So this is supposed to be Dahon's answer to Brompton, the 35th anniversary edition bike and asking for a premium price--and they send it out in awful condition? It's kind of amazing.

The Dahon Curl has been displayed in numerous public trade shows for the last ten years. The final iteration of the bike was shown over three years ago; even the production seat post, pedals and rack details have been well known for over six months.

What's your take on the odd information that a bike that's not 'fully distributed yet' being shipped out of two different factories?

Naw, that's whacky conspiracy stuff. Blackstrida's got a brand new Dahon bike with issues; Dahon - either the dealer, the EU distributor or the parent company - has got some splainin to do. One of the things one is supposed to do with a new Dahon bike, though, is verify the holograph & register the bike to extend the frame warranty.

Uh, no, this is just a Dahon folding bike purchased at a regular retail dealer for €999 - less than even the early bird Kickstarter price and way less than what I think is a ~ €1400 German price on a comparable Brompton M3R. My Kickstarter Curl has none of these issues. The actual 35th Anniversary Curl, the red & white one with the Shimano Nexus 8 and special signature plate, is not scheduled to ship until late November.

BTW, what has the selling dealer said about the condition the bike was delivered in?

Well...but if it was intended to lean it would stand better (without wiggle) using TWO small wheels don't you think so?

Again many thanks for this.

Agree 100%

So - what can be done to improve?
We can't move the point of gravity, but we can move the line.
Simply by mounting the wheels 1 and 2 more inside.

You're sure not to overlook that we have two different stability issues at one place here?
I think we should look at it separately to solve one after the other.
Tendency for tilting and wiggle standing do have influence at each other of course but both were caused by different reasons.

Nothing meaningful; no parts available, no idea how that could happen because they check each bike, apologizes, promises to contact their supplier but that takes time, blablabla

Btw, price was lowered to 899 Euro.

I'll look for parts myself.

Assuming the theory works out, it would only be more stable when on all four wheels and parked. If you roll it on two -- the way I used to roll my Brompton -- it would be less stable. Broadly, I found larger skate wheels to work much better than the Brompton EZ wheels at the time.

Just to be explicit, I'm obviously talking about how the wheels were positioned and the weight distribution of a Brompton. The conclusions could be different on the Curl.

I will get a pre production 3 speed and a 35th ani back from the show next week and will compare. No bike is ever perfect in my opinion, meaning I am personally never satisfied. But this drama is somewhat suspicious ..... both my bikes never had problems like that.
I wonder whats the story of that bike .... its not a kickstarter and definititely not an Ani version ....


thor

I do know that my preproduction has one little wheel and the Ani had 4 big ones :-)
both roll very easy and don't tip or wiggle ...... especially when you roll on two wheels hands on the saddle
but I digress
need my bikes here to compare

Thank you for clarifying the differences for the Curls. Still, it is a Curl, the bike that has been in the works for however long? That's still not good enough even if it's "only' €999. But I agree, I'll tone it down from superfail for the Brompton killer bike to fail for a reputable company like Dahon.

The dealer 'checks each bike' but it was still delivered like that? Something doesn't smell right.

I'll be darned, so it has.

Europe has high anti-dumping duties for China import bikes so many manufacturers set up production in a more duty-friendly location for exporting to EU. But for US imports China often is the cheapest option.

[MENTION=31812]invisiblehand[/MENTION]
Many thanks for your meaning, good point.
So far I did neither consider nor check the behaviour of the Curl rolling and referred to standing only.
[MENTION=54111]thor[/MENTION]
Many thanks in advance, it would be great to compare.

Yes, actually in the last mail from them yesterday again, before were of course apologizes.
I'm trying here to translate the whole sentence exactly:


:foo:

Even more remarkable because I choosed - before - my words like:
"Surely you did not make that nonsense at your workstore, that was Dahon, correct?"

Meanwhile they also offered a refund of 96 € - the difference to the price right now.

I'm afraid that many readers here, simply caused by their location, do not know what "high" means for us.
Here's an example of the dimensions we are talking about.

An Austrian who is buying a bicycle (worth 1000 €), outside from EU, but NOT from China has to expect an overall sum of ~ 1380 €

An Austrian who is buying a bicycle (worth 1000 €) from China has to expect an overall sum of ~ 1962 €

Rechner: Zoll und Steuern nach Österreich berechnen - Import-Shopping.de
(Source - German required.)

Regarding the laser sticker code I'd like to add that this microscopic number was accepted by Dahon and the authenticity confirmed.
Just the link - which should lead to further service and the registering - is not accessible for me (at least not today, tried several times). :foo:

Whoa. Post-Brexit, the Austrian price on a Brompton M3R will perhaps approach €2000 vs what is today €900 for a Taiwanese Curl i3. A Bulgarian/Maxcon Curl might be less.

I don't have a crystal ball and I'm not in the industry, so all idle speculation, of course.

BTW, I see the product picture on the Faltrad XXS website has a common 'right handed' rear brake caliper rather than a rarer 'left-handed' one that the Curl frame was designed around. If Faltered XXS should claim the brake supplied is a correct spec per the Taiwanese factory, at a minimum they need to send the bikes out with a cable routing that's safe (not kinked), doesn't interfere with any other component of the bike and supports fuss-free folding.

I was actually aware of that. What I didn't consider is that the EU accepts the obvious fact that China and Taiwan are two different places. :rolleyes:

Yes, and even more weird is that certain Taiwan owned businesses that have additional production factories in China are exempted from the anti-dumping duty. Point of big discussions with EU lawmakers, although the entire system is under review and could be heavily revised.

I guess I must be really lucky to received a perfect bike. Non of the issue above.
Mine is Dahon Curl i8 anniversary model. It sits with four same size wheels, cabling are rout s correctly and the rear v coupling are well fitted.
The chain line are inline but I don’t really agree on locking the front fork tithe chain tensioner as I feel it will surely weaken the strength of the tensioner.
So far I’ve been enjoying my bike tremendously.....
I find the gear inches too low for my liking so I change the rear sprocket from 16t to 13t and it is perfect. I don’t like the revo twist shifter so I change it to a Alfine rapid fire shifter and now it works perfectly for my liking.