Interesting rebrand or knock off
 

I'm new to folders and in the market for one. I came across this Mec bike. It's a bit expensive for the spec. It looks like a Tern/Dahon. It even claims to use Tern parts and manufactured by Tern. What I find galling is their claim:

MEC bikes are designed in Canada. Everything from the frames, to the graphics was developed at the MEC Head Office in Vancouver, BC.

So if I use Tern parts and assemble a new bike, I can say "developed by MEC"? Is this a rebrand? Is this really worth $650.


http://www.mec.ca/product/5032-826/m...10+50002+50013

Yeah, it looks like a Dahon Vybe C7A with some mild drivetrain mods, and since that is probably what it is, I guess I'd have to call it a rebrand. If it weremamcopy manufactured by someone other than Dahon, then it would be a knockoff.

I suspect the statements about being Canada designed is just boilerplate that refers to most of their bikes, though is undoubtedly disingenuine.

Compare with:

http://www.rei.com/product/843607/no...ding-bike-2013

-HANK RYAN-
Norman, Oklahoma USA

Consider , if you order a large enough batch to meet their minimum,
many manufacturers will put any name you want on each of them..

Graphics/color and a bit of parts pick changes in this case may be what they 'designed' .

don't think its either a tern or a dahon made bike ..some similarities obviously

I think I read somewhere that it was made by Dahon, when they first came out a couple of years ago.

Pretty sure there is a thread about it somewhere here.

MEC's previous folding bike was made by Dahon for them and there was no attempt to claim otherwise. My wife has one. They put that model on clearance this spring and then rolled out the current one which is pretty similar. I assume that this one is made for them by Tern.

Ha! The real question, then, is Tern a Dahon knock-off?!

i believe the family settled out of court, right?

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I thought it was still the same bike.

this one is actually a Tern if you look at the handlepost latch it's the same as their C7 model. look at this link to compare: http://www.ternbicycles.com/ca/bikes/link-c7 the latches are exactly the same. The main differences they did here was setting it up for commuting: fenders, racks, and a 7 speed internal hub gear to boot! it's $100 bucks more than the Tern C7 but I think the upgrades on there makes it worth much more than the basic C7!

As was pointed out to me in an earlier thread, the Link C7 frame has chainstays while the current REI Novara FlyBy has a support plate between the seat stays and the seat tube. The MEC appears to me to have the same frame as the current Novara FlyBy.

-HANK RYAN-
Norman, Oklahoma USA

The short answer is no.

There were two Dahons operating for years. Dahon China controlled by the father and uncle and Dahon Taiwan operating by the estranged wife and son. Dahon.com for example was owned by Dahon Taiwan and only recently was transfered to Dahon China, probably as part of the settlement. Both Dahons to hide the fact that there are two independent companies and Dahon Taiwan's website even listed the father as their president (he was not). Tern is basically a rename of Dahon Taiwan so it's not a knock-off. Some say that their quality got even better during the transition (e.g. better hinges).