sdj

I am looking at the Dahon Briza D8 folding bike & it seems like my dream bike. It has: aluminum frame, 23lbs, low step through, 24 inch wheels, 38t crank, 11-32 cassette, 8 speed. Not too many in stock anywhere. I have called the Dahon USA distributor and waiting for their reply. Bike Connections in Palo Alto has it on backorder & they will try to get it for me.

Anyone have good or bad experiences with the Dahon folding bikes?

thanks,
Sue

jfouellette

Have you looked at what Tern has to offer? They have a similar bike I think.

sdj

Yes, I looked at the Tern, but the Dahon has a lower step through which is important to me. Thanks

Duragrouch

That weight sounded WAY too low. I looked at the specs on Dahon USA, its 32 lbs. That's heavy. But it's the price of the less efficient frame style. It's also *really* expensive for the features, $999, what would have been $500-600 only a few years ago. There are much better deals on the market, half the price with all the functional features plus disc brakes, but not in that style, the frame tube would be a bit higher. Dahons used to be a better deal in the market, but their prices have shot up compared to the competition.

Regarding Dahon in general, uh, their frames generally work OK, some failures in the past that the company notoriously did not stand behind, but have not seen the same problems of late. Greatly reduced models, like half, versus 10 years ago. Slow to innovate. The component quality is like everyone else, but things like cranksets are lower quality then competition now at half the price.

My local bike shop used to carry Dahon, now doesn't, they won't say why.

High gear on the Briza is enough for you. Low gear is (correction) 28.5 gear inches, very typical for most folding bikes, but I needed 21 for the hills in San Francisco or Seattle, I had to retrofit my Dahon. If you can climb long hills while standing on the pedals, (correction) 28.5 gear inches may work; If you sit down and spin up long hills, you may need a lower gear.

sdj

Yes, I see the weight is 32 not 23 lbs. i got the weight from another website that was wrong. Still OK. As for the lowest gear inches, I calculated 28.5. This has 24 inch wheels so 38/32x24 is 28.5 gear inches. I think this will work as I have had to scale back the hills I climb--no more 8 to 10% grades.

It is odd that none of Dahon's "recommended" dealers carry this. I asked this question when I called Bike Connections & all they said is they used to carry it. The Briza is still on their website though marked as "backordered." The price advertised on Bike Connections is $699. I do not know if they will honor this price though when they try to reorder. We will see. Thanks.

Ron Damon

A lot of Dahon models are vaporware.

Duragrouch

Gear inches: You're right, I accidentally hit a 26" tire just above 24" in the gear calc app I used.

Dahon used to make the same frame style as the Dahon Ciao with 20" wheels (not 24"), with 5 and 7 speed internal gear hubs (IGH), I don't know if those were also available with derailleur gearing. Perhaps look for one used on craigslist. If used with an IGH, make sure it shifts smooth in all gears and the wheel spins free, as sometimes IGHs are neglected, and repairs for those are expensive. If kept dry, they last pretty well.

jfouellette

Here is a Dahon Glide over 10 years old with IGH. Maybe you can find one in the used market in your area. Mine is available but I’m in Montreal.

tds101 

That statement about Dahon is incorrect. It was Tern, NOT DAHON, that screwed owners over when the frames began to break due to bad welds/shoddy quality control. Tern even locked us out of their forums so we couldn't see/share information about the breakages. Dahon has had failures, but actually does recalls, unlike Tern ( I have a feeling things might be different nowadays...). I own a Tern folder (Tern Joe P24); I no longer own a Dahon. Duragrouch, search the Folding Bike section for the threads. There's a few of them.

I just think Dahon's pricing is ridiculous for what you get. There's really not a 24" step through folder that compares with this bike though. As suggested, see if the OP can find a used Dahon Glide or Briza. Otherwise, the pricing is a bit steep IMO.

Duragrouch

I know about the Tern failures at the forward part of the frame hinge, it appears this area was not reinforced with an overlaid welded piece there like the Dahon aluminum frames.

