tudorowen1

Has anyone got one and can give a review of them..I seem to think they are only available in South East Asia?

Ron Damon

Not very common (the 16"er) here, never seen one in the wild. Limited availability for under $600 here. Not sure what it brings to the table over building yourself an FnHon Gust 16", save for the Dahon badge. Looks smart, though, so there's that.







Example of Gust 16" custom build costing only about $50 more than a Boardwalk 16" full bike

tudorowen1

Thanks Ron for the post..Boardwalk has 7 gears now I believe which may be upgradable to 8 or 9 depending on the hub..I am thinking of one to take back to the UK..Chances are the spares for the Boardwalk 20 inch are much the same..I have a Brompton at home but used to have a BF Tikit..Hoping the Boardwalk 16 can come close to feeling like a Tikit..My Brompton is nice but the wide gap between each gear spoils it slightly plus rear wheel punctures are no fun..

Ron Damon

Yeah... If you are in SEAsia, I don't see why, other than you need it today cuz you're flying out tomorrow, why you'd take a boxed Boardwalk over asking a bike shop to build you a Gust and boxing it for travel. You'll get a better equipped bike from the get-go for about the same amount of money. Better yet, buy the Frameset, wheel set, handle post and other essential oats, put them in your suitcase and build the thing at your leisure and with the parts your want in the UK. A third option is, something that I myself have done in the region, is to buy the bike, ask the shop to swap out components, they keep the removed components which can be sold as new, you get a discount in return, they put it back in the original box and you fly out with a new and already upgraded bike.

Note the front block on the Gust, compatible with Broxxxon bits.

Apples to Apples, a Gust build with the same level of components and parts as a Boardwalk 16" costs less too.

Nyah

This bicycle seems to be officially called the Boardwalk D5. I've yet to find much info on it that's in English. It is a 5spd bicycle (not 7spd). How wide is the rear spacing? I would only want one if the rear can fit a standard freehub (130mm). Who is the OEM? I would love to see Fnhon offer a Storm 16" frameset that could be built up with the same components as the current non-disc Storm 20".

Nyah

I've seen it for sale on ParcelUp .com for $450-$500. If you find out whether the frame is upgradeable to 9/10spd or not, please post about it here.

pinholecam

For the longest time, this model of frame was left unwanted and un-noticed.
The type of specs you see on the Dahon speaks for it self. (as with the more boring color options; Fnhon offers more interesting looking colors )
It rests between the high portability of a Brompton or even 16" bi-fold and a larger / "faster" 20" folder.
Heavy too being chromoly.

Then sometime around the covid years, maybe people lacked bikes to buy and some folks got the Fnhon Gust and managed to bling it up and popularity soared.

You can probably find a Fnhon over the usual China websites (eg. AliExpress)

Nyah

Show me an aluminum or carbon folding bicycle frame with predictable durability, that is still being produced (or will be reproduced with proper implementation).

Now, titanium would be an improvement over chromoly. Who is offering a side-folding, 50mm-tire-facilitating, rim-brake frameset made of it?

No need for Aliexpress. ParcelUp .com offers Paypal and is thus safer and better than Aliexpress.

pinholecam

Change Bike?
https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-b...bike-650b.html

Dahon GB-2
https://dahon.com/bikes/gb-2/


Montague

Tern
Node - https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/473/node
Eclipse - https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bike...eel_size%3A111





There's also a Jetsteam like copy with front suspension fork but I can't recall what brand it sells under (Litepro? Fnhon?, the usual suspects... )

Ron Damon

Gust 16" framesets started being relatively easy to source as early as 2018 here in Indonesia, the same year that I first bought one. Its popularity was well on the rise by that year's end and certainly well before 2020 when COVID struck. Its popularity is easy to explain: good quality, good price, non-proprietary parts, easy availability, easy on the eye.

Nyah

I was asking in the context of smaller wheel bicycles. Since the ChangeBike and Mantague are close to 700c wheel size, they were off my radar. But, yes, they follow a suitable folding design for aluminum frames. I guess Dahon GB-2 uses the Lockjaw system. I'm not yet sold on that one,.


The Tern Eclipse and Node do not have predictable durability. They try to follow the good design of chromoly frames like the Dahon Speed, but, aluminum isn't suitable for that design. The aluminum suffers accelerated fatigue in the hinge area and fails catastrophically, without warning. We see Dahon trying to address this with their Deltec reinforcement invention.


I'm not convinced that beefy aluminum frames such as the Terns are lighter than their chromoly counterparts. Even if they were, the inherent nature of aluminum stress fatigue is bad enough for me to stay with chromoly. As long as the chromoly looks sound, I can be sure that it is.


Regarding the statement of the D5 frame model as "unwanted and un-noticed" - I take that to mean un-hyped and disrespected. That's OK by me, though, because those qualities in a bicycle do not always put me off. I want my bicycle to look good, sure, but don't necessarily want it to attract attention. If the paint design really bothers me, I can always get it re-powdercoated to whatever I want. Yes, I don't want to to pay for the junk parts that come on a complete Boardwalk D5. The only thing about the D5 frame that currently concerns me is whether or not it can take a 9/10spd freehub wheel. Everything else looks suitably upgradable to a good, fast, 16" bicycle which gives me the same options that an Fnhon Storm does.

pinholecam

Now, don't mistake me for saying its a bad bike.
All I meant is the nature of the demand and interest for this model of frame.

As for frame failure, maybe its a user size/weight thing.
The user community is huge in Asia/SEA, I've seldom if at all read/seen frame failure from any of the reputable folder brands.
But of course it is what it is (as in user demographic ) and we find what we think works for us. - again just stating the fact of the matter and not passing judgement.

I've seen very fast Bike Fridays (steel) and have seen very fast Terns and Tyrells (alu), I have also seen remarkable builds with alu that are lighter than any steel folder can match. (and I had a BF super pro that was already 8.5kg and maybe can go down 1kg with carbon fork and seatpost, but the alu frames can be 0.5kg-1kg lighter. )
They are all viable and good bikes to me.

Nyah

A better alternative 16" CrMo folding bicycle is the Langtu QY018. In addition to a smaller pricetag - $360 (vs $450-$500 for the Dahon D5) - it has rear frame spacing for a modern cassette hub.

The only known downside is that it has just one pair of rear eyelets. Have to double up to implement both a rack and fender on the rear. I can live with that.

The only unknown to me is whether it can use Dahon/Fnhon handleposts or not. The one it comes with has two bolts for the clamp that secures it to the fork steerer-tube and looks taller in this area, compared to a Dahon/Fnhon handlepost.