Originally Posted by
brakemeister
The Tern Swoosh loks similar .. has 20 inch wheels, and a low entry frame.... but thats were the similarities stop if you look any closer. A massive bottom bracket to say the least, great carrier built in... and and and .... cool bike.
Tern is not the cheaper Dahon..... Both companies offer a lot for the buck ... some wildly overpriced models sprinkled in the mix. ( I am not without critique ..... )
And again whats on the worldwide site, doesnt mean it will translate into the US market either, which in most cases is good, but sometimes they have a jewel which is not available over here. No Dahons fault, as their dealers have input in the models they offer in their individual countries. My guess is that they need to plan at least for a 1000 to 3000 bikes of one kind for one market.... If the dealer commit to 100 ...its most likely never happen.... and thats understandable as well, spare part availibility, catalogs, pricelists, marketing efforts etc etc fall short if they only sell a handfull ...
thor
Thanks for your insights...it does help to explain some of the reasoning behind Dahon's decision to carry so many models. Nevertheless, I still see a lot of redundancy. For instance, even if we look at a single market like the USA, why does Dahon offer the Eco C7 and the Vibe C7A? What's the difference here? Or even comparing the Mariner with the Speed D7. I know one is aluminum (vs steel), but is this a major factor at the lower-end price point? If the answer is yes, then why not just offer the Boardwalk D8 (instead of Speed D7) since that's definitely going to be offered in other markets? Don't get me wrong, I like Dahon and some amount of variety, but this really seems to be overkill.