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Old 02-20-19, 07:16 AM
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sykerocker 
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Ashland, VA
Posts: 4,420

Bikes: The keepers: 1958 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix, 1968 Ranger, 1969 Magneet Sprint, 1971 Gitane Tour de France, 1973 Raleigh Tourist, 3 - 1986 Rossins, and a '77 PX-10 frame in process.

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At the Westminster, MD swap meet last weekend I sold off a Yugoslavian folder that was the identical design (those bikes seem to all be identical and somewhere between the mid-70's and early 80's). Originally I had built it for my wife to give us a pair of bikes to ride around St. Augustine, FL for our honeymoon four years ago (I was riding a Raleigh Twenty that I still have). To give her a bit extra, I built a new rear wheel around a Sturmei-Archer two speed kick-back hub.

For the ten days in St. Augustine, the bike proved to be quite functional. Biggest weakness of the design is the hinge: With the nut tightened down to the point that you've got the ability to release it by hand and easily fold it, you're going to get some flex in the frame. Which can be disconcerting at first, and a constant reminder that this isn't a bike where you stomp on the pedals and accelerate away. The flex can be done away with by adding a wrench to the nut and tightening it down more, but at that point you can no longer release the lever by simple hand pressure.

Not a great bike (I've done fifty mile rides on Raleigh Twenties, wouldn't consider it for one of these), but it does work within the constraints of the design. Say, a two mile ride from the train station to your office, etc. No, they're not worth much money. I got $50.00 for mine, and it was in mint, rideable, put it in the trunk of your car and use it for commuting Monday morning condition. Plus the two speed conversion. But they work. The realization that everyone you find is somewhere between 30-45 years old says that the design is obsolete, and has been improved up by everyone from a first generation Dahon up.

Worth keeping though, assuming you haven't had to pay much for it.
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Syke

“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

H.L. Mencken, (1926)

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