GTA

Just some parts have been replaced with decent ones. It is basically still a Jetstream P8.
It is really a interesting bike, and not like the Birdy, you can easily find compatible parts from the market to upgrade your Jetstream.
The retails price is also much more reasonable.
Perhaps you can contact DAHON if you are inerested, I am sure their is a way to get one. :-)

pinholecam

Can you review the Jetsteam a bit?

How does it ride on trails and roads?

Can it handle larger stony terrain?

Is suspension losses a problem when riding fast on roads? and can the suspension be locked out (and how easy is that?)?

What about luggage carrying capability/options?

GTA

Hi there, in general, it can work pretty well on both trails and roads, but better with some modifications.
The front "TopGun" fork cannot be locked. ( I am seeking a "German A-Kilo" fork, which has a lockable air suspention, to replace it)
The rear supension of my Jetstream is alrealy upgraded, so you can tune it to be firmer or softer easily.
For trail use, normally I put on wider tires to get more grip. Schwalbe Black Jack is a good choice. Obviously, the Kojak tires are more for roads.
The only issue is the weight. I am already using some lightweighted parts but it weighs still 11.5 kg now.
I would like to get more carbon and titanium parts to hit 10 kg, but only when I have the budget... :-)

I am not considering to put any rack on it, because for long distance touring I prefer a hard tail and lighter bike.

pinholecam

Thanks for the speedy reply.

blakcloud

Took a trip to Vancouver from Toronto and brought my Brompton. First time using the B & W hard shell case. The photo is at the Olympic flame that was lit during the winter Olympics in 2010. Did lots of riding around Stanley Park and surrounding area.

tds101 

Dahon Speed P8 resting in the urban jungle,...

Tourist in MSN

Airnimal Joey in Big Bend National Park, Texas



And in the motel room

Abu Mahendra

wheels are ISO520?

besides the pressure differences, i can feel rotational.differences between 406 and 451. 406 accelerates quicker than but does not retain momentum as well as 451. i wonder how 520, a bigger difference between 451 than between 451 and 406, and closer to 559, rides...

Tourist in MSN

That model takes 507 or 520, I have 507. I am not sure the full history of that model, mine is the older version that can't use a front derailleur (thus, I have the Sram Dual Drive) and the older version chainstays have minimal clearance for a wider tire. I tried a 1.75 tire once, the chainstays did not provide adequate clearance, thus 1.5 width is all I can run. The bike as shown has Schwalbe Marathon 24 X 1.5 (559X40), but that tire no longer is available in that width. Since that tire size is quite rare, I have several tires in storage and when I go somewhere like that Texas trip, I brought two spare tubes and a spare tire. I think that they changed the chainstay design when they added a fitting for a front derailleur to allow a wider tire. My older model also uses rim brakes, that model currently is fitted with disc.

Handling. The handling is quite good. Compared to my 26 inch (559) bikes, the steering is lighter, but that might be from a different amount of trail or it might be from less rotational inertia. As far as momentum accelerating or decelerating, that bike is lighter than my 26 inch bikes, so I am not sure how much of the difference in handling is from rotational mass or how much from bike weight.

When I bought that bike frame and built it up, that model with 24 inch wheels was advertised as being a folder that handled as good as a full size regular bike. I like the handling of it, I do not find that the smaller wheel size makes the ride rougher. On that trip in Texas, many of the paved roads were quite rough, you can see in the photo how rough the pavement is. On the first day I had front tire pressure in the high 50s (psi) and the ride was rather rough on my hands but the second day I dropped my front tire pressure to the low 40s and that rode much better.

The tall seat post and seatpost extension means that there is a lot of fore and aft flex that you do not feel on a normal road bike. That bothered me a lot when I first built up the bike, but after riding it for a while I no longer notice it. It now feels like a normal full size road bike to me.

