Is this a rebadged Dahon?
 

Insights welcomed! It looks half decent for £199 on eBay UK and looks like it came out of a Dahon factory. Am I wrong or right?


http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/...lleady/_57.jpg

Yep that front hinge is pure Dahon.

Hello my old friend. I hope you are well!

A number of companies in Asia build Dahon 'inspired' folders, Dahon dimensional copies and even counterfeit Dahons.

A Tern dealer here on this board said from appearances he thought the new Norava Flyby model was a rebadged Dahon - nope! It's actually manufactured 'by' Tern to closely resemble the Dahon-built model REI had been selling.

It's been noted that private label Dahons often sell at prices a bit below Dahon branded bikes, but unless the seller can prove otherwise, @199BP I'm guessing that bike has never been anywhere near a Dahon factory.

We used a Dahon hinge on our old Nova model. We did not use Dahon's factory. Around 2012 Dahon stopped outsourcing their hinges.

Currently you will find many Dahon look alike hinges that are not very functional....very strange.

Thanks,
Yan

Keep in mind that Dahon builds significantly more models than are distributed in North America and Europe.
I don't know the source of this bike, but it does not appear to me to be a rebadged Dahon. The frame looks like the Dahon Mu frame, but the current Mu has the frame latch release on the left side of the frame rather than the right side. I believe that has been the case since 2008.

-HANK RYAN-
Norman, Oklahoma USA

Its almost an open source design by now since China apparently has little copyright enforcement.

On that basis, Dahon is experiencing what it is has done to Brompton with the Curl. No cause for complaint I guess ;-)

And in fact I'm not aware of Dahon ever complaining about anyone* building/marketing their designs that are not covered by active patent or copyright.

*Don't know about the UK, but in the USA, this would be b-fold, Citizen, dibar, Downtube, Giant, Hasa, KHS, Melon, Mobic, Novara, Origami, Origin, Schwinn, Tern, Ubike and others.

True TCS point taken!

You're right. It's another brand produced by Dahon. I believe it's targeted at big-box stores and the China domestic market.