Thanks for the answers. My commute is 40 km round trip along a bike path and some streets. My weight is 75 kg (about 160 pounds) @ 6'2". The piece that broke off the handlepost hinge is a metal piece that is adjacent to the sliding clamp. How did I found out there was a piece of weld missing? The weld didn't go around the tube all the way, as it did on the other side of the bike. When I went to the bike shop, I could see the other Dahons had a complete weld there. The Dahon has been serviced by the bike shop I bought it at. A shorth search of the Web shows that more Dahon users experience the frame hinge creaking. The bike shop says that unlike BF or Brompton the Dahon uses a vertical hinge - thus there is more stress on the hinge, thus more chance of creaking. BF's and Brompton's horizontal hinge apparently forces the hinge shut naturally, thus there isn't as much stress on it. Yeah, I wish I could reverse the purchase and buy the BF that was there instead. Well, at the time of the purchase I had very little experience with bikes, using a Trek MTB for short recreational trips only.