Faither70

I have a Bickerton portable, I bought at auction recently. The sturmey archer 3 speed hub is stamped AW 10 77. I have fitted new tyres and tubes and given the bike a general good service and tidy up. The box aluminium frame has polished up well and the mudguards still have the blue protective film. . I got the owners manual with the bicycle, but no carry bag and any I've seen for sale have been as dear as the bike. However I ,m looking forward now to the better weather appearing so I can get out and give it a decent trial.

anquitel

And here is my TERN D7i

fastrdisastr

Saw a Dahon Speed Uno on eBay a few weeks ago that was new but in a damaged box, a little scuffed, so I scooped it up for just over 200. Put it together, added a front brake and bull bars and I'm having a blast with it. Really fun bike.

pavel666

HI!! I have many bikes to choose from. Every day I go to another : P I have folding bike hummer,chevrolet and jeep!
And more bike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJcXb5x6vcI

edelay

Fiori 8 made by Norco. Upgraded from 8 derailleur gears to a Shimano Nexus 8. Only further upgrade I would like to do is a shorter handlepost.

iamclaus

Hello.. new arrival here..

I have a pair of folders made by Breezer, based on the Dahon D7 frame style. One is a Zag8 with an 8spd SRAM SX4 drivetrain, the other is a Zig7 with a 7spd SR Suntour (NEOS?) drivetrain. Both are aluminum frames and have fenders, and the single-height handlebar stems. The Zig7 seems like it has cheaper equipment on it, or just less refined than the Zag8.

I bought the pair while on vacation last year. Instead of renting a pair of bikes for a few days, I came up with the idea of "what if I bought a folding bike?". This being a selfish question since I'd make my friend fend for himself bike-wise. Three days of scouring the classifieds and I happened up this pair of bikes, sold as a pair only. The price was stupidly cheap compared to what even just a single new low-end Dahon cost. As it turned out, I responded to the ad not 10 minutes after it had been posted, and picked up the bikes 20 minutes later. Ended up spending most of the rest of my vacation on a bike seat... an unexpected, but enjoyable change of plans.

Sadly the Zag8 suffers from a very loose hinge that shows significant play even when the clamp is adjusted to be extremely tight. Otherwise it's minty fresh. I'm hoping to fix the hinge by boring the hinge holes slightly larger to make them round again and use a new hinge pin... we'll see how that goes. I do prefer the Zag8 over the Zig7.

The Zig7 has several issues... the seat post slides down very slowly (plastic tube liner?), the handlebar clamp on the stem is tight, but they can still turn. The brakes squeal on the rim. The front rim is slightly out of true. The derailleur needs constant attention, or the chain click-click-clicks. And it doesn't have a rack like the Zag8 does.

Assuming I can get the Zag8's hinge fixed up, it'll be my go-to bike. If not, I might swap over most of the components onto the Zig7 frame and make a frankenbike out of the two.

I'm making vacation plans for late summer and am hoping to try a 5/6-day tour riding a folding bike of the south end of Vancouver Island, no camping, just B&Bs and AirBNB overnights. Before that I'd be upgrading the components on one of the bikes. I'll toss in a 3spd internal rear to complement the cluster and make the bike rideable on hills and flats. I'll dump the grip shifters in favour of rapid-fire levers, put a larger rack on the back to accommodate 'normal' pannier bags. Perhaps put a small rack up front or rig something to carry small stuff sacks on the forks? Rig a mount for my trail GPS, and get some better lights.

bhkyte

Re sliding posts and poor holding clamps. Ensure clean and dry and considering sanding the area to get better friction on the seat post. Another possibility is to use longer Quick release arms that allow for greater closing pressure to be applied. I got some from an onza mini. Anyone know where to purchase anything like this?

Adding a 3 speed. You can't just add an 3 speed internal hub to a cluster, do you mean you are going for a dual drive hub. I hearly recomemd dual drive mods but bear in mind you need to be able to acomadate the click box and the rear drailer. See my threads on adding dual drive to a mezzo. It should be a lot easier on this type of folder.

