I pulled our old Dahon Boardwalk D7 out of the basement. This bike was bought used and cheap a few years ago as a "guest bike", and I've not myself ridden it much, neither have guests for that matter.

Well, it rode like crap. But that was not surprising after I inspected it more closely. It needed wheels trued, brakes adjusted, drivetrain adjusted and lubed, clipless pedals and a decent saddle installed, and handlepost hinge tightened up.

After I did all that, the little Dahon rides rather decently after all. So I am thinking about doing the necessary to make this bike a good ride for me, rather than simply a spare bike for Aunt Millie.

There are two main things I think I will need to change. I'm hoping to get suggestions and sources.

First, the handlebar position is all wrong. On my road bike, from center of saddle to tops of drop bar is 27.5" and to brake hoods is 33.0". On this Dahon, from center of saddle to the flat bar is only 24.0". Also, the bar needs to be about 2.0" lower.

What is the best way to accomplish this? I am planning to use bullhorn bars because I have an old one sitting here, and because then the bike will still fold. I need to move the clamp for the bar forward by 3.5" and down by 2.0". Should I get a shorter handlepost, or an adjustable handlepost? What else should I do? Where, in the US, is a good source for folding bike parts?

Second, the gearing is too limited. I did some gearing math and it seems that if I fit a road double crank with 55/39 teeth, and a cassette of 11-24, I could get a good gearing range. On my 700C road bike my highest gear is a 53/12 and I can climb anything I need to using a 39x26. The Dahon is heavy, so maybe the double should be a triple with 55/39/30, then I'd never want for a climbing gear.

I will need the derailleur hanger adapter to use a normal rear derailleur, and the adapter to fit a front braze-on derailleur. I could do a Shimano drivetrain, alternatively I have enough Campy stuff sitting around that I could go that route too. But I haven't found those adapters in the US - is there a source?

As for cable routing, how do you get a down-pull front derailleur to work on this frame? I need to locate a cable stop somewhere aft of the hinge, I think.

My plan is to use integrated brake/shift levers on the bullhorns, with Travel Agents to operate the V-brakes.

As you can tell, I think I have a general idea of what I want to do, but I'm having trouble sourcing the parts - if I were in Taiwan I guess this would be easy - and my ideas are merely that, I've no actual experience upgrading a Dahon - so perhaps I'm missing something important?