Abu Mahendra

I put a deposit on a lightly used Dahon Jetstream XP with German Kilo A fork and disk brakes. Here it is, awaiting collection in an industrial storage complex in Singapore...

pinholecam

Wow! Congrats on the purchase.
This is be best version if I am not wrong (ie. w/ the Kilo A suspension)

GTA

JXP is one of the best DAHON bikes. Congrats!

Bonzo Banana

Don't see why it's one of Dahon's best bikes, it's only capable of light off-road use and isn't as efficient on the road and isn't even a Dahon design anyway its a brand slap on a fuji-ta bike so is only a Dahon in name only.

Abu Mahendra

Good grief!

1. It's unique.
2. It offers potentially the plushest ride of any folder.

I used to MTB so you are barking up the wrong tree, kid. No one buys it for anything but rough street or road, certainly not for off-road. You think anyone sees it as a replacement for a 26er, 27.5er or 29er? No, no one actyally thinks that. I've got an Altena for efficient roadvwork. Don't tell me the Altena is a re-brand too. I don't give a fook.

So what it's a rebranded Dahon made by Fucc-u-too?

berlinonaut

Be aware that this is not a genuine German Answer Kilo fork but a licensed Dahon copy with German A written on it. Dahon licensed the design, made some changes, produced the fork and put it on the Jetstream XP. You'll notice the difference quickly when you need service parts. German A cannot help you with this as it is a Dahon made fork and Dahon (as usual) does not stock service parts. So in case of service needs you may quickly end up with a very expensive and very unusuable fork.

berlinonaut

Where exactly did you get that knowledge from? The bike is indeed no offroader but due to it's looks a lot of people bought it as an offroad bike and some use it for offroading in a way that it is not able to handle w/o breaking. Just lokk i the thread "best 20" bike for offroad use".

Abu Mahendra

hi, stranger, you never comment on my many and variec threads. what ever possesed you this time to chime in?

to answer your query, i got it from common sense by simply looking at it. you didn't think i meant that literally, did you?

"No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
- Yogi Berra

if people buy it for off-road, they are deluding thenselves. that's what you should have understood from the colloquial phrasing.

Bonzo Banana

You need to contact Dahon immediately then and argue with them as they have;

https://dahon.com/bikes/jetstream-ex/

You seem to believe its marketed as some sort of super plush comfort bike for the elderly or something but Dahon believe its a go anywhere adventure bike.

This is the bike its a rebranded version of;

HANMA8 - Tianjin Fuji-ta Bicycle Co.,Ltd.

Fuji-ta are by far the largest bike manufacturer in the world with 20 million bikes made a year of a world total production of 125 million bikes plus they supply many millions of frames to other companies to assemble complete bikes around. They almost monopolise aluminium frame production in a way. Excellent quality too and comprehensive design and testing facilities. Cannondales, Raleighs and a huge number of other brands are made by them. No shame in being a fuji-ta bike just annoying when people claim its a Dahon rather than a brand slap. You could probably buy the Hanma 8 and slap your own brand on if you wanted if you were willing to buy 500 of them.

Looking at berlinonaut's post there does seem to be some customisation of the front fork, perhaps by Fuji-ta for Dahon to make the bike more suitable for western heavier butts. I can't see the front shock on the hanma 8 or other rebranded versions like the FX Saga as I assumed it was a smaller light duty shock hidden in the headtube but it looks external on the later Dahon. Interesting design anyway.

Little bit of Birdy off road here. Quite impressive although very light rider by the looks of it.

Abu Mahendra

thanks for the dissertation on Fuji-ta, but frankly it is irrelevant to me. Fuji-ta this, Fuji-ta that. all i am doing is buying, tentatively, a Jetstream. i am not buying a container-full of bikes, or planning an acquisitiion, a debt swap or buying stock.

why do i need to contact Dahon again? Because their marketing hype is at odds with my view of the bike? You don't say; companies spinning tall tales to sell their wares. I "seem to believe its marketed as some sort of super plush comfort bike for the elderly". Really? Where did you get that?

