glman74

Hello folks,

I bought a Dahon Eco 3 a month ago, and and have been commuting to work on it.

I am getting back to cycling after more than a decade, so I am still a little jittery on the road.

Where I live, the roads are full of potholes. I have to jump on the bumpy pavement some times - I am talking about bumps of 3 to 4 inches. Also when I go over patches where there is fine gravel, I feel like the bike is going out of control.

Would I be able to improve the stability and smoothness of ride by changing the tires?

Could I install the Schwalbe Big Apple 20 x 2.15 tires on the Eco3? Would there be any problem with clearance for the fenders, frame or brakes?

Thanks for any ideas!

jur

What tyres are on the bike now?

Big Apples will make your ride much smoother; just pump them to 40psi or softer even.

You might be able to judge clearance by looking at the clearance you hve now, and subtracting the extra tyre width from that clearance.

chagzuki

I'm running the 2.15 on my front wheel. Aesthetically it really does warrant the 'balloonbike' tag. . . it looks extremely fat (increases folded size by a few cm and changes gearing). The standard 2 x 20 BAs were just about compatible with fenders on my Vitesse but the 2.15 isn't. . . not a problem for me on the front wheel but I prefer a fender on the rear. I wasn't won over by the 2 x 20 BAs; too heavy and didn't soften the ride enough to warrant the weight (I found a Maxxis grifter folding bead tyre just as good a ride but way lighter). The 2.15 works quite well on small road imperfections and there's a psi sweet spot where it copes with small kerbs / dropoffs quite well. It takes some effort to maintain that sweet spot, a few psi either way and the tyre is draggy and sluggish or too hard. Overall not bad. But larg-ish road imperfections are still a problem, it's not like the BAs enable you to cruise through potholes in the way that standard suspension forks + bigger wheels do.

Foldable Two

Will be interesting to hear how well the Eco3 holds up under those conditions.

Lou

glman74

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Eco 3 came with Dahon Rotolo, 20" x 1.75" tires.

chagzuki

The move to 2" tyres won't be a revelation then. . . though perhaps you're running your current tyres at too high a pressure?