Originally Posted by
Bleu
Curl was no improvement over Brompton. Rim wrecker brakes, same weight, cost as much usually unavailable anyway.
The Curl D9 looked awesome; DISC brakes (and a real innovation of them mounting the front caliper on the front of the right (mono, only) fork blade), eliminating the problem of axle pullout with discs that required thru-axles), without needing a unique front caliper, easy to service external gearing. The front mono-blade "fork" might have required a special front hub, or not with just a bolt in place of typical axle, that was my only concern. But the whole bike, looking great in pics, was
VAPORWARE, i.e., non-existent in the USA.
Originally Posted by
bikeforumKEN
anyone friends with a Dahon dealer to ask if 16'' will come the the USA? There is an American flag sticker on 16'' version seat-tube frame.
They're supposed to be "Designed in the USA", that has always been advertised, but always built in Taiwan or China. "Design" could be anything from rough sketches to actual engineering with computer modeling and stress analysis. If I had to guess, I would put the detail engineering and lab testing at the manufacturing point, that makes communication much better on critical manufacturing characteristics, and changes to processes if needed.