Originally Posted by old and new
You just can't go wrong with the Dahon.
I beg to differ. There are plenty of ways to go wrong with a Dahon.
• Ciao P8 has a fixed handlebar height, so no adjustment there.
• Ciao P8 weighs 32 (!!) lbs, largely irrelevant for performance but would be horrible to carry around
• Wheel quality on Dahons are substandard / bad quality control
The only pluses I can see for the Ciao over some other models is the low step and the internal hub, which is a good choice for commuting (presumably the OP's purpose)
If you're going to spend over $700, I'd highly recommend you get a Swift, which is very light (22 lbs), fully upgradeable, fast fold, designed for urban use.
If you want to spend less, look into Downtubes. They don't look as good as the Dahons and I have a few doubts about component quality, but
afaik they're much easier to fix and upgrade than the low-end Dahons.
Originally Posted by geo8rge
Folding bikes are not as good mechanically as the best full size bikes, which is why they are not used in competition....
Well....
Folding bikes aren't used in most competitions (e.g. USAC, UCI) because the regulations are very strict about numerous aspects of a bike -- wheel size, weight, design, saddle height, handlebar height and so forth.
And if I am not mistaken, you
can use 20" wheels in some Tri and long distance events (e.g. RAAM), so some people use Bike Fridays / Air Fridays.
That said, I would agree that sometimes there is a price premium to get the same mechanical quality on a folding bike as most road bikes.