Originally Posted by
tds101
That statement about Dahon is incorrect. It was Tern, NOT DAHON, that screwed owners over when the frames began to break due to bad welds/shoddy quality control. Tern even locked us out of their forums so we couldn't see/share information about the breakages. Dahon has had failures, but actually does recalls, unlike Tern ( I have a feeling things might be different nowadays...). I own a Tern folder (Tern Joe P24); I no longer own a Dahon. Duragrouch, search the Folding Bike section for the threads. There's a few of them.
I just think Dahon's pricing is ridiculous for what you get. There's really not a 24" step through folder that compares with this bike though. As suggested, see if the OP can find a used Dahon Glide or Briza. Otherwise, the pricing is a bit steep IMO.
I know about the Tern failures at the forward part of the frame hinge, it appears this area was not reinforced with an overlaid welded piece there like the Dahon aluminum frames.
My Dahon Speed frame cracked at the bottom of the seatpost slot, and progressed all the way around before I saw it, I planned to drill holes at the ends of the cracks to try to stop them, but one side had forked to also go down the seat tube, and that frame was done. I did a detailed engineering analysis pointing to two contributing causes, a) too much compression due to plastic bushing there, b) front of seat tube is loaded in tension under rider weight, increasing fatigue issues, and big horizontal slot at the bottom of that clamping slot, provided a perfect crack initiation point. Dahon a) blew me off, saying I was too heavy (180 lbs) and had the seatpost up too high (it was 3 or 4 inches below maximum extension, b) failed to acknowledge that the aluminum bushings on later models was to partly counteract this, c) failed to acknowledge that moving that slot to the back of the seat tube on later models was the second part to counteract this. They blew me off in finest soup-nazi style, "no new frame for you". I wrote a very, very detailed engineering analysis with 8x10 color glossy photos wit da circles and da arrows (old reference) and filed it with the CPSC. There was a recent thread where this crack had just barely shown up on a similar year Dahon Speed, and me and another fellow advised them on how to grind or file away the crack to a larger radius, and then burnish the edge to smooth and introduce residual compressive stresses, and, immediately replace the plastic bushing with an aluminum one, available aftermarket. So like I said, I haven't seen this problem on later Dahons, due to the countermeasures. But they screwed me on my frame. No way around that. I also recommended they send out aluminum bushings to all Speed owners as a preventive measure, cheap, they also blew that off, figuring most people don't put enough miles on to crack the frame. My experience was not unique, based on other accounts online involving Dahon. Bike Friday, on the other hand, I've read nothing but raves about them backing up their product. I just don't like the more complex fold.
It got worse in the time following this photo, waiting for response from CPSC, I didn't want to mess with it until I heard something, but under trump, CPSC was running scared. The cracks went past both seatstays, and down the seat tube on one side; Too dangerous to ride.
