linberl

It's purely a personal reaction but when I look at the Curl, I think of Quasimodo.

tds101 

I still think the Curl is a smexy beast,...

Joe Remi

I neither love nor hate it, but I'd like to try one. A Brompton-ish fold in a lighter bike with more cockpit adjustability sounds promising.

ThorUSA

Joe I bring one to Sea Otter you can ride :-)


thor

Joe Remi

I might just do that!

tcs

Occam's Razor would suggest a spec miss-entry.

tcs

And now in the first person rather than hearsay: I've been riding mine since September and curiously haven't noticed this supposed ride discomfort. I compared the Curl to my BikeFriday tikit on a couple of back-to-back rides before I unloaded the tikit. Ride comfort over bumps/potholes was similar, despite the Curl feeling far more planted and secure. I guess computer designed hydroformed frame tubes can deliver that magic.

tds101 

Grrr,...stop all this positivity towards the Curl!!! I'm feeling folder envy right now,...

Eventually I just might have to give in,...especially with the 280lb weight limit.

MJBikes99

The Curl looks more modern, strong and gives me more technology feel, while the Brompton looks more simple and elegant. Curl is more masculine (like a Puma) while Brompton is more feminine. that's the expression I had when I saw the above comparison pics.

berlinonaut

My Feelings are quite different: In the sideview the curl looks like it has crashed into something (especially when compared to the Brommi). The Brompton looks classic and sleek and a bit British. The Curl looks like something from the movie Transformers or a comic-strip and regarding the design like some modern Japanese Cars like i.e. the Honda Civic Type R:



Far too many shapes pressed into too little space for no obvious reason. Maybe modern but an unaesthetic design for my taste. The sideview clearly does not charm the Curl.

Joe Remi

I think the Brompton looks more elegant, but I'm sure a good deal of that is borne of having looked at them for a couple decades and the shape seeming "right" in my brain. Outside of our little world of People Who Dig Folders they both look ridiculous.

gataddhin

To me

Curl looks more like a thin Ducati Monster

Brompton looks more like a thin Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster

berlinonaut

True. And in direct comparison side by side the curl cries loudly "I am a cheap copy, made by someone w/o sense for aesthetics or understanding of the original who was happy that he finally somehow managed to bolt this thing together" Like a drawing by a 3-year old: Roughly the shape but not very good. This does not say something about the quality of the bike at all but perceptionwise the curl is a very embarissing bike - the more as it is an expensive top of the line bike they made for their 35th anniversary in a year-long process, demonstrating all their abilities. And then it is a direct copy of a bike from their much smaller competitor...

Revoltingest

If I ever get the chance to ride both bikes,
then I'll know which looks more fetching.

cb400bill

This thread is about the Dahon Curl. Please do not post about the status of any forum member's account.

Winfried

Problem is, Dahon is very badly distributed in Europe.

To get one, you really have to look hard, and often order from the Net.

Bonzo Banana

To be honest I've never ridden one and only seen comments by others on the Curl but your review may have some bias as you own the bike. Not saying you have such bias but we all can be a bit biased sometimes especially if we have spent money on something. I guess we will just have to wait to see the build up of reviews on places like Amazon to get a fair idea of ride quality. Where is the vibration/shock of hitting a pot hole going? If they really have dropped from 150kg rider capacity to 105kg perhaps they have allowed more flexing in the frame.

I mean how do you make a bike more comfortable to ride and deal with potholes. Normally the answers are suspension, large saddle, thick profile tyres and more springy frame and forks.

What goes against comfort are small wheels, rigid non flexing frame and forks, low profile tyres, small hard saddle.

I'm sure there are many other factors too like the seat post, handlebar grips etc.

There are no dark arts or magic involved its purely down to engineering. There is no surprise that aluminium frames are designed to flex less normally due to no endurance limit and fatigue.


This is Dahon's own comments on their steel frames.

https://dahon.com/news-story/whats-in-a-frame/

It's not like I'm writing anything that conflicts with normal reality. It will be some amazing feat of engineering if the Curl is somehow as comfortable as folding bikes that feature suspension, steel frames etc because looking at the bike at face value rider comfort has not played a part in its design. It looks more like riding efficiency and overall strength has played a greater role in design.

Joe Remi

Please don't come here and tell us an owner review of a bicycle is biased because they own the bike. It's insulting.

tds101 

Wait a doggone minute,...doesn't that mean the people who review the bike on Amazon are biased, as they've bought the bike? You often times bring up some great points, but your logic is definitely not correct. A bike owner is EXACTLY who should be reviewing the Curl. You funny,...

