I had my 1st commute to Boston last Thursday, using my new Dahon Vybe. It is 4 miles to the train station and 2 miles to the office. Found storing the bike on the train to be easy and got advice from another commuter to bring a bungee cord to hold the folded bike to a pole.
When I got off the train I noticed the rear wheel was rubbing against the brake pad and had a slight wobble. It was not rubbing badly so I continued to the office. I enjoyed the commute and did not find the downtown streets too intimidating with the traffic. I admit I got a little lost because i did not realize how many one way streets there are in Boston, so it took a bit to get headed in the right direction. About a block from the office the seat gave out and pitched forward. I was close enough that I just stood for a bit.
When I got to the office, I noticed a spoke hanging off of the rim
The wobble was very bad and I had to add some slack to the rear brake to make the tire spin. The nipple on the spoke was broken, leaving a piece of it in the rim. I called Scott at my local LL Bean (where I purchased the bike from) and he told me that it should be fine to get home with.
Scott went through the bike this morning with me and showed me what went wrong with the rim. He replaced the nipple and trued the rim. I also told him how the seat kept pitching forward no matter how much I tightened the saddle bolt. He went into the LL Bean attic and came down with some huge wide body saddle with springs and took the seatpost assembly from that- way more beefy than the stock Dahon setup. He through that on, adjusted my derailer, and directed me on how to attend a Park Tool bicycle repair class.
In this day and age customer service sometimes takes a back seat, but I feel really great about the bike now and can’t wait for the warmer weather to arrive
