berlinonaut thanks for your insightful response. I wasn't aware of the recall action of my handlebars.

The Berds folding bikes look like a serious replacement candidate as they seem to be manufactured in Germany (by hand?) and come in different frame sizes and are made of steel which I prefer to aluninium. The design looks clean as well compared to many aluminium folding bikes which look too complicated to me. Seems they also equip them with pannier racks... They even equip with both SON dynamo hub and Rohloff rear hub