My Dahon Speed frame cracked at the bottom of the seatpost slot, and progressed all the way around before I saw it, I planned to drill holes at the ends of the cracks to try to stop them, but one side had forked to also go down the seat tube, and that frame was done. I did a detailed engineering analysis pointing to two contributing causes, a) too much compression due to plastic bushing there, b) front of seat tube is loaded in tension under rider weight, increasing fatigue issues, and big horizontal slot at the bottom of that clamping slot, provided a perfect crack initiation point. Dahon a) blew me off, saying I was too heavy (180 lbs) and had the seatpost up too high (it was 3 or 4 inches below maximum extension, b) failed to acknowledge that the aluminum bushings on later models was to partly counteract this, c) failed to acknowledge that moving that slot to the back of the seat tube on later models was the second part to counteract this. They blew me off in finest soup-nazi style, "no new frame for you". I wrote a very, very detailed engineering analysis with 8x10 color glossy photos wit da circles and da arrows (old reference) and filed it with the CPSC. There was a recent thread where this crack had just barely shown up on a similar year Dahon Speed, and me and another fellow advised them on how to grind or file away the crack to a larger radius, and then burnish the edge to smooth and introduce residual compressive stresses, and, immediately replace the plastic bushing with an aluminum one, available aftermarket. So like I said, I haven't seen this problem on later Dahons, due to the countermeasures. But they screwed me on my frame. No way around that. I also recommended they send out aluminum bushings to all Speed owners as a preventive measure, cheap, they also blew that off, figuring most people don't put enough miles on to crack the frame. My experience was not unique, based on other accounts online involving Dahon. Bike Friday, on the other hand, I've read nothing but raves about them backing up their product. I just don't like the more complex fold.

It got worse in the time following this photo, waiting for response from CPSC, I didn't want to mess with it until I heard something, but under trump, CPSC was running scared. The cracks went past both seatstays, and down the seat tube on one side; Too dangerous to ride.

sdj

I have noted your suggestions about looking for older models. I don't like buying used bikes or used cars as I don't know how they were maintained.

If I cannot get the Dahon Briza D8, I will see what Dahon makes in their 2024 models with a similar frame. Thanks.

Duragrouch

The Schwinn Loop also had a low stepover frame, but it was a step down in quality in hubs, gearing, etc, and heavy steel frame. Notably, though, it had an integral rear rack that was enormously stout, but fat tubing so most panniers would not attach. A friend of mine bought one in 2016 or 2017, $180 off amazon I think. They skyrocketed to over $500 during the pandemic, now are in the $400 range I think.

tds101 

Dahon has/had nowhere near as bad of a track record when it comes to recalls. When our resident (now retired) Dahon rep was here, we had better customer service from the company. Now, Dahon customer service useless. It's still nothing like the Tern debacle, no matter what issue you may have had. There were hospitalizations, forum lockouts, denials (on a HUGE scale), etc. The drama you had with them is not acceptable, but it's not TERN level.

As far as trump is concerned, I have no idea what you're referring to. I'm not a maga, but eventually the story of Dahon being inept would have circulated here in the forum. There was nothing. You had a broken seat stay. Tern had shattered frames. Definitely no comparison. The speed model was flawed, and you had issues, no doubt. You still can't compare the two situations. I'll never purchase a Dahon again, but that's due to lack of value per $$$.

Duragrouch

Seatstay didn't break, solid design there, it was the seat tube, crack progressing back to the seatstay welds.

I think I agree with you about Dahon being a personnel issue, it came down to their rep at Dahon USA that said no. Dahon customer service now being bad, may have been a contributing factor to my LBS stopping carrying them.

I'm not claiming at all that Dahon was worse or even equal to Tern's customer treatment. I only know my own experiences about Dahon. I know nothing of Tern, other than seeing a used Tern folder at good price at a different LBS on my ride, looked up the model, saw the problems, and I think possibly a recall on them, can't remember. I looked at it close and compared the area to a Dahon Mariner (both aluminum frames), and could instantly see where Dahon had a more robust design there. May have been a weld quality issue too, don't know, but a less robust design.

Other less serious issues but annoying... impossible to get some Dahon-specific parts like a fork from them (in years past before available aftermarket, see below), the cheaper plastic Dahon compact derailleur selling for $80 (fortunately I was able to replace with claw mount), etc. Thank goodness for the aftermarket and amazon, though I was going to say, I still can't find a 20" disc fork to perhaps upgrade my Speed to a front disc, but looking now on amazon, they have them, but in carbon fiber, I'd like to avoid that for a street bike.

CPSC, EPA, et al, were all running scared under trump, and unfavorable corrupt rulings by SCOTUS conservative majority. Now they may overrule the FDA on availability of certain drugs. Wrong issue for here.