Just got a Dahon Piccolo, have questions
 

I just got a Dahon Piccolo D3 and I have some questions.

1. I was surpised that it came with no fenders. I see some nice ones on the Dahon site but where can you buy them?? Dahon lists some internet vendors in the US but they only advertise 20".

2. The handle bar stem does not seem to be able to adjust to a comfortable height. I am 6'1" and if I adjust the seat to the right position the handle bars are a little lower than the seat. Its like a road race position. I guess that's the trade you make for a small fold.

3. Maybe I will get better at folding this bike but it takes a lot of fiddling to get the wheels close enough for the magnets to lock and to keep the brake handles off the ground. I think ideally you want the bike to sit on the bottom of the seat post and the wheels?? Any tricks on this.

Other than that it seems pretty cool. I will try it tomorrow on my commute with our light rail.

Big guy. Little bike! ;)

Re: Fenders, check with Gaerlan, they have some Dahon components:
http://www.gaerlan.com/

They might also have tips on extending the handlepost, but I have a feeling that if you go up any higher, the handling would suffer.

You might be able to order through an LBS that's a Dahon dealer, but from what I've heard it takes forever to get in parts.

Bob,

I used to have a Piccolo, and now ride a Presto. I am just a bit over 6 feet tall, so I also barely fit on this model bike. Regarding your questions:

1. Mine came with fenders, so cannot offer any help here. Do find them though. If you plan to use the bike for your daily commute they are an absolute necessity.
2. Regarding the height of the handle bars- at first I was adjusting the bars each time I performed the ride/fold cycle. I finally adjusted the bars to achieve a tight fold, and then left them there. They are a bit lower than I would like, but acceptable. Since I use the bike for short trips it is okay. Once I stopped adjusting the handlebars each time, folding became a 10 – 15 second operation.

One other recommendation I can make are these panniers from Nashbar:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...eid=&pagename=

There is no way to use traditional panniers on this bike, but these panniers are connected by a 5 inch wide strip of material. This allows you to sling them over the handle bars. There are even a couple of tie down straps which work perfectly to secure the panniers to the hand grips. This allows me to carry a change of clothes without using a backpack.

Hope you enjoy your bike. I have been commuting on mine for 3 years now and am a very satisfied.

Good adice...... I was starting to figure that out on the folding. By the way I found that that Dahon California will sell accessories. Its kinda of wierd on how to contact them. You have to email that you are interested in accessories. They then send you a general number. Then you get transferred to someone who does accessories. But they don't stock everything in the web page and there is no catalog. And he said the prices are not always right.

But he did help me and I was able to order the fenders.

I think I might have seen your post on the Dahon forums, too.

Am curious about how comfortable a ride it is, given we are about the same height. How high can you get the top of the saddle above the bottom bracket? I'm a 34.5" inseam and use about 790mm.

Interested in your thoughts on the bike, keep us posted.