Mnrecurve

I just decided to enter the world of folding bikes. I like to tinker, so I purchased a Vilano Tempest. A few of my mods were to add a new set of adjustable bearrings for the BB, Biologic seat(very comfortable for $25), new Big Apple tires, bags, and full size grips. It's been a fun bike for little $. I love it!

iamclaus

SRAM makes a 3-speed internal hub that will accommodate my 8-speed cluster and the click box won't interfere with my derailleur, either. I just ordered it at my local bike shop today.

joshhhab

My Langtu KY8.2 prepared for touring with front and back dahon racks installed

More pictures here https://flic.kr/s/aHsjPa4t2c

bhkyte

Had this since December. Finished building it in january. I bought some birdie wheels with no plan of what to do with them. Then found a birdie cheap on ebay without wheels and several components. Only item I had to buy some brake levers as everything else was in my spares. With the exception of the paffic chain tensioner I have since added.

Took me agers to thread the internal cabling. Nexus 8 speed added better seat and ergon grips and I sometimes use this with a thudbuster seatpost in a koga telescopic outer seat post.

cheran75

My Downtube FS 9, upgraded with adjustable stem and Continental Contacts, pretty nice to ride. Planning to upgrade the brakes with disc.

70cst

In process of purchasing my 1970 Raleigh Twenty

bhkyte

Bought a 2003 BMW Q mountain bike. Rear swing arm folds up with wheels off. Sorry photo would not upload.

BMW folding bike

Added longer seatpost and detachable pedals. I really like the suspension design.

Roegmann

Not finished modified Downtube Mini-2015 model and spiffed up for the picture. I changed the seat, brakes, pedals, and tires; added fenders and rear rack; not pictured the rear strobe and front light. Love it by the way. Thanks Yan. I am having a blast with it. P.S. Nothing wrong with it stock; I can never leave well enough alone.

Oh, by the way, it was an ice breaker for my brand new neighbor. Apparently, his father and his buddies were welders and used to pass the time by fabricating their own folding bikes and the likes for fun in the late 60's-early 70's. This explains the cross-section of admires I have gotten when I take it out for a spin.

tyCycler

Hi, looks great... where did you find that adjustable stem that fits in the downtube standard front tube? Thanks!

iamclaus

I'm curious why you chose to use a seatpost-mounted rack instead a regular rack?

Roegmann

Quick on/quick off. I usually use a backpack, so the rack is rarely used. It can hold about 35 lbs, which is more than I pack when flying let alone biking.

cheran75

Hi,
I actually found about that stem from this thread https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bi...l#post17810175

Bought that from bikewagon.com on sale for $15, I've used the spacer near the QR to hold the stem properly. It's really good and completely changed the bike's dynamics.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Satori-ST-Ad...-/400523663737

Beic

Mine is a UK Dawes Jack,



The name is obvious

tyCycler

Great! thanks for the links too! Now I just need to find it in stock somewhere.

622keehner

A few days back I got a new Downtube Mini--& yesterday retrieved it, put together & checked out, from LBS. So far, it is really fun.

Sixty Fiver

Forrest...

CHECHO

Hi There! First post here… (well, second actually, I made my first one on the welcome post on the main page). I’ve riding a modified Dahon MU Uno for about one year now, and I can’t be happier… I can’t say that I move completely away from the car, since I have two kids and that’s somehow impossible, however for things like commuting to work or moving around the city I’m using exclusively my bike. The bike is a Dahon Mu Uno that I bought new from Amazon… and I made it some modifications that include:
New bull-horn handlebar from Retrospec Bikes
SRAM Automatix 2 speed rear hub (coaster brake)
Carbon Drive Belt system (60x22).
Brooks B-17 red saddle (which is more like wine color)
The bike is extremely fun to ride! Is fast, and beautiful… the latest change was the Red Belt, to match the handlebar tape and the saddle…
No name yet, still thinking about it, suggestions are welcome!

cheran75

@tyCycler let me know if you can't find that stem, I've removed that stem last week and replaced with Aber Hallo Stem to make the fold compact. I can send that Satori stem across to you if you want.