Commuting - Folding Mountain for Winter ?

Currently I do my 10 mile commute on a Specialized Sirrus (a road bike with straight bars). But snow and muck are coming soon, and perhaps some ice from time to time as we still get in New England. My skinny 120lb tires aren't going to make it for much longer.

I'm looking at getting a mountain bike with hydraulic disc brakes for the bad days that will accomodate a 6 foot 4 inch 200 lb human (me). Dahon makes a folder with these features called the ZERO-G - but I haven't found anybody who has ridden one to ask about how well they would deal with street riding in snow. Comments? Advice ?

Why would you want a folding bike vs just a good MTB?

x2 Bill ...

<Indiana Jones> "folders .... I hate folders" </Indiana Jones>

God it really was cold yesterday.........and windy.... always when riding up river

To stash it inside at work rather than outside chained to a tree.

Currently I do my 10 mile commute on a Specialized Sirrus (a road bike with straight bars). But snow and muck are coming soon, and perhaps some ice from time to time as we still get in New England. My skinny 120lb tires aren't going to make it for much longer.

I'm looking at getting a mountain bike with hydraulic disc brakes for the bad days that will accomodate a 6 foot 4 inch 200 lb human (me). Dahon makes a folder with these features called the ZERO-G - but I haven't found anybody who has ridden one to ask about how well they would deal with street riding in snow. Comments? Advice ?

I have a Dahon Matrix, the street version of the Zero-G, specifically for winter. It has disk brakes (non-hydraulic). I love disk brakes, and this bike is really a good winter bike for me. I have been slow in getting studded tires, but I will do that this weekend. It's not a particularly light bike, but it does fold, and it is nice to ride. I take it home on the Metro since I don't do the night-riding thing.

Is there a particular reason you are looking for a folder? While I like mine alot, if I had no need for folding (Metro), I think I would have stuck with my '86 Stumpjumper decked out for winter, but I needed a folder and was not ready to make the leap to the 20" folder world (although I'm getting there now--folders are fascinating).

I'm pretty sure that my Matrix is good up to 250 lbs...ZeroG might be more, I don't know. I'm 5'6" and 135, so it's fine for me.

Please also check out the folding bike forum. There have been some discussions about 26" folding bikes, including the Matrix and Zero-G.

Thanks Velogirl, I will check out the postings on the 26 inchers. I had talked to some folks at llbean (of all places) about the Dahon boardwalk folders and though one of them said she liked them - she did mention that the 20 inchers gearing was such that it worked fine for uphill but it was coasting time on the down hill. (llbean has since dropped carrying them and only carries the 26incher now) Not a problem for snowy conditions - but if I use the bike in summer I wanted more cross country trail ability - without having to redo the gears. How did you have your stumpjumper decked?

Why not go to the source (http://www.dahon.com/forum/index.php)?