I am just on my way back from China and there are some big changes here and I wonder how these affect markets elsewhere. Namely, the market has completely moved to the share model for the bikes. Everybody and his brother now rides share bikes while not riding privately owned. Apparently bike companies are in trouble if they don't make bikes for one of the share companies. Folding bikes certainly lose their advantage under the circumstances where you can find a share bike behind ever corner, identifying location on your phone. I will write a more detailed report later.
Yeah that is a thing, even here in Japan its starting, though in China the bikes are cheap junk (literally they are junk) while here they are little electric bikes.
Which is why companies like Dahon should start making bikes for people like me. I don't want some rubbish bike, I want my own highend bike personalised my way. They should be offering things like carbon frames, titanium bolts, different colored/design wheels, custom paint options, custom bars etc.
Take a leaf out of the world of cars, Honda has Mugen, Nissan Nismo, Mercedes AMG etc. Why no inhouse bike tuners? I would love to buy a Dahon Mu Type R but they wont sell it to me or even dream it up ;(
Interesting kickstarters will take the topend, sharing will take the lowend. Not too sure there is a middle for companies like Dahon.