Attila

Hello all, This is my first post so here goes.

I need a folding bike from August to cycle around London to commute to work. Its only a 4 mile round trip, but I want something that lasts, robust and rides well; and looks good.

I tested a few new ones out the mezzo, dahon (20 inch wheel) and the brompton (the titanium fancy one). I am in love with the mezzo everything about it. I tried the d9 however.

Sadly my budget is 400 GBP only so a new Mezzo is totally out of the question, so sitting her waiting for ebay to show me any second hand ones.

My question is should I go for the d9 (which I tested) or the I4? I don't want that many gears, but is a hub as reliable as the othe system? I also thought on my budget an I4 may be more suitable?

My other question is... There don't seem to be that many of ebay (or gumtree or anywhere!) and I am quite desperate to find one before work. Does anyone know where else I could try please? (or anyone got one for sale )

Any help would be most welcome, thank you very much in advance

Attila.

Diode100

There are two on ebay at the moment, an I4 and a D9, both are in yorkshire & marked for collection only, but you might be able to sweet talk the seller, or take a train ride up there, spend the weekend, I belive it is good cycling country. I have a D9 and its such a sweet bike to ride, i would say go for that rather than the D4, if only because it will be easier to sell come the day. Having said that I've never tried a D4, so maybe it would be ideal for potling around London.

Attila

I've got my eye on both of those, cheers.

do you reckon the i4 will be tough to re-sale as opposed to the d9?

The reviews of the i4 on the net don't seem as good as those for the d9.

When people say these sort of bikes are "under geared" do they mean

"its impossible to cycle and you'll sweat like mad whilst being overtaken by a mobility scooter"

or do they mean

"its ok for the average joe blogs and can keep up with main flow of bike traffic"

I know the question is a bit ambiguous, but just wondering your thoughts. Can they design a bike which has such bad gearing?

stocksy

By 'undergeared' they mean you'll have to spin the pedals like a madman if you want to crack 30 MPH.

EDIT:

To elaborate, these are the gear ratios for the i4:

GEAR INCHES
1st: 39.3
2nd: 48.7
3rd: 58.9
4th: 72.3

Assuming you can turn the pedals at 100 RPM, here are your top speeds for each gear:
1st: 11.7 MPH
2nd: 14.5 MPH
3rd: 17.5 MPH
4th: 21.5 MPH

Attila

that is quite under geared. I think I would try and replace the chain ring with a higher one, unless its mezzo specific.

Thanks for the advice.

Diode100

Hey Attila, did you get anything yet, or did you change your mind ?

Whole bunch of D9's on ebay today :-

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=160341350780


https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260428352484


https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=150351985829

Attila

Hey, no not at all. I was outbid last night sadly

Thanks very much for those. Two of them came up last night after the other one sold. I guess they realised how much money they can get for them

I'll let you know which one I get.

Attila

Absolutely over the moon. Just bought it an hour ago:

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

Buy it now for £395. I think it may be a little over priced, but based on previous ones going on ebay, I think people have the summer cycling bug at the moment and getting a bit stupid on ebay. So snapped it up quickly.

Gonna give it a good service and clean when I get it. Just need to get to London now (from Wiltshire!).

Let me know what folks think etc.

rbrian

Congratulations! It looks to be in good nick, and it's not too bad a price, considering they don't come up for sale that often, and a new one is twice as much.

chagzuki

What was it about the Mezzo that you were so sold on in your test rides?

Diode100

Can't speak for Attila, but for me the Mezzo seemed like the Alfa Romeo of folding bikes, quick, light, nimble & goes round corners a dream. I'd recommend getting the bag that goes on the rear carrier, it locks neatly, removing the need to look around once in a while to see if anything has fallen off.

Oh and well done Attila, I'm sure you wont regret your purchase !

It maybe worth, at some point, looking into swapping out the D9 gearing for the new improved D10, I did read it was a simple operation.

Attila

sorry for the late reply.

Yes, I will look into it as I heard the d10 gearing is quite a bit better. I want to change (eventually) the tyres too, so they are puncture proof (have no idea on this yet, need to read up about it).

Also I want to try to sort out the rims where the pads are wearing. It looks like the paint has come off, so I want to try and get this either to bare metal or find new rims (eventually!).

Comparing to an Alfa is probably the closest way of describing it. To me the ride quality was the most important and the mezzo has much less twitchy handling. Also (I may be mistaken) but the brompton did not have adjustable handle bar height, whilst the mezzo did.

The reliability and wear and tare may not be as good as a brompton (just like an alfa!) but I don't know if that will affect me yet!

I will give it a good clean and service then post some pics.

Thanks for the help!

syoaran

Was tossing myself between the Mezzo and the Dahon Mu p8, still not sure if the larger wheel size will help or hinder 8miles of commute.... Thoughts?

Attila

When I tested the brompton and the mezzo, I also tested a Dahon 20" wheel size folder too. To be honest I can't remember what it was called but the price tag I think was around £450 so much cheaper than the other two (new).

Compared to the other two, the Dahon rode the best (i.e. most like a normal bike, no twitch etc.) but I had to dismiss it immediately as it was too big for me. I have an hour train ride and only 2 mile commute in the mornings. So size was the most important thing for me. 2 miles is also so short that it could not justify a 20" in my view.

They didn't have any curve 3s (which seemed strange) as I would have love to have tested it. But was quite impressed by the Dahon, shame about the size for me really.

bhkyte

The gearing on the d10 is the similar to your D9. The d10 has a 56 tooth front gog instead of a 54 as fitted to the D9. You can not fit bigger than a 56 as it will foul on the Mezzo specific chain guilders.It is not a Mezzo specific chain ring.Mezzo do not sell their 56t gog separately,they only sell it with the crank Another shimano compactable 56 gog can added cheaply if you can find one. If you do, let me know where !

Therefore the options are Cespro rear hub 9tooth rather than 11. £200 ish.Mezzo claim it does not fit as then the chain will catch the chain stays, but several people claim to have fitted this hub to a mezzo successfully. "MAtt52" where are you ?

Dual drive works best IMO(+36%), see my thread on upgrading the Mezzo for the mods reguired to fit it. FIne really,but I have not yet found a way of retaining the front wheel clip ( I have now,see the upgrading a mezzo thread or mexxo dualdrive conversion help thread), although the bike does lock together reasonably well on my set up. I have done this to two mezzos


the Last option is to go for an quality internal hub such as the Nexus8 or a SA8,or similar. Easiest low fuss option ,but quality Internal hubs are costly.

The first upgrade is to get a teflon coated rear inner brake cable!