Joe Remi

I always assumed this model was intended for semi-serious trail riding. I'm surprised to hear it's basically a plush street bike.

Abu Mahendra

...

berlinonaut

Yes, Thor said/claimed this a while ago in another thread. Problem is that he is possibly the only one and he is in the US. So even if he would have all the parts available (which we do not know and i heavily doubt) he is a solitaire. For someone in Europe it is a major hassle to import parts from the US and it takes time. I do not know how it is for someone in i.e. Indonesia. Fact is: In Europe dealers do not stock these parts and have no possiblity to get hold of them as with Dahon getting parts is a major nightmare over here. Fact is that Thor is a very engaged dealer and he is heavily involved with the company, thus his possibilities may be better than those of other dealers around the globe. So even if it was possible to get parts via Thor in my opinion this is something that potential buyers should be aware of: Having only one single source (a single person, to make it more clear) worldwide for service parts for your bike is a bit of a risk (in regards of longterm availability of that source or those roprietary parts) and having to import them adds on cost and time. And you cannot bring your broken bike to the next dealer and ask him to fix it quickly or at all - he simply won't be able or willing to do it. For dealers or consumers there is not even a comprehensive parts list - even to identify the part needed is already problematic to impossible. This is not the failure of the dealer but of Dahon in combination with their distribution.

Abu Mahendra

...i get the parts when i go home to the States, or ship them to my mother there, and she brings them to me when comes visit to Bali. In essence, it is far from the doomsday scenario you paint...

jitenshaman

Hi

Finally you bought it !
Nice !

I'll be glad to post some photos of mine but I need to reach 10 posts :-/
Anyway, don't hesitate if you have any questions.

It's a LitePro crank isn't it ? How many teeth ?
My EX original crank is FSA 49T. I'll upgrade it to 53T since I removed the DualDrive rear hub.

MovingViolation

Totally OT, but kudos for the doubly-evocative nick!

Abu Mahendra

Only in August will I go to Singapore to inspect it, and then, if it's good to go, buy it and bring it home.

jitenshaman

Sorry, the only common part seems to be the frame. All components are different in comparison to Jetstream XP and EX. Nobody can say decently that these bikes are simply "rebranded" XP. I suppose you can make the difference for the example with my first XP model : here with Magura HS33 hydraulic brakes, Shimano DualDrive II, Kinetix wheels, German-A, Ergon, Kore saddle... The bike for elderly ;-)

jitenshaman

Are you Sure ? Not genuine with the brand name, German-A website URL... In my opinion, a such infringement would lead to trial, directly. Dahon would have ordered production of German-A forks non-genuine downward copies with the agreement of German-A ?

berlinonaut

I got the info in the German folding-bike-forum. The owner runs a shop dedicated to folding bikes. He wrote there in 2014 that he got a client, asking for help with finding bearings for the GA-fork of an at that time four year old Jetstream XP. He (the client) had already approached GA and they had told him that Dahon would use bearings different from GA standard with their version of the GA Kilo therefor GA were not able to help him. The dealer said that Dahon would use or produce their own licensed copy of the GA Kilo 1 fork with the Jetstream. He also said that Dahon was not able to provide parts as well. To me not astonishing as getting Dahon parts is a nightmare in Germany and has been for years and years. In this forum there is a thread that has been ongoing for serveral years about the lack of spare parts for Dahon in Germany, people searching for help and hints how to get hold of parts which was apart from a small handful of European shops with very limited stock only via asian sources like taobao or alternatively Thor.

That's about it. I do neither own a Dahon and even less a Jetstream XP, thus no personal experience. The story seemed credible to me. Other than that: Why would in your opinion producing a customized licensed copy with the knowledge and acknowlegement of GA lead directly to trial?

berlinonaut

Regarding the spare parts question: if you read on Debcrars page his experience with getting hold of varios spare parts over the years for his XP the situation in the US seems not to be too convincing, too, no matter what Thor is saying. Debcar seems to be one of his customers and still had trouble and regarding the bushings for the fork he had to manufacture them himself:

DEBCAR Story