akakpaws

I am Having problems folding this bike. I have owned Dahon before this bike and never thought about folding at all, just did it. However with this bike it appears the locking pin where the frame folds is out of alignment with the hole it should fit into. This problem is becoming more and more of an annoyance. Downtube (Dr. Yan) advises to cycle the mechanism several times. This has made no difference at all. Any other 9fs owners out there having this problem? Any suggestion? This muddles what is an otherwise great product.

kamtsa

Is this a new bike? If not, did it get worse over time?

chagzuki

Is it a pin or a bolt of some kind, i.e. can it be easily dismantled?

brakemeister 

any pics ?
if you used WD40 its pretty alright to clean things up and get water out. but its NOT a lubricant ..get some real penetration teflon whatever lube and bath the hinge for a couple days

other than that we need to know where the bike was stored, how lold, and everything else you can imagine , to help out in a better fashion.

thor

just an example... I got an email similar to yours. comes to find out that the bike in question was hanging on the back of a motorhome for the last 3 years ... the roadgrime was covering a solid layer of salt and crap ...
it got powerwashed once a year with a professional powerwasher with especially taking care of any "moving" parts.... the owner never took the bike off the rear carrier while spraying the last amount of grease right out of the bearings ....
that bike was indeed dead ...

akakpaws

It is new. I suspect something got tweaked in shipment. The condition has not changed.

akakpaws

Thanks for your response. I dont have any pics, I dont think a picture would show the problem well which is the locking pin does not align with the hole it is supposed to fit into. The bike is new. At this moment my choices are to ship back for fixing or try to bend the flange so that the pin aligns with the hole.

akakpaws

It is pretty easy to dismantle the mechanism. At this point it looks like the flange of the frame need to get bent slightly to get the two halves to align. I am reluctant to do this because I believe this is an aluminum bike and I dont want to put a crack in it.

JCFlack

I had a similar problem with my bike when I first got it. A quick and careful twist with a pair of pliers fixed it, and there have been no problems with it since, and no side effects. However, my bike is a steel bike.

akakpaws

I thought about doing that. I am wondering if it is ok to tweak aluminum, I am afraid of cracking the frame. I believe that will be the ultimate solution. Anyone have any experience with bending aluminum?

Niked

I have an 8FS with the same problem. I joke that my Downtube is a folder bike that doesn't like to be folded
given the misaligned pin and the awkward folded position.

akakpaws

That is so true! I have also owned Dahon folders and never had to think about the folding process. This bike, for all of it attributes, fails completely at folding. What a shame!