable pulls the derailleur onto the small cog
so the twist shifter works backwards.
Shifting was good for about the first 100 miles.
Thanks for asking, I feel better now.
Brian

Brian,

Sorry to hear about your problems. I have a Vitesse D7 which has the
same reversed derailleur and small rear rack. With size 40 sandals and
Carradice Kendal panniers mounted well back on the rack, I could pedal
OK. The gearing has stayed well-adjusted, I still turn it the wrong
way after nearly a year though. I like the increased ground clearance
for the mech, compared to a Birdy, say.
I've broken 2 spokes in the rear wheel, I'm not sure if the first
happened on the road, or while travelling in a railway goods van (when
I came to retrieve it at the end of the journey, it was in a different
slot in the rack. Did someone knock it down, breaking a spoke, and put
it back and keep quiet?) The second went while I was riding 12 miles
with the first spoke gone.

[George]

We have two NWT bikes and we have never (knock on wood) even had a
flat. The bikes are indestructible but not light or fast. I originally
bought the trailer kit, but soon got rid of that -- the trailer just
holds too much stuff for my kind of touring (no camping).

Tours (pics) http://www.gfarnsworth.com/Famazine/BikeTrips.cfm

Finland: Helsinki to the Arctic Circle -- no problems -- took them on
ferries and trains.
Netherlands: All around -- no problems -- also trains and some ferries.
Spain and France: Used little hatchback rental cars to haul the bikes
around for shorter rides.
PEI: Hassled by airport security a little on the way back.

Taking the bikes in their cases we have never had any airline damage.
There is the issue of what to do with the cases whilst touring, though.
Usually we arrange for a hotel to keep them in return for a night or two
at each end of the trip.

George

Post by Frank Mattheus
I'm looking at getting a folding touring bike. I tend to do a lot of
one or two week tours, where I hop on a plane and ride straight from
the airport. It's always a hassle getting a bike box at the end of a
trip, and find that I always have one wasted day getting things ready,
and then getting to the airport with a huge box is a pain as well.
Not to mention travelling by train at times during the trip. (Located
in Europe).
I was just wondering if anyone had toured with both the dahon speed tr
and the bike friday new world tourist and had any suggestions one way
or the other. Is one easier to fold (not so important for me), folds
smaller (more important), handles rough terrain better (even more
important), or just plain handles better (most important).
Thanks,
Frank Mattheus
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Touring mailing list
Browse and search the archives: http://search.bikelist.org
http://www.phred.org/mailman/options/touring

[Mary Shaw]

A friend of ours brought a Dahon on our Danube trip. I think he paid about
$4-500 in the US, so it was probably from the lowere end of their lines.
The first day he stripped the threads on one of the pedals; he stripped the
other pedal about 4 days later. There are at least two shops between Passau
and Vienna that can do helicoil. The first day we thought he might have
mis-assembled the bike, but that doesn't explain the second incident, as the
shop that fixed the first one checked the other side.

Mary Shaw

Post by Frank Mattheus
I'm looking at getting a folding touring bike. I tend to do a lot of
one or two week tours, where I hop on a plane and ride straight from
the airport. It's always a hassle getting a bike box at the end of a
trip, and find that I always have one wasted day getting things ready,
and then getting to the airport with a huge box is a pain as well.
Not to mention travelling by train at times during the trip. (Located
in Europe).
I was just wondering if anyone had toured with both the dahon speed tr
and the bike friday new world tourist and had any suggestions one way
or the other. Is one easier to fold (not so important for me), folds
smaller (more important), handles rough terrain better (even more
important), or just plain handles better (most important).
Thanks,
Frank Mattheus
_______________________________________________
Touring mailing list
Browse and search the archives: http://search.bikelist.org
http://www.phred.org/mailman/options/touring

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[Brian Wilson]

Post by Mary Shaw
The first day he stripped the threads on one of the pedals; he stripped the
other pedal about 4 days later. There are at least two shops between Passau

I did not have trouble with the cranks, I replaced the cranksets on both
bikes with sets I had on the shelf in my shop so that we had 14 speeds
with 'manual shifting'. (It works quite well.) A real bail out gear,
you have to really want to use it to stop and move the chain over.

The cranksets I used were probably 8 ounces lighter too.

But you did remind me that one of the folding pedals snapped off recently.
There is only one bearing on the folding pedals, at the crank. I would
recommend not using any folding pedals unless you are using the bike
on buses (on and off a lot)
We did not use them on our trip, since I had to take them off anyway for
packing we used clipless.

Nroam

[Jim Foreman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Foreman" <jimfore-***@public.gmane.org>
To: "Brian Wilson" <brian-***@public.gmane.org>; "alex wetmore" <alex-***@public.gmane.org>
Cc: <touring-***@public.gmane.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: bike friday new world tourist vs. dahon speed tr

----- Original Message -----
Subject: Re: bike friday new world tourist vs. dahon speed tr
I'm sure this is going to draw fire but I've noticed that products from
a country with a Communist government tend to be about the same in quality
as the life of the people who live there. Witness the Yugo and most hand
tools.
Jim Foreman