Folding Bikes - A Curve SL or a Curve D3 with serious upgrades and mods?

I rode a D3 at lunchtime and it's quite a lot of fun. The SL is a bike I am giving serious consideration to, but I thought I should ask whether anyone has any experience, recommendations or general advice on the wisdom of buying the D3 over the SL and spending some money on mods and upgrades?

The average prices here are £350 for the D3 and £550 for the SL.

So, £200/$400 for mods and upgrades, although more would be available if required for really tweaking it.

Many thanks.

As a general rule, it's more economical to buy the bike you want than to buy something else and try to upgrade. That said....

I chose my Downtube Mini over the Dahon Curve D3 because of the 8-speed vs 3 speed hub. I know the latter pretty well, and it's an excellent hub, but the former suits my riding style much better. I don't know the 5-speed hub, but looking at the numbers on Sheldon Brown's gear calculator, it looks to me like the 5 would be pretty nice, though maybe not quite as nice as the 8-speed.

I doubt you'll find a 28-hole 8-speed hub, so if you want to upgrade the D3 to that, you'll be buying a whole wheel... might even consider Capreo at that point... but it sounds prohibitively expensive to me.
So just on the basis of the hub, I'd say go for the SL. Before you do that, though, find out what it's would cost you to get a Mini. That's probably prohibitively expensive too, but it's worth considering.

The SL has an alloy fork , better rims, 5 versus 3 gears , lighter saddle ( although the I beam stuff is not everybodies cup of tea ) what else do I forget ???

I have a D 3 basically because i like the red color .... took fenders and carrier off the bike, added a klikfix mount to the front a couple other small things like mks pedals withpowerstraps .... i like the bike



thor

The SL has an alloy fork , better rims, 5 versus 3 gears , lighter saddle ( although the I beam stuff is not everybodies cup of tea ) what else do I forget ???

I have a D 3 basically because i like the red color .... took fenders and carrier off the bike, added a klikfix mount to the front a couple other small things like mks pedals withpowerstraps .... i like the bike



thor

I think I'd rather have a steel fork anyday over an alluminium one. On an unsuspended bike its a part that takes a lot of hammering. Maybe I'm just old fashioned. I'd rather have a light weight steel frame too. Better failure mode and easily repairable. I check my Merc alluminium frame VERY carefully every hundred miles. A bit pointless maybe, since the powdercoat finish may not give me as much warning as paint would if things were going wrong at the joints.

Having said that, I'm toying with the idea of buying a D3. It looks fun.

I rode a D3 at lunchtime and it's quite a lot of fun. The SL is a bike I am giving serious consideration to, but I thought I should ask whether anyone has any experience, recommendations or general advice on the wisdom of buying the D3 over the SL and spending some money on mods and upgrades?

The average prices here are £350 for the D3 and £550 for the SL.

So, £200/$400 for mods and upgrades, although more would be available if required for really tweaking it.

Many thanks.

I am very pleased with my SL which I have had for several weeks now. It is delightful to ride and quite light. The only critisism is that folding takes a bit of practice, since the handlebars must be exactly positioned if the magnet is to meet it's mating steel disc. I have marked the handlebars and stem with a felt tip pen in the folded position so that I can minimise folding time.
Presumably the D3 would be the same. The SL has a better spec than the D3, and in my opinion worth paying extra for.
It is difficult to see any cost effective or worthwhile up-grading on the SL
Try J.E.James of Sheffield for a good discount on the SL.

I rode a D3 at lunchtime and it's quite a lot of fun. The SL is a bike I am giving serious consideration to, but I thought I should ask whether anyone has any experience, recommendations or general advice on the wisdom of buying the D3 over the SL and spending some money on mods and upgrades?

The average prices here are £350 for the D3 and £550 for the SL.

So, £200/$400 for mods and upgrades, although more would be available if required for really tweaking it.

Many thanks.

I like to buy a bike that reflects the closest to what I need or want in a bike at that time. I like the bike to have as many components and accessories that I want when it arrives at my door. I have also had custom work done on bikes if they did not have what I want and I prefer stock whenever possible. But that usually does not stop me from changing at least one part. For more information on what I have done on 4 different bikes over the last few years see the links below:

The Curve SL ison sale at ebay.co.uk at a buy it now price of £399. That is most tempting. Questions that need answering are, 'Why do I need one?', 'How much better would it be than my trusty Merc?' 'Will my wife beat me if I spend £400 on ANOTHER bicycle, especially such a tiny one?', 'Will I look even more of a clown than I already do riding an EVEN smaller bike?'

I could go on. Hopefully someone will persuade me not to do this by making the lust for a new toy go away by talking some common sense.