Price Paid:
$0.00
at The Bike Stand Favorite Ride:
any and all (or almost so) Bike Setup:
Mountain bike seat, chopped telescoping stem so it fits all the way down, added regular pedals with toe clips and straps, fenders. Use removeable lights at night. Replaced stock 52 chainring, first with a 53, now using a 48. Summary:
A good quality folding bike. Unlike earlier modesl this one has a telescoping handlebar stem allowing height adjustment; the bike looks nice, is well made, and has a real pair of cransk with removable chainring (130 bolt pattern) - important for tuning gearing. Came with good tires capable fo holding decent presure -- 95psi. Can mount rack or fenders. Lightweight, not much heavier than a roadbike, much lighter than a mountain bike. Oh yeh, the silver aluminum looks sharp... Strengths:
1 - Handlebar height is asjustable! This is the big thing, Often you are rarely able to adjust handlebar height on folding bikes, meaning except for tall riders your bars are much too high. Helios has a telescoping bar stem that allows you to move it up or down. All the way down it still was a touch too high, about an inch or so, bottoming out on the inside, so I cut off the bottom. Now it does all the way down about level with the seat. I would not have gotten this bike without this option since without it there's no way to make the bike fit me.
2- Real cranks. My first Dahon had a chainring permanently attached to the crank. This one has a decent quality road crank with a bolt on ring.
3 - Fender and rack mounts.
4 - Sturdy hinge mechanisms. The handlebar and Frame both fold, and both are solid.
5 - Decent tires.
6 - grips. Never tries ergonomic grips before, like em. An' i ride w/ gloves.
7- The rear cog gearing. The rear gears allow you to climb and go tolerably fast in traffic or open roads. Especially the big inside gear. Nice!
8 - Overall ride. The bike feels right, handles right, and rides right. Weaknesses:
Not many things to nitpick. Okay, maybe a few:
1- The Saddle. While not bad, it was not great, to thick and not shaped right. While not extreme as some "comfort" saddles it's clearly int hat catagory, and therefore out of place on a bike spec'ed with road tires that go up to nearly 100psi. Seriously. I put a mountainbike seat on it and was much happier. i get with much use being transport not racing, they aren't gonna spec it with a Flite, but come on, don't spec a big old couch. I don't know ANYONE who rides for transport in the US of A and spins along at 20 rpm. And guess what, at anything like a normal cadance, "Comfort" seats are uncomfortable. Since Dahon specificially recommends spinning rather than standing up and cranking big gears, to avoid stressing the folding joints needlessly, I find this choice of saddle counter-productive and frankly pointless.
2 - Shifter: The shifter works fine, but grip shift stinks, they are a pain to work on, can shift accidentally while holding the grips, and just feel cheap. Wish they'd spec'd somthing else.
3- Kick stand. This kept "clicking on the nondrive side crank. I liked it, but had to remove it. Similar Products Used:
Dahon Boardwalk geared bike converted to single speed/fixed gear.
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