Tern Link A7 vs Graziella Metro 6s
 

Goodmorning everyone,

I' m currently looking to buy a folding bike as a gift to my girlfriend. I should say here that I am quite a newbie in the bicycle world, but I have made some research in bike stores. Taking into account my budget and the fact that I would like to buy from a local store (so as to have accesible service if anything happens) my options seem to be these two:

1. The Tern Link A7 model (which I believe is the safest option)
2. The Graziella Metro 6s ( I really can't post the link with the specifications because I am a new member but you can find them if you search "lagraziella" )

I am really considering buying the Graziella, because I like its appearance A LOT more and it is going to be a gift to a girl after all. However I haven't been able to find much on the internet, if anything, abound the Graziella brand and I am kind of wary about this option

Any help would be really welcome. Is there anyone with some experience of this Graziella model? Do you think that it would be far superior to the Tern, given that the link A7 is also an introducing model of the Tern brand?

I don't know id this will be of any help, but the girl is about 1.74 m , 62 kg and will be using the bike mainly for leisure time and maybe some commuting, but needs it to be foldable.

Thanks in advance!

I would stay away from anything produced by Tern. Maybe do a little research on your own, so you don't have to take my word.

I am sure you have some experience and know of issues that Tern bicycles have.. But what if I can't afford a Dahon or a Brompton? Isn't Tern my best bet? And what about the other brand, which I can't find any reviews about?

So, which one has had less recalls?


In the style of old steel Italian shopping bikes ..never seen one in person
& its the 1st mention of the brand i've heard..


https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/11...g?v=1516963249 Though probably an OEM Asian contract factory ( Hard to compete on price with imports..) so you hire them.






...

Dahon gives you the best bang for the buck, if you know which of their models to pick (no surprise when you look at the numbers sold). The current model lineup is a little disappointing. To a newbie, I would recommend trying a Dahon Boardwalk and see if you like it. Proven design, and cheap.

I would also recommend a Boardwalk. I have 2 I bought used. One for $65 and one for $0. I did go though them and of course have more money in them now. Roger

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fd6776b353.jpg

There are also some smaller bike makers posting here, Yan (Downtube) and Pinigis (Origami), who have affordable models in their lineups that get good reviews and definitely seem worth checking out. Don't expect great customer service from Dahon.

Terns have oodles of Dahon DNA and are made in some of the same factories. That might have been a mistake on Terns part given the renegade nature of their startup. The factory's loyalties might have been to their principal founder. But, as I understand it, these issues are in the process of resolution. A new customer might be missing out by holding onto opinions formed by the recent past. At the end of the day, there isn't anything that could happen to a Tern that couldn't also happen to a Dahon. I have extensive experience with Giant folders. A respected brand. Their Halfway folder was innovative in its time, and well reviewed, and I bought one in 2005. The seatpost failed after a month, despite my being well within the weight limit. It was replaced under warranty. The frame failed after 4 years and since Halfway's were no longer being made, it was replaced under warranty with an Expressway 1. I researched it even though I was essentially not "buying" it: retail >$600. Decent spec. Frame has failed after 4ish years. I am sure many others are experiencing the same thing, but I am not hearing of any recalls of Giant Expressway folders. Maybe not of interest to the o.p. but definitely of interest to myself is the performance envelope of the folder. The ergo's. Tern appears to have an edge in the Andros stem and Tern offers models with 2x8 and 2x9 drivetrains. Dahon has such a model but the frame looks very much like the frame of my failed Expressway and I no longer think that folder designs with multiple tubes and welds hold up over time. The classic Dahon (and Tern) design with the curved mono-tube appears to be the best (maybe) at dealing with the forces that cause frame failures in multitube frame designs. At the end of the day the manufacturers honor of their frame warranty is more important to me than any history of frame failure. Notwithstanding that, I am really torn as to whether to get another Expressway under warranty. It might be time to try another brand, if only for a chance to get better ergos and a more interesting drivetrain.

Affordability between Tern and Dahon is a non-issue. Both produce models with overlapping price points. If you can afford one, you can afford the other. Brompton is a horse of a different color entirely. Actually Brompton isn't even a horse if we are using that analogy. Brompton is a Zebra. The other brand ... unless I way miss my guess, it is low end and beneath contempt. Not worth reviewing. That is not the same as not worth buying. But ... am I wrong, your aim here is to impress? I cannot fault another posters advice to consider a Dahon Boardwalk. But maybe better than that is to buy 'the girl' something more ... personal. Perfume? Maybe a trip. IF you choose to ignore my advice (formed out of experience) at least take the girl shopping for the bike. Let her choose it. If she goes for a Tern Verge D18, you deserve it, because I warned you to buy her the 'Opium' perfume instead. FWIW.

This advice is based on out-dated information. The frame defects problem was resolved years ago.

https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-b...recall-11.html



If you follow some of the links on these pages you can see that it wasn't . But Tern treats their dealers very well, makes a great website etc., so they've got good marketing going for them. And most of their bikes ride just fine.

Actually, there's still frames out there breaking. Unfortunately Tern is still a risk,...

I'd rather deal with Dahon, as they have a better rep when it comes to customer service. I'd rather not chance becoming a statistic.

The last Tern recall was for frames made between August 2011 and April 2012. It's important to know if any given frame that fails is outside those manufacturing dates. Also, unfortunately some owners did not register their bikes, or sold the bikes without advising the subsequent owner, so they couldn't be recalled. If these turn up cracked, it's not really a good basis for gratuitous criticism of Tern. They had a problem and they handled it.
(Full disclosure: I own a Tern Verge S11i, which had its frame recalled, unbroken, and replaced. I have about 4,000 miles on the new frame and am completely comfortable riding it.)