Winfried

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer%27s_remorse

Kft888

Referring back to my previous comments, I compared the Jetstream I previously owned because it抯 a premium model within the dahon range, premium v premium (brompton.)
On the Curl, it抯 not light at 13kg plus it抯 made of aluminium so I expected it to be lighter than steel. However as for ride quality I can抰 comment but I note it does have larger rims than a brompton.
Dahon needs to produce a better looking bike, more unique to move into the premium range price bracket.
Btw, 11 patents is meaningless.
Also, getting spares for a dahon is tough same with colour options. No demo bikes to try before you buy. No free 100 mile/ 3mths free service check.

L Arnold

I don't understand all the negativity. That said I did like the comparison with a Ducati and a Norton here though.

The Curl is a remarkable frame design structuraly, esthetically and functionally. Is it better than other bikes? Certainly. Does it replace other bikes? Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

I do agree that price is complicating. It's not the bikes fault. Mostly instead the market's inconsistancy. In many categories it would not be a high price, but in folding bikes it unfortunately is. Perhaps the market will change. There are indeed many aspects in the design that set it apart from a $600 bike.

berlinonaut

Maybe you should watch the video from the Curl-Kickstarter-campaign again. Very embarrassing. Btw.: Many people consider it a strength that Bromton sticks to it's design for so long, not a weakness. They did something fundamentally right in the beginning and enhanced it over time, caring for backwards compatibility and long term support and consider this to be part of the product-experience. The fact that you do not seem to recognize that is maybe typical for Dahon and a point were the brand simply constantly takes the wrong turn.

Dahon develops a gazillion of different models and designs with not too much care for the details in some aspects, with some of them having only small and unclear differences and models with the same names even differenting between countries. They drop a reasonable amount of the designs again after a short while and some of them pop up again years later or in certain markets. The model range is so confusing that even Dahon's own homepage does not list correct or at least stringent data of what exists or is available, let alone technical data.
Part of why the Brompton is so good is that it has matured for bascially 40 years now. If you change your lineup every couple of years you simply cannot reach that level of maturity.

Customer service for Dahon - at least in Europe - is close to non-existent as is the availablity of spares. Customer service, longterm support (or for that matter: support at all) and spares seem not to be part of the product - the relationship with Dahon obviously ends once the bike has been bought and Dahon could not care less afterwards. At least in Europe. Therefor over here Dahons are often considered to be cheap throw-away bikes, not a longterm investment. And for a throw-away bike Dahons are too expensive, though sometimes having very cheap componentery and design flaws. This is why many dealers and customers in Europe turned away from Dahon. So even if the bikes and the designs were good the product experience would still be miserable and this is what the perception of the brand is, based on the experience of the past with Dahon.

And now comes the Curl, with Dahon arrogantly mocking at Brompton while at the same time not only cloning the design (instead to develop one on their own or develop one of their 50 existing ones further) but once more presenting a nightmarish customer experience in combination with questionable quality and unclear technical data as we could read in this very forum. Dahon claims to be "better" but seems not even to have understood what a Brompton is and what makes it a great bike. And this is even before the aesthetics of the bike come in.

I would instantly admit that Dahon has some interesting designs - not for me, but still interesting. There are people who love their Dahons, probably for a reason. Even here in Germany there are people that are happy with their Dahons - but even those tend to say that a relevant part of this is due to the price, with the bike not being brilliant but sufficent and kind of ok for the price, nothing more, and that they hope never to need spare-parts, service or warranty as they know that then they will be lost.

How would anyone in this situation buy a Dahon that looks like an aesthectically doubtable Brompton-clone for a price that is not only more of a fraction of what a Brompton costs but close to the price of the original? And if he intends to do that and ends up at a Dealer, that has no Demo-bike and no interest in or knowledge about folders: Will he still want one? These are the differences between Dahon and Brompton - the metal part is only part of the story...

That said: the perception of Dahon as a brand seems to be at least partly different in the US, may it be due to better support or different customer behaviour and expectations - cannot judge on that.

Bonzo Banana

It's actually born out by evidence though. Often satisfaction survey's conflict with actual factual data on reliability for example.

Often people's perceived idea of quality and how they associate with a brand are X factors to how they feel about their purchase. If you convince someone a product is high quality they can believe a unreliable product is actually reliable compared to other products which they will perceive as worse even if they are not.

https://motorbikewriter.com/what-are...e-motorcycles/

We all have bias, normally if you have a wide range of reviews of owners or you have professional reviews from people who have tested a wide range of similar products you can get a better picture.

At the moment its a struggle to find any reviews of the Curl to get any sort of fair assessment, either professional or end use. These will come I'm sure. I'm seeing comments on forums which I have to say have been overall negative in tone in my opinion either because of poor construction, ride quality or thoughts on excessive pricing.

Joe Remi

I've seen a hundred owner reviews of Bromptons which mention issues like weak brakes, difficult rear wheel removal, excess weight, funky shifters (pre-2017), limited tire selection, etc. And this is from Brommie fans who love their bikes. It's absurd to propose to this forum that a Dahon Curl owner can't objectively judge the ride, construction and folding on the merits. Which you confessed to by admitting you're interested in Amazon owner reviews!