My friend Robbie is no slouch on a bike. He is a former Mass-Rhode Island district road race champion, he has been beaten by the likes of Steve Bauer and Davis Phinney. The man can always get on a bike and haul ass, he always will. He drove by two days ago and was hot to go for a ride. I looked in his car to see only cycling shoes, a helmet and a small lumpy bag, he removed the bag from the car and looking like an off-duty magician, pulled out what appeared to be the remnants of a bad kid’s-bike-versus-snow-plow accident but was instead, a Dahon. A Folding Bike unlike any folding bike I’ve ever seen. This magic trick continued as he unfolded this little transformer into the most unlikely thing that would still fall under the definition of ”bicycle.” Everything was hinged and telescoped and yet it had a serious racing saddle on it. To my eye this was an inexpensive, carbon fiber free, heavy duty-commuting machine.
Robbie is an old school racer who rode a fixed gear track bike everywhere in the off-season to improve his spin. He rode his track bike through the Callahan Tunnel in Boston, a highly illegal feat I suspect never done before or after, for every reason.
But I digress.
Now he prefers to get across NYC on bike rather than wait for the next crowded subway car but his commute into NYC requires a trip on the Long Island Railway and having wrenched his back man-handling his regular bike around, by necessity, dove into the world of miniature bikes. Robbie is also a silversmith and unafraid to work some metal. This Dahon is now a fixie and to make it a smaller package it needed smaller 14” wheels, which meant a larger chainring, which meant a modified chainstay, which meant a modified shorter front fork, one thing leads to another you understand.
We did go for a demonstration spin. His position on this bike is his regular road position in the drops. He easily whipped up to 23mph and claims he has hit 35mph on this contraption. With the tiny wheels he could draft me so close he could put his hand forward and touch me. Road riders are quite horrified to be unable to get rid of Robbie and his clown bike on a 40-mile ride. The bike can be checked at a coat check! He rides much more now because he always has this portable bike that is fun, fast and safe to ride.
This has changed my thinking. I always assumed the S and S coupling of a standard bike was the only serious way to get portable. I guess it’s my 700C paradigm. It’s nice to see it from another angle.
Posted in: Bike Setup / Technology
Great story – fun read.
Further proof, it’s the rider, not the bike…..
Now THAT’s a lot of seatpost!
How big is the gear, do you know? I used to ride a Bike Friday, and the gear was enormous because of the stupidly small wheels…
As far as traveling bikes go, this one has a clever design: Ritchey Breakaway – but it’s no where near as compact! WOW!
I WANT ONE.
How do you pronounce the name? I imagine it’s DA-HON, like “Me an’ mah 14-inch wheels are gonna take you DA-HON!”
@Dan O
Dan O, you are correct. I saw a civilian on a small wheeled bike today and the whole package was depressing. It is the rider, not the bike.
@frank
This might be a record for showing seatpost. I don’t think you could ride one of these with your seatpost requirements.
I’m not sure what size gear Robbie has but he did have to modify the chain/seat stay to accommodate the chain with it’s big momma chainring. It must have been a long gear because at 23mph he was not really spinning it.
DA-HON, that is correct, sounds Chinese but is a California company. Go figure.
Hey everyone, Big JohnO has writen up a great review of my Dahon but our visit together was short and rushed so there are a few miconceptions! This bike is a kids bike Dahon no longer makes called the Sweet Pea. It had 14″ wheels and I changed them to 16″ so I could get large enough gear inches and also better tires and rims. The front chian ring is something like a 56 and the rear cog is a 12, giving me 71 gear inches which is perfect for my fitness and ability to hang with the big boys on all but the steepest ups and downs. It weighs about 20 Lbs and maybe some day I will spend some bucks on it and lighten it up. I haver done a rolling 60 mile ride on it at 18+ mph.
Dahons are great I also own a 20″ 8 speed with Rolf wheels that wieghs18 Lbs! But I am in love with the little fixie cause it folds up so small. Dahon came out with a single speed this year called the Uno and that would be a great fixed bike at an afordable price.
Thanks to John for the pics and blurb!!
Shouldnt there be a rule about this…I mean a rule stating this is wrong on multiple levels?
Your just mad cause its embarrassing when I ride with you guys and you have trouble keeping up.
But seriously if you take out how I look (an escapee from an insane asylum circus) when riding this machine and I realize that is not an option for most here, it makes a huge amount of sense.
It is first and foremost a travel bike that is light, highly functional and an amazingly good ride. It goes everywhere in its bag which means that there is no carrying, hassling (and worrying about theft) with heavy locks.
I keep it in my car (it takes up very little room) and it goes on planes, trains and boats all for free. A medium size hard suitcase for the planes, its very light bag for trains and folded on ferries I am not charged for a bike.
There has never been a problem bringing it into office buildings, restaurants or shops either bagged or not, it folds in seconds and the time I save when I am in the city for the day doing errands is astounding.
It would be great to have a custom one made and spend big bucks on carbon and titanium bits so that the weight would get down to 14-15 lbs. This would mean that my travel bike would weigh about the same as my first laptop.
Bottom line this bike is not for everybody (fixed gear, limitations on weight and height etc.) but if one can get over the “have to look perfect in line with the Rules” it is an incredibly functional tool.
@Rob, @Andrew
It’s so fucked. It is so fucked. I love the matching blue cranks. I think this thing defies The Rules. Kinda like when we land on one of Jupiter’s moons and some slimy pustule rolls up to us, pulls out a pen and paper and draws a picture of a puppy, we’ll be like, “That defies explanation.” It’s pretty much the same thing.
What is really unsettling is that my road bike shows about the same amount of seatpost.
The MTB cranks were a gift from a friend who helped with the gearing, he had them on his shelf and since they matched was kind enough to donate them to the cause.
What’s cool is that there are so many equipment choices these days one can put together many different configurations. This seat post combo is more about getting the smallest fold thus the big to little post with the quick release – more weight but a necessary compromise.
I would make one of these with 14” wheels for an even smaller fold but that does not work from 2 points – one the gearing, you would need a 60+ tooth chain ring to get a decent gear (this one is 56X12 X 16” wheels = 71 gear inches) and that messes with the folding and two as far as I know you can’t get good 14” rims and tires. This bike has bulletproof 16” wheels and high-pressure tires.
Lovin’ it! My current commuter/everyday-get-around-with-the-kids bike is a five- or six-year old Montague. It’s a legitimate hardtail MTB, but thanks to a quick-release on the top tube, it folds in half along the seat tube (so it doesn’t compromise the bike’s structural integrity). Bit on the heavy side, but it’s one tough machine, gets a lot of looks and comments, and I’ve never been dropped with it out on the trails. And it fit in the trunk of my car and/or a small closet when we lived in Center City Philly. These days, I don’t fold it much, but it still provides a great ride and I’ve never thought of replacing it.
Yes folding is cool and the technology only gets better, lighter and stronger. I have been seriously pounding around on the Dahon for two years now and have had no problems. I can’t wait for the next generation.