Actually, there's another NEW BREAK on a more recent folder from Tern. Apparently, the owner says he may have gone overboard, and done more than the specs recommended, but there's definitely other frames, SOLD AFTER the dates you've listed, that are out there.

FYI: I'm a TernJoeP24 owner, so I've a vested interest as well. I may not have a bike that was recalled,...but I'm always worried about the possibility of a frame failure. Tern was a NIGHTMARE to deal with when this originally happened,... I highly doubt there'd be a more acceptable response if my frame failed. YMMV,...I'm not sold on their credibility.

That may be true. However, there are reports of other frames of other brands failing in various ways. These don't always result in recalls. It seems to be a part of the "background", especially when weight reduction is a priority... this puts folding bikes, almost by design, in a high-risk group.
Tern had a terrible problem, which could be described (charitably) as a "black eye". I'm not privy to the details of the problem itself or its management (I'm not in the bike trade), but the people in the Tern organization that I have dealt with have impressed me as honest and honorable. This has led me to believe that they have done their best to resolve the original problem and prevent its recurrence. If there's another recall of more recent frames, I'll reconsider my position. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my bike.

I'm happy that you're enjoying your bike, but tern was far from honorable when the failures occurred, and how they deal with the situation now has no impact on their prior mistreatment of their customers in general. Either you failed to read all the horror stories, or simply choose to disregard them. I'm not going to recommend a tern bike to anyone,...and saying other companies had the same happen doesn't change the fact terns situation was in far larger numbers. And the other companies didn't deny the occurrence, nor did they lock customers out of forums OR attempt to discredit the customers who sustained injuries the way tern did. Tern is still not worth the risk,... And as you've said yourself, tern has been the subject of "recalls", while others haven't. Doesn't that mean that the other brands are safer, while tern is still unreliable? I'd say so,...

So, as you seem to know it: How many Tern bikes have failed? And how many of the other brands have failed? All we know is how many Tern bike have been recalled, but that doesn't say a thing about how many have really failed nor about how many have had the potential failure inside. The number of bikes i.e. Brompton recalled recently were, if I remember correctly, far higher than the number of bikes Tern recalled. Still only a very tiny fraction of the recalled Bromptons have had a real issue.


They did not lock out customers from the forum - they locked out a competitor (Downtube) who within Tern's own forums discredited the brand, using a fake identity, and - after being thrown out - registered again and did the same thing again until he got thrown out again (if I remeber correctly) and then started to complain publically, i.e. in this forum.

Where did they do that? Do you have any link, proof or deeper knowledge?

That is a very simple-minded attitude. If two brands suffer from the same issue and one does a recall while the other does not the brand who does not perform a recall is the better and more reliable brand? really? I'd say the opposite: The one who does perform a recall takes responsibility. No doubt Tern could have done better in regards of communication and speed of the reaction and surely their behaviour did not foster the trust in the brand - but in my eyes you defitively massively overreact and judge totally wrong in their case, only reconizing even the tiniest thing that speaks against them (including things that are just rumors, have been told in a very one-sided way or simply did never happen) while ignoring everything that speaks for them.

Brompton did never perform a recall for their braking frames in the 90ies. Still they broke and still do on those old bikes.

Based on what? Belief?

That's not what I said. I said that not all failures result in recalls. But there *have* been other recalls. A quick Google search (For Example) finds many recalls involving many brands. It would be great if there were no more defects in *any* manufactured product. Sadly, that's not reality.

You said "The frame defects problem was resolved years ago." , which is obviously untrue, thereby misleading a potential buyer, and possibly endangering his health/life.

On which foundation do you claim that? Your claim is not at all obvious to me. In case you are referring to the recently broken frame of the cargo node: The owner himself said that he probably overstressed the frame - he fitted an electric motor on a non electric with four times (!) the amount of power that the factory one has. Apart from that the factory electrc version may (!) have enforcements in or a not obvious different construction on the frame (do not know, but i.e. with the Brompton Electric this is the case). If you put a motor into a car with four times the power that the factory offers and allows at maximum and after a while and intensive usage of that extra power the suspension broke - would you then call it a faulty construction by the factory, call them non-trustworthy and disreccomend buying a car from them?

edit: Is seems to be the case that Tern dosn't even offer an electric version of the cargo node, at least I cannot find it on their webpage currently. If they offered an eletric version it would - as their other pedelecs - probably be limited to 25 km/h and 250Watt. Whereas the user with the broken frame used a 1000Watt motor and did - as he says - make intensive use of that power.

I had been one of the people locked out of the tern forum, and there were multiple individuals who voiced their issues with tern. There was never a finish concerning this issue, and this has been stated in quite a few other forums. Tern attempted to ignore there was any issues,... This isn't a belief, it's a fact. If you want proof go look for it, I'm not interested in validating anything to you.

Ignore list qualified,... :thumb:

A lot of people were locked out when they closed their forum - which in my eyes was neither a friendly nor a clever move. Obviously "multiple individuals voiced their issues with tern" - nobody doubted that nor that they were right to do so. As you were locked out: Were you a customer of their's? Which means: did you own a Tern? You claim your claims would be a fact but have no proof or even interest to find one. So obviously your claim is no fact but just a claim or your opinion to anyone else but you.

I'm a tern owner, as I stated above,...but apparently you can't actually read before you rant. Now, I've placed you on ignore. Do not quote me again, as this is harassment. I do not wish to interact with you.

Dear OP,

As per post #9 , please buy your girlfriend some perfume instead (so that there will be peace again in this forum) :p. For what brand of perfume to buy, kindly go to www.perfumeforums.net. :popcorn

Amen to that,...