Originally Posted by
OldTryGuy
84yo neighbor gave me her OLD 20" wheel steel DAHON 6spd SIS with 52 chainring and 14/28. Replaced pedals with KABON, put Aerobars on and hit 25.2mph max last week. A friend gave me an alloy crank set with a 62 tooth chainring and hoping to up that top speed. It's become my Grocery Grabber bike with a basket mounted on the rear rack.
Well done, sounds good. My bike is capable of faster, but limited by the drag of 4 panniers. I don't have a computer on it, but I know I'm not doing the speeds I used to on my 700c road bike, because I'm running a much shorter gear when cruising. I have fit it with aero bars, but more to take pressure off my hands. But I need to buy the spacers to bring it up a couple inches for better comfort so I can stay on the aero. I also put an interrupter (mid-cable) brake lever on the aero for the front brake, for a faster stop if needed without warning. That lever is short-pull because designed for road bikes, but my folder is long-pull V-brakes, but as long as the wheels are very true and pads adjusted close, it works fine, in fact, I like the reduced lever force needed to stop, and holds me in place easier at an uphill or downhill stoplight.
Edit: Yeah you could make a bigger difference in high gearing by going to an 11T high cog, quite common these days on freehub cassettes, but I don't know if you can get a freewheel with that small a cog.