Dahon Folding Bike

Dahon (da-hon or day-hon), I believed, is one of the biggest manufacturers of folding bikes.  With little practice, you can fold or unfold it in less than 10 secs and bring it on to a train (BART/Caltrain for my case) during rush hours, and put it in the trunk of a even sub-compact car.  Another advantage to folding bike in general is you can bring with you everywhere you go, so you don't have to worry about theft.  I am sure for a many cities this is not a problem, but seeing the word, "stolen," on the bike listing of Craigslist is not uncommon around my area.  I also have many bad experiences with bike theft when I was in college. 

My current folder is a 2005 Dahon Helios with 20 in. Schwalbe Marathon Slick tires.  It's light enough, 22-23 lb., (can be easily carry it with one hand), and fast... faster than my vintage steel bike.  The whole idea of a folding bike is just perfect.  Although, I admit I feel a little uncomfortable sometimes because it does look like a grown-up riding a bmx (vs. BMW) whenever I am on one.   It somehow makes you feel a little better as you see more and more people riding a Dahon.  Whenever you are on a train, people seem to be curious about these kind of bikes and asked lots of questions.  I also encountered people with higher end folding bikes such as Birdy, Brompton, Swift, Trek F600, and Bike Friday trying to intimidate my Dahon, but in the end they seem impressed with how it folds.  

Cons?  Things seem to break faster than any of the bikes I've ridden.  If the folding handlebar-post broke, which is what happened to my older Dahon Boardwalk, it's a problem even if you have the cash for the part.

 

According to Dahon's website, I contacted two bike shops near my area: Bay Area Bikes and Dublin Cyclery.  I drove to the bike shop, talk to the mechanic, and gave them my numbers for them to get back to me.  It took me three weeks of long wait to finally accomplish nothing.

www.dahon.com/locator

Luckily there's Gaelan.

www.gaerlan.com

 
By looking at his website, one might think the store has been shut down since the beginning of the world wide web when Gopher and Telnet are the two most common protocols of the internet (sorry, you have to be a techie and older than me at the same time to understand).  But, don't be fool, do NOT be fool... this guy eats and drinks folding bike.  He's very knowledgeable, calls you several times make sure you get the right part, and he also accepts PayPal.  I don't know him personally, but highly recommend talking to him if you have a problem with your Dahon.