well, after nearly 2 years being out of commission, i finally got a new rear wheel for my 2007 Dahon Speed P8 and got the bike back up and running this past weekend. i rode her into work this morning and had a blast. she's slow, but extremely nimble and fun! it's great to have a working folder back in my stable.


http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9972/img0081iq.jpg

Woohoo, I love happy endings! :love:

Proud owner of Dahon Speed P8 too! ;)

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

it has happened again. 3 years ago my first dahon Speed P8 frame developed cracks around the seat tube. dahon sent my LBS a replacement frame.

now the replacement frame has developed a small hairline crack in the seat tube in the EXACT SAME FREAKING PLACE as on my first frame.

holy design flaw batman!

well, that settles it, i'm gonna ride my dahon into the ground and when it comes time to replace it, i'll spend the money and get a brompton. enough is enough.

Or get a replacement frame and sell it.

My Dahon's frame has cracked, too.

Brompton ordered.

Wow Steely Dan,

That's been quite the adventure with your DaHon! It got me to look at the frame on my DaHon (Curve SL-8, 2007) but thankfully no cracks. Only 2,300 miles on mine so far but frame and rims looks good.

The only "component" problem I've had is the failure of the little white plastic cube in the steering tube folding mechanism and when I reported that to DaHon they sent me five of the little cubes at no charge. So I consider that customer service from DaHon (USA) was brilliant.

I just had to adjust (tighten) the main frame hinge for the first time (2 minutes with an 8mm open-end wrench) plus I've had to tighten the nuts on the QR's (all 3 locations) several times, and tighten the front hub bearings (once) but other than that (and flat tires which I can't blame on DaHon!), mine has been trouble free.

Only half the mileage on my bike that you had on yours when the rim failed, so I'll keep a close watch on everything! The frame on mine is alloy of some kind, so probably not as strong as your steel one . . . plus I have 16" wheels which may not be as robust as your 20" wheels.

Rick / OCRR

It took two years to get a rear wheel? :twitchy:

It's a chromoly frame of a long running design. I'm really surprised. I'm interested in hearing how things turn out.

I'm not.

After innumerable mechanical problems with my Dahon Speed and shabby customer service by Dahon, I've discovered that my chromoly frame has cracked, too. Never again! Once this company gets your money, they want to forget about you. Spare parts, at least here in Spain, are very difficult to get one's hands on.

I wouldn't feel right about saddling someone with a Dahon! I'm going to strip mine of the parts that are worth salvaging and take the cracked frame to the recycling center.

Waves the finger at Snafu21 :P

Not just in Spain, but since you just ordered a Brompton, you will love this http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brompton-shopbrompton_pg1

"Waves the finger at Snafu21 :p "


No Dahon problems here. Waves two back. :)

Lovely!

Each part seems to have its own serial number. What a novel idea!

Would that be the peace or 'peace off' sign?

Would that be the peace or 'peace off' sign? Think Woodstock.

Regarding dealer support: it varies for all products, not just bikes, as any Mercedes E-Class owner will tell you.

+1

Even a fine bike like the Tikit had its problems. It doesn't take away from the disappointment and individual trust one might have with a brand but it hardly means that all the bikes are rubbish. It is human nature to talk about negative experiences and they do get somewhat amplified in a more synchronous environment like the Internet.

This is a giant leap to dahonkind.

The part numbers seem to be site specific though, not Dahons' (see how they assign their own id to Brompton's QPENTACLIPA). A per model part diagram will also be useful.

^^^ CH White's numbers are stock numbers.

Dahon bikes have OEM part numbers back to 1990, they are freely available.


<Shazaam!>

http://i49.tinypic.com/24cz885.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2je4go.jpg


'Each part seems to have its own serial number. What a novel idea! '

Well, er, no: Brompton parts manifestos don't use serialised number systems, but alphabetised semi-mnemonic synthesized phonetic nouns as in QPENTACLIPA. The idiosyncratic system was described as 'ridiculous' by Will Butler-Adams in an interview two years ago.

Is Uni not keeping you our of mischief enough Snafu lol?

^^^ Well, I was quite happy sitting around revising univariate polynomial equations for next term until you dragged me in here. :)

Next term's students are sure to be unruly Wikipediatrists and I must be prepared.

Beware of pagination.

Awesome. Let's put it to the test:
1. (40 points) Find the part diagram of Mu P24 (US version if matters)
2. (15 points) Locate in the diagram the Dahon part number of the left hand shifter (3 position grip IGH shifter).
3. (60 points) Use the Dahon part number you found above to find an online site that sell this part. Confirm that the serial number matches.

Not to mention the superior URLs on Dahon's website.