On that trip in Texas, that was a van supported bike trip for a week. The van hauled our camping gear for us and all the cooking gear. There were a dozen riders, I had the only folding bike. The other bikes were a mix of road, cyclocross, gravel and touring bikes. All had drop bars, no mountain bikes in the group. I think my folder handled as well as the other bikes, speed wise it was probably as fast as I would have been on a full size 559 bike with the same tire width of 1.5 (40mm).

I have owned that bike for years, but have not ridden it very much. I wanted to try it for an extended trip to see how it worked out. It exceeded my expectations. I am not sure if I will put racks and panniers on it for a camping trip or not, but I would not rule that out if I could keep my load relatively light. But I have full size touring bikes, so if I was to use that on a camping trip there would have to be a reason to use that particular bike over the others.

As folders go, that is a large bike. To pack that into a case that does not exceed airline luggage size criteria takes a lot of work. To fit it in my S&S case (26 X 26 X 10 inches), I have to pull the fork out of it, crank arms off, etc. It takes about as much work to pack for airline travel as my S&S coupled bike.

Abu Mahendra

Hey Pinholecam, my SG pusher reports there's a lonesome Jetstream EX with German Kilo A fork sitting in an industrial park looking for a home. You intetested?

pinholecam

Thanks, but I got too many bikes in the house at the moment.

Its certainly a bike that perks my interest being in the 20" foldable package, being able to take a wide range of narrow and wide tires as well as a suspension if I decide to do rougher MTB type trails overseas.
But as you know, houses in SGP are not big and I already have a few bikes.

anrque

Splithub, can you provide any details about the front fork and stem/riser on your Spin?

splithub

...it is the cheap stuff you can find dozens on aliexpress. i dont recommend! the paint finish is great, the headset cone seat and outer axle nut seats i had to mill over to make it work. compared to the bombproof full carbon fork of my Java Air it appears like a joke, absurdly lightweight and fragile, but i ran down 15m stairs with it accidentally (4:30am half sleeping on my way to work, thinking i am on my 29 MTB) on it with my 90+ kilos and it didnt break.

kidshibuya

Can a minivelo intrude?


Tyrell CSI at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo.

kayakindude

My 2nd trip with the Airnimal was to Houston. Great bike paths this was in front of the Houston zoo.

Abu Mahendra

look nice, Kid. How much coin did you drop on that?

kidshibuya

Thanks. I had it built to my exact specs, every single part is the absolute best I could find to combine performance/weight/style from the titanium QRs to the carbon Ergon bar ends. Total cost was somewhere over $5000 usd.

My excuse for spending so much is that its like my car, I will use it to go everywhere. The trouble with that is that I am afraid to park it at the train station while at work, you cant lock your bike properly in Japan and the bike racks damage your wheels. So now I am thinking ill just keep riding my dahon ;( ;(

bikingbill

Amsterdam

pinholecam

Wow! Beautiful bike.

Despite the low crime rate, I did suffer the lost of my cousin's market bike in Tokyo, even though its supposed to be a rare occurrence.
So I don't think locking it outside is a good idea.
I have see decent looking road bikes locked on the fence outside the Asakusa area though.

unionmanbirch

Origami Crane on the Farmington River (CT) at dusk.

unionmanbirch

Origami Crane on the Farmington River (CT) at dusk.

CriticalThought

Pre-weekend beer run... stiff aluminum frame a huge plus when towing a trailer full of beer!

Hauman666

Hi, I ran across a BCA Folder for sale a couple years ago and it caught my eye and I purchased it at what I feel was a fair price. I've searched all over the web looking for more of the BCA Folders and have had almost zero luck getting any information at all about it. In all my searching I only found one single picture of this bike , it was for sale on eBay but had sold by the time I found it so no information about the bike from the seller was available. So maybe you can help me a little. I just have a couple questions so here goes. As far as quality goes , how would rate the bike? Is it really as rare as it appears to be? Does it have any value or did I waste my money? Thanks, I'll try to figure out how to attach a photo of the bike to this.

Hauman666

Trying to get a picture to show you all. Having trouble

Hauman666

How long where the BCA folding bike in production?