jlo

I am looking for suggestions for folding bikes for my boat. Compact size and non corrosive materials are a plus. I heve seen a number of bikes advertised for over $1,000. I would like to stay well below that number.
Thanks.

East Hill

Hello jlo--this should be moved to the Folding Bike forum...

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

Tom Stormcrowe

Consider it moved! Welcome aboard, jlo!

14R 

Dahon has a model designed for boats. I am not experienced with that specific model, but Dahon is a established brand of folding bikes.

Here is the link for the bike's page: https://www.dahon.com/us/marinerd7.htm



Good luck with your final purchase.

14R

brakemeister

and I dont even like the boat specific ( ********** ) bike from Dahon ....

we have to go back in history a little./.. The Dahoin Mariner was born at a time when all other Dahon bikes had zink spokes, steel rims, lots of other steel parts and so forth... At that time the mariner was born with the improvements of having stainless steel spokes , alloy rims and a few other alloy tidbits... the most important add on was the bottle of boeshield rust preventer ( which came with the bike )

Today this is really not more necessary as all Dahons have stainless steel spokes, alloy rims, and many many more alloy bits ....
The mariner was dropped more than once from the lineup and than quickly re established as many customers insisted on it.... It is however a spruced up Boardwalk.... lesser quality that the speed d 7 ....

And as a boat owner you know that nothing absolutely nothing doesnt rust.... ( well my carbon mast will not rust ..lol ) Anyhow get Curve D3 and wipe her down and keep her clean and dry and you have a much better bike which fits much better in the limited storage (besides its lighter, which does make a difference on my boat for sure )

Thorsten

dang133

NO matter what bike you buy, your screwed. BUy a cheap one. They all rust at the same rate.

vrbikepro

- Need to be aluminum body & part for rust protection

- Need to have the suspension if you need to do some off road. Small wheel is real hard for the off road, please trust me.

brakemeister

What ?
You need as suspension because small wheels are not efficient ?

popcorn ready ......

and about that cheap comment....

you do get what you pay for.....

Thor

Tmax1

I have a Dahon Mariner that's holding up pretty well. Just rinse it off every now and then.

Lucked up and found mine at a thrift store so I'm not too concerned about it.

It's an OK fun little goof off bike.

~jg

SesameCrunch

LOL! Let the flames begin...

To be fair to vrbikepro, though, what he said was small wheels are hard for off-road, not that they were less efficient. I think that's a fair assessment - the little tires get eaten up pretty easily off road.

Oroluk Lagoon

We currently have two pair of Dahons that we use for boat bikes. We have a pair of 26" Dahon Mainers (not the 20 inch or whatever they are selling as Mariners now). These are basically folding mountain bikes, not really designed (despite the name) for boats due to their size and construction materials. Our other pair are somewhat rare. They are the 16" "all-stainless" units. I don't recall what name or model number they go by. This is actually our second pair of these. The first pair was stolen while our sailboat was tied to a seawall in Kagoshima, Japan. When I inquired with Dahon about getting another pair of identical all-stainless units they said they were no longer (this was 1993) available in the US and in fact as far as they knew they were only still on the market in Germany. This may have changed since then. I haven't checked the Dahon website recently but the last time I did (a few years ago) there were no all-stainless 16"-ers listed, or any "all-stainless" for that matter. They aren't really "all-stainless" of course, but the parts that do rust a bit are not critical and easily replaced. The parts that are stainless have held up very well. In fact we actually wore the tread off the original tires on our first set, we rode them so much everywhere we went. They were great for the obligatory visits to customs, immigration, port captain, etc. as well as grocery runs, propane runs, diesel runs, etc. How do you carry propane tanks or jerry cans on a 16" Dahon? You tow a dock cart behind one of them. Holds 3 jerry cans or two propane tanks. These little guys have Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears in the rear hubs and they are great. You get a low-low, a high-high and something in between. If you ever see these guys on eBay, Craig'sList, etc. grab 'em. They are great little boat bikes that have stood up to a very harsh environment for us. Folding bikes on a cruising boat are, for me, essential. They allow you to see more of the beautiful places you sailed so far and so hard to see.

Oroluk Lagoon

Forgot to explain how we came up with a second pair of the all-stainless 16" Dahons after the first pair were stolen. I bought them used at marine consignment store for an incredible bargain.