I'm really surprised to hear that. Whenever I've needed a part for my Dahon, I've had to send the distributor photographs of it and give a detailed description. Then, after a three to six-month wait, phone calls, e-mails and rants in their now-defunct forum, they would typically send the wrong part and the process would start over again.

so my dahon is now back at the shop were i originally purchased it in 2007. they're no longer a big dahon dealer, but they said they'd call it in and see what, if anything, dahon would do about yet another frame crack.

if i get another frame, great! if not, i'll just ride my speed P8 until it's no longer safe to do so while i save money to buy a real folding bike.

You can start choosing your colors now. Click on the two color palettes here:

http://www.nycewheels.com/brompton-colors.html

Seat tube failure in not an uncommon problem. In fact, almost every expensive bikes that are being sold in the market today including the ones that are in the $5000 to $8000 ranges and up can suffer from the same failure. It's mostly due to the extended seatpost of all folding bikes that creates a plier cantilever effect when the rider sits on the saddle putting back pressure on the seatpost collar and the forward pressure from the seatstays create a swinging effect. Hence the crack develops. Heavier riders will be more susceptible to this rather than lighter riders. It's a wear and tear issue so it all depends upon your luck. Another possibility is over tightening of the seatpost because it keeps sliding down rather than solving it with a shim which is provided by the Dahon dealer. Then over the years of constant torquing from the extended seatpost can cause stress cracks on the seat tube collar area too.

No bikes are perfect, not even the Brompton or the Bike Friday but negative thoughts and feelings are usually shared among all of us on the internet because it sells. Ask any media out there and they'll tell you that bad news sell. Good news don't. There are millions of Dahon riders out there who won't bother posting their positive feelings towards the bike because they don't have to.

I hope you have good luck with your potential new Brompton. Me; I am just happy with both my Mu SL and Speed Duo. In fact, I got the Mu SL from a returned because the customer heard that this bike sucks on the internet without even bother riding that much. I got an awesome deal and had ridden with carbon roadies no problem at up 23mph as well as touring with it loaded with a trailer. Much more versatile than the Brompton.

^ i'm, not saying that all dahon''s suck, i'm saying that i've had two steel dahon frames crack on me due to shoddy design, fabrication, or both.

if you had two dahon frames fail on you after only a couple years, you too would be sour on the brand as well.

and i'm not sold on brmopton either because they don't have a 20" wheel model. 16" wheels are ok, but i much prefer the ride quality of a 20".

i might just give up on the idea of a folder altogether. they seem inherently weak, too many durability compromises need to be made to make them fold-up.

Have you ever experienced a Brompton for any length of time or other folders to part from the ones you had to make such a sweeping judgement. Reminds me of a forum recently where people were judging the new Microsoft RT tablet & they'd never bought or seen one!

no (other than test rides), it's just all the extra moving parts, the non-diamond frames, the little wheels, all of it adds up to a bike that has to make compromises to do something that an ordinary bike can't do: fold up real small. my frustration has reached the breaking point and i'm trying to evaluate just how badly i want to continue owning a folder. i don't multi-modal commute or anything like that, so a folder isn't a necessity in my stable, just a convenient option from time to time. i imagine i could get by with my regular bikes if i had to, and i may just end up doing that. brompton's aren't cheap..... and they have no 20" wheel option.....

well, the verdict is in, dahon's frame warranty only lasts 5 years from date of purchase. that was over 6 years ago, so no new frame for me this time. :(

option 1: try to sell the bike online to someone else as a donor parts bike.

option 2: ride the POS into the ground until the small hairline crack in the seat tube becomes serious.



inertia will probably lead me to #2. whether or not i replace it when it goes to folding bicycle heaven will be a decision for a different day.

it sucks that nothing lasts forever, other than my disappointment in dahon. ;)

I absolutely understand your frustration. I would too. I don't know the situation you are in and what you do to make it break twice. Some well known bike companies that sell $3000 and up bikes do not even offer the free frame replacement that Dahon did for you. Consider this as an industry un-norm. Typically, most companies will make you pay at least something or worst make you buy a new frame at a discount. Some can be so arrogant to say that you broke it because you crashed it and we are selling a frame to you as a courtesy because their brand name is so, shall we say snobbish!

Having said that, most folding bikes are designed with certain limits and to meet certain usage parameters. But we as folder owners don't always operate within the operating realm of their design and sometimes, things like this happen. Imagine you make a super tough bike with no butted joints everything solid and stiff but tough. It wouldn't ride nice nor would it be light enough to portage around either. Bike makers have to make certain compromises to meet those demands. These compromises may prove frustrating to a certain number of owners like yourself. You have to pay to find out that your Dahon does not work for you. But such is life.