I recently got a Zozzi Liberte folding bike for my wife to ride. I assembled it and took it out for a test ride. Besides having trouble riding with one hand off the bars (something I assumed to be the short trail (27.5m) and steep head tube angle (86.8 deg)), I also tried riding with no hands. It was extremely unstable that I was not able to remove my hand for more than a split second. I gave it another try another day and realized the bike veers quite aggressively to the right and in order to ride it with no hands, I had to pre-shift my weight to the left, varying the amount I shift until the bike goes straight when I remove my hands. I could just go on riding like this, but it is a little hard to steer around things when my weight is off-center on the bike when going straight.

I went on loosening the front wheel and shifted it within the constrains of the recessed dropout so it is tilting left (cyclist point of view), which I assumed is what should be done given the bike veers right but things didn't improve. Then I did the opposite, tilting it to the right, and all of a sudden, I was able to ride with no weight shifting. I have attached a picture where you can see how offset the front wheel is.



I figured it is due to some frame alignment and did all sorts of non-tools measurement, including seeing if both wheels are dished (by turning it around and checking if they are still centered between the brakes/chainstays)...they are, and tying a string from the rear dropouts to the headtube then measuring the distance from the string to the downtube, which they were at 3.4-3.6cm. I could not determine whether the fork is straight and the headtube alignment due to the requirement of the Park Tool.

I figured maybe I could do some photographic observation/measurement and set set the bike's front dropouts on a level surface and took some pictures. I drew some lines along the outer edge of each arm of the fork and they seem to align with each other vertically. In the rear, I have a T square ruler sitting at 90 deg perpendicular, right next to the seat tube, and from the looks of it, the seatpost seem to diverting away from the ruler, indicating the rear is not aligned with the front. Visually, the headtube seems to skew in the same direction as the seat post, leading me to think it might be the fork. I did some pixel offset count on the fork, seatpost, headtube and t-square to get a more accurate assessment beyond the eyeball and it seem to confirm what I see.



What I am wondering, is this normal for folding bikes? Given that they are on hinges and were built as separate parts of the frame and not in a jig to ensure their alignment before being welding. Are there other ways I can narrow down to exactly what part is not straight without disassembling the bike or specialized equipment?

The manufacture said this is not a defect, thus not covered by any warranty.