New era Dahon
 

Dahon kicks off new era at Eurobike
by Jonathon Harker

New products and global marketing campaign – 'Express Your Personality' – revealed

Following a tumultuous few months, Dahon has launched its 2012 campaign at Eurobike, covering new product and the launch of its first ever global advertising campaign.

http://www.bikebiz.com/media/images/dahon_body_1.jpg


"...The brand has streamlined its range for 2012, offering 34 bicycles, including the Jifo 16 bicycle. Dahon said it has applied a revolutionary longitudinal frame latch to the model, so the Jifo folds in about seven seconds. The Jifo is pitched at riders looking for a light and convenient mode of transport for their daily ‘last mile’.
...
Other product highlights include the Mu N360 featuring the NuVinci CTV drivetrain hub.
..."

Hopefully they will get the dahon.com domain. Having two non related companies using the Dahon brand is confusing.

what this is is a tragedy

Its a tikit with push rods! (rather than cables)
Interesting...............
Love to see this folded.

maybe its the colour, but has a certain resemblance to my downtube mini too - especially around the seatpost and handlebars .... Differences too, eg gearing. +1 on the fold.

Oh its that one. Thanks anyway.

Dimensions anyone?

You saw it at ThorUSA first .... lol.. actually already a year ago !!!!
Just saying.... and yes I like that bike its very very compact and still rides acceptable well. Not for centuries but great for short trips.
An estimated guess for the Jivo is 899.00 shipped. I dont know about the ugly color.... maybe we can get it in a different one after all.
( If enough dealers open their mouth and start *****in anyhow.... I hate to be the only one )

I am interested in the Mu with the Nuwinchi but I have no clue if that is going to be an Euro only model or not and the price ?

We will probaly see the Curl as well....I would think 1500 dlrs minimum for this bike..... which makes it quite expensive and I think the Jivo will be taking away from the Curl with that price difference.

Next week is Interbike and we will find out more ..... I will post on facebook ( Thorsten Schaette) as this is most likely the easiest way and the freshest ....

Thor

I thought of my Mini, too, when I saw the Jifo, g_g.

Aye, the google image I dug up for the folded bike is on the ThorUSA website, so mad props to Brakemeister for the folded shot.

I like. But without the shrunken fenders.

This is supposed to be a step forward in folded bicycle design ?

Was this really designed by the same people who gave us the pure lines of the Curve and the Mu ?

It may ride fine, but it looks a mess, like something you would find on e bay for £49.99

That is a very smart move on your part to start offering other brands. That does not make you a traitor. Just a wise businessman who must diversify his line ups in the new reality of the rapidly changing large players of the folding bike market.

The tiny Jivo is really unusual to say the least.

That Jivo has a clever fold - that's not something you come up with over a coffee. Long design hours were spent. I can see some very clever things in the fold.

Yes indeed, but then Dahon probably has a larger in-house R&D resource than the rest of the folding bike industry put together. It looks to me like the design brief given to the engineers may have been 16" wheels and an upper limit on the folded package volume, to meet what would be a fairly obvious marketing goal. I'm just not sure we will come to love that longitudinal hinge, assuming that the picture shows the actual production model and not a prototype.

Just the wheelbase looks lamentably short.

+1.
The vertical hinge is a nice idea if the bike's design "has" to incorporate a hinge in the middle of the frame.

"The Jifo is pitched at riders looking for a light and convenient mode of transport for their daily ‘last mile"

Maybe they don't intend people to use it much beyond that range, so swb and rideability would not be a primary issue, making it a sort of expensive update to the Daewoo Shuttle.

More pictures here (there are a bunch of Jito pictures to the right and left of this one)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bob406/...n/photostream/

Also has this picture of a folding crank

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bob406/...n/photostream/

Thor, I hope you are wrong about the Jifo's price (but odds are you know what you are talking about). I would love to have a Jifo. Oh well, at least they would be available. Maybe if the color is ugly nobody will buy them and the price will go down. :)

They bought it off the shelf... it is not their design.

Nine big for a 16" (ISO305) single speed? It's your business, but I wouldn't recommend putting very many in inventory!

I hear you !
and as long as the ride is not surprisingly super doopa extraordinaire out of this world better than most I have ridden kinda thing you are maybe right ....
I saw that bike in person though and although I think it is expnsive I really need to compare the folded size and the components one by one... that might swing me more in favour as well.

thor

Single speed Bromptoms are about the same price (UK or US price). This Dahon has Better brakes? faster fold? more upgradeable? takes big apple tyres, more range of adjustment?
Not so sure its that different value for money if compaired to a Brommie, but compared to other opposition like (other Dahons,bike friday, )it looks well over priced.

i don't understand why i would pay $1500 for a curl. if i was willing to pay that much for a small (16") wheeled bike with, imo, limited capabilities, i might choose a brompton. personally, i don't think dahon has the cache to compete with brompton head to head. that's just me. and obviously i'm only thinking about the u.s. for me, a lot of riding a brompton is about cache and prestige. what's so special about a curl?
well, i'm not their market, obviously. my next bike is still gonna be under/around $1000.

but as far as color on the jivo, if you raise hell please request black, white, dark green, or even orange. :) i'd like a black bike.

thanks

The Curl is probably lighter, has an adjustable stem/handlepost, folds smaller, and probably has less twitchy steering. I'm not convinced by it myself, the fold looks messy with chain on the outside and no obvious easy way to carry it.

I have a Jivo in my show crate to arrive back home ny end of the week.
Will try to test and maybe a small u toube piece next weekend.

Dahon Jifo live action fold @ ~1:35 into this 2:25 video:

http://youtu.be/26CIvkFGTJA

Of course the double telescoping seat post goes down further (not shown in this video). Fold is claimed to be +/- millimeters of the Brompton.