I’ve got a Vigor D9. Can anyone point me towards a new headset and maybe a diagram of same?

Also curious about hinge maintenance. This is my first folder and I’d like to take care of it.

Thanks in advance.

This -- a Litepro H73 part -- is what a bi-fold bike headset looks like. It consists of seven discrete pieces:

• Crown
• Upper & Lower cups
• Upper & Lower bearing cartridge
• Upper & Lower fork washer, the smaller one is the Lower one

You'll need a press-fit tool (or a rubber mallet) to install the cups on the headtube.


Cartridge & Cup

Awesome, thank you sir.

No cup tool but yes to a rubber mallet.

The hinge is sketching me out a bit, because I’m ignorant. It’ll be rare to actually fold it, but my OCD demands that the hinge be understood and in perfect order when called upon.

I have a different Dahon folder, steel frame, yours is aluminum, and possibly different hinge latch, they made a lot of different variations. In general...

I keep the hinge pin very lightly lubed, like a drop of oil when needing to adjust the hinge, which these days is never (see below). The only downside I could see about lubing the hinge is if it attracts dirt that could act as an abrasive, this is why many people wax their bike chain instead of using oil, the wax is dry and doesn't collect dirt.

You want to keep the hinge well adjusted so there is no looseness, as that movement causes wear. Adjustment varies with hinge style.

In my opinion, the nicest thing you can do for a bifold frame is install an improvised substitute for Dahon's Deltech cable; Without that, the hinge has a lot of bending moment on it, and the Deltech design triangulates the frame, pretty much eliminating the bending moment and replacing that with compression shear at the hinge pin and pushing the hinge together, both are good. Dahon was going all-in with Deltech, then suddenly not, and I suspected that it might be because of the small welded mounts to the frame for the cable, those always looked weak, and when Dahon pulled back, it disappeared from their aluminum frames (more susceptible to fatigue stress) but kept it on their steel frames.

My bike didn't come with Deltech but I thought the concept was good, and I improvised the same by using super strong and low stretch line (kevlar, dyneema, etc), and looping it around the lower head tube and the left bottom bracket shell. It's worked fabulously, tightened the frame hinge a lot, especially under torsion during climbing. I also added a lock nut to the hinge latch adjusting barrel. I was needing to adjust the hinge monthly, now, zero adjustments in hinge latch or line in the 3 years since I did the above.

However, if you fold your bike frequently, this may add hassle to that. Mine is a very infrequent folder, now that stores just let me wheel through unfolded. I only fold once a year or two to bring on a train or other travel.

I explained more details in other threads. If you are interested and I can find, I'll reference here. Here is a pic of my setup, before securing the line ends; Note: that loop of two strands of line would lift my car, and has the same stretch as steel cable, meaning nearly none, compared to normal line:

When Grouch goes 5 minutes without posting about his Dahon kludge

You think I enjoy typing that all out?

The poster asked.

The most significant improvements to my folder, in order?
1) 2X crank conversion from 1X
2) Improvised deltech cable
3) Racks and panniers

Of the above, the only one that improves the frame lifespan, eliminates monthly hinge latch adjustment, and perhaps obviating the need to replace the hinge pin, which, according to posts on here, is a MFer, is #2. That's a big deal to me. What's my name? It means that durability of a bike and its components are important to me, a priority.

I appreciate the info and the effort, DG. I’m just getting started learning about folders. Lots more reading to do.

Glad to help. A couple other notes:

I don't know if your folder will be used as a frequent folder as a commuter, minimal equipment, light, or as an everything bike (like me) with racks and bags for shopping, etc. Assuming the latter:

Racks: For about the same, or very slightly less, overall length versus a 700c road bike, the wheelbase on the 20" folder is actually longer, which gives more toe clearance to the front wheel when pedaling, and chainstays (and "rear center", center of bottom bracket to rear axle center) may be a touch longer, however they are not as long as a touring bike; See comparison of KHS bikes from long ago:


This means, that if you mount a rear rack to mount typical panniers centered on the rear axle, the panniers will interfere with pedaling and hit the heels of your feet. Thus, for panniers, you'd need a rack that hangs the panniers further aft/back. These can be found if you look for them. My rack puts the front of the panniers at rear axle center, so I have tons of heel clearance. There are no stability issues with this, plus it takes some load off off the frame hinge. With the rack extending to about the back of the rear wheel, it also allows the bike, when folded, for me to tilt the bike back 90 degrees to rest on the rack with stability; This is nice for me, as I have installed aero bars on the handlebars, and when those are folded up, and the handlepost is folded down, the aero bars drag on the ground in the normal bike folded position. (I'd like to be able to fold the aero bars forward, but my brake and shifter cables interfere with that.)

The front rack, is a very low cost brakepost rack, called a "sixer", that was designed to hold a 6-pack of beverage. With a wood stick added on each side to keep the smaller panniers out of the wheel spokes, it works well. It's the perfect size for 20" wheels. But for touring, I may get a proper front rack designed for panniers.

Anyway, general view, here is my bike loaded (just after 2X crank conversion but before I installed the deltech cable, shortly after), and other pics, note rear pannier position, and super-long rack stays required, bought aftermarket:



On shuttle bus back from coast (front rack prevented bike going on outside front rack on bus, blocked tire holding device). On outbound ride to coast, I folded bike, but on return, no need, plenty of space on bus:


Folded, on train luggage shelf inside passenger car.


Same basic bike but previous frame (replaced due to crack); Sixer rack, and also note, small backpack makes excellent front bag on front of handlebars, due to tall space between bars and wheel:


Good luck with your folder and explorations of it, and with it.

Cheers.