My friend Robbie is no slouch on a bike. He is a former Mass-Rhode Island district road race champion, he has been beaten by the likes of Steve Bauer and Davis Phinney. The man can always get on a bike and haul ass, he always will. He drove by two days ago and was hot to go for a ride. I looked in his car to see only cycling shoes, a helmet and a small lumpy bag, he removed the bag from the car and looking like an off-duty magician, pulled out what appeared to be the remnants of a bad kid's-bike-versus-snow-plow accident but was instead, a Dahon. A Folding Bike unlike any folding bike I've ever seen. This magic trick continued as he unfolded this little transformer into the most unlikely thing that would still fall under the definition of €bicycle.” Everything was hinged and telescoped and yet it had a serious racing saddle on it. To my eye this was an inexpensive, carbon fiber free, heavy duty-commuting machine.
Robbie is an old school racer who rode a fixed gear track bike everywhere in the off-season to improve his spin. He rode his track bike through the Callahan Tunnel in Boston, a highly illegal feat I suspect never done before or after, for every reason.
But I digress.
Now he prefers to get across NYC on bike rather than wait for the next crowded subway car but his commute into NYC requires a trip on the Long Island Railway and having wrenched his back man-handling his regular bike around, by necessity, dove into the world of miniature bikes. Robbie is also a silversmith and unafraid to work some metal. This Dahon is now a fixie and to make it a smaller package it needed smaller 14€ wheels, which meant a larger chainring, which meant a modified chainstay, which meant a modified shorter front fork, one thing leads to another you understand.
We did go for a demonstration spin. His position on this bike is his regular road position in the drops. He easily whipped up to 23mph and claims he has hit 35mph on this contraption. With the tiny wheels he could draft me so close he could put his hand forward and touch me. Road riders are quite horrified to be unable to get rid of Robbie and his clown bike on a 40-mile ride. The bike can be checked at a coat check! He rides much more now because he always has this portable bike that is fun, fast and safe to ride.
This has changed my thinking. I always assumed the S and S coupling of a standard bike was the only serious way to get portable. I guess it's my 700C paradigm. It's nice to see it from another angle.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo%20Galleries/j.andrews3@comcast.net/Folding%20Bike%20Photos/”/]
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@Buck Rogers
Thanks Buck, no its just going to be the back up bike for if I make it to the parking lot and can't walk from the car to the beer stop...
The left side lets you fit a bigger chainring due to the curve of the frame and doesn´t cause any probs with the folding, in fact as the chainring is on the inside of the fold it is somewhat protected from knocks when I´m transporting it. The mono fork also brings the fold in a little tighter.
I live in the north of spain and use it to get around Oviedo, a fairly hilly city, so I´m only running a 48-13 ratio but have been very tempted to put a bigger ring on.
Yes it´s fixed, in fact I welded the rear sproket on so it didnt unwind while i peddaled.
It goes like a dream, only thing that really needs changing is the folding steerer tube, which is steel and heavy, but there hard to come accross in alu.
Was good to come accross another sweetpea conversion.
I can´t believe dahon made such a good quality frame for what was essencially a kids bike.
Have sketched some plans to sow a rucksack for it, but the bag will have to wait till I´ve got some more time, the fork took a lot of time, it´s made from a tange mtb fork.
Sam I am still bowled over that there are 2 of us in the world that saw the potential of the mighty "Sweet Pea"! And that we had such similar approaches in terms of the wheel conversion of 14 inch to 16 inch. You were clever in thinking out side the box with the left side drive.
I do not know how much seat post you have in the seat tube but when I used a one piece seat post for it to be the right height it was only going 3/4's of the way down and that meant I was putting way to much force on the seat tube. It cracked and I welded it with a reinforcement tube inside and then went to a 2 piece telescoping seat post with a 2nd quick release. That meant that the lower section of seat post was all the way down in the seat tube and the stress was distributed through the whole short length of the seat tube. Also it gives a slightly smaller fold at the expense of a little more weight.
If I did the math right I have a 71 inch gear - 54 x 12 x 16" I really like that for the city riding and hills when I am not fit.
That fork slays me, good work and when I can I plan to borrow the idea!
My fantasy is to have a good builder make a titanium version with as much carbon fiber goodies and end up with a 10 to 12 lbs travel bike.... Almost as light and small as my first lap top!
Really it is a mystery why more urban folk don't do this sort of ride?
1) The money saved on car/train/bus pays for any bike in months.
2) A light folder with a bag goes anywhere and I mean anywhere!
3) No locks to carry, no theft to worry about (thus its ok to spend more, see #1).
4) This is a bullet proof ride that in 4 years has done about 4,000 km (100 km at 28 kph was my longest ride) and it's fun and responsive as well as comfortable.
Yes you have to get over the "how you look thing" but as I always say no matter how pro/rules compliant you are we all look like clowns to the gas crowd so I have no problem embracing my inner circus alter ego and spinning along side some yahoo in a gas guzzler at 50 kph and getting a laugh when I see the look. As for "serious cyclists" (of which I count myself) the ones who get this bike the quickest are the pros, one look at me drafting and the reaction is hey that's a cool little bike and it has happened more than once. The not so good guys are usually pissed off they can't always drop me and you can tell that they really do not like the way I bring down the tone of their pace line as I stay with them...
If your ever in the US I hope we can meet and compare them - ride well and safe and thanks for posting up!
@Rob
Thanks for the heads up on the seat tube, I´m setting about making myself a telescopic seat post today, I´m too fond of this frame to risk it.
Other changes to be made are getting an alu adjustable handlepost, so I can lower the front a bit and a bigger chainring.
I´ve been using the bike predominantly when I drive to the city, I park on the outskirts and use it to run my errands, it saves a lot of time and I don´t pay parking, but I´ve been increasingly choosing it over my tourer and mtb to go out for a quick spin where I live, it´s just really fun to ride, plus it fits in a cuboard in my flat whereas the other bikes involve trapesing to the garage and fussing with locks.
Your sweetpea has inspired me to get more out of mine, primarily speed. Thinking about it, there´s little diference in riding position to my moulton, and they broke a lot of long distance speed records in there day
http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk/heritage.html
anyway keep riding the small wheel revolution
sam
Holy shit! We will be in the presence of greatness come Wednesday and Thursday.
Rob, if you still have one of these, and there's room in the car, bring it along!
Is there anything you don't do?!
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Sam! is it possible to get a closer picture of your mono fork? I am very much interested :)
@Sam! is it possible to get a closer picture of your mono fork? I am very much interested :)