Old 12-20-19, 10:36 AM
  #9  
Bonzo Banana
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Merry Old England
Posts: 772

Bikes: Muddyfox Evolve 200, Bicycles4u Paris Explorer, Raleigh Twenty Stowaway, Bickerton California, Saracen Xile, Kona Hoss Deluxe, Vertigo Carnaby, Exodus Havoc, Kona Lanai, Revolution Cuillin Sport, Dawes Kingpin, Bickerton, NSU & Elswick Cosmopolitan

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Originally Posted by john m flores
Initial impressions - wow, this thing is pretty well built! Out of the box, the wheels were pretty true. There was a little brake rub front and rear so I let out a little cable and it's good now. Braking is solid - I can do a stoppie with the front. Front wheel bearings are good. Rear is good but feels a little tight. May have to look into it. Frame hinge solid if a little tight; need two hands to work the safety and release. It's very digital - it's either locked or not, there's little feeling of progression as you move the lever through its arc of travel followed with a final lock. Do other folders behave similarly?

Likewise with the seatpost quick release. I had to tighten it to prevent the seat from drifting down, but now locking is very digital with little progressive feel.

Contrary to specs, mine's got a Shimano rear cassette. Shifting is solid. Tweaking the cable tension to get it just right. Replaceable derailleur hanger is a nice touch.

Took less than a mile to adjust to the 20" wheels. Bike is agile and fun to ride. You can feel bumps and potholes more, but I'm used to riding racing bikes with 23mm 115 psi tires and am used to unweighting the saddle.

I haven't put it on a scale but it sure does feel like it's 23#. Makes me wonder how they made it comparatively lighter than others at this pricepoint.

At the train station, I folded it, kept the seat extended and rolled it around. It was ok if a little clumsy. Rolls more easily unfolded.

It's early miles still. We'll see how it holds up over time. Right now, I'm loving it!
Thats a great price for a fairly high spec folding bike. I've seen people pay much more to get a much worse folding bike than that. The frame is 6066 aluminium which might point to the real manufacturer of the bike being fuji-ta in China which is the world's largest bicycle manufacturer by volume. Their high end aluminium is 6069 or 6066, 6066 is also a high end aluminium used by Merida but they are expensive frames and seems unlikely to be sourced from them. Dahon also buy from fuji-ta in fact their Jetstream model is a brand slap on one of fuji-ta's models.

HANMA8 - Tianjin Fuji-ta Bicycle Co.,Ltd.

I've seen an engineer on youtube criticise slightly poor manufacturing tolerances of fuji-ta bikes which were sold under the Cannondale and Specialized brands but that was racing bikes, typically the bottom bracket shell wasn't machined completely accurately and other minor symmetry issues so they represent a sort of mid-level quality manufacturer but then they are hugely efficient and manufacture bikes quickly and cheaply. For the price you paid and the components fitted an absolute bargain I really don't think you could do better for the price for a new bike.

Of course it may not be fuji-ta but 6066 is a fairly high end aluminium and while there are 100s of large bicycle manufacturers in China fuji-ta is by far the biggest supplier to the OEM market and importers in the US and EU as well as other countries. It's amazing how many low end to high end brands are all using frames from fuji-ta.
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