My wife and I have two "2006" Dahon Speed TR and have traveled a lot with them. We also bought Dahon's travel cases for them. They really do fold up in 15 seconds and less time to unfold them back and simply ride off. With no adjusting.
To put them in the case one must remove the seat post and strap the bike in, taking maybe three more min. not hours. The TRs come right in at 50 lb with case. My wife commutes every day and folds it up to put it under her desk at work. So you see the folding gets a work out. And still we have had not one problem. I can't speak for the older Dahons but the newer ones are great. So much so I bought a SL and a Smooth Hound .We love them! On 10/13/08, Doug Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Just returned from a European tour where we had one S&S coupled bike; a > couple of Bike Fridays & one Dahon, plus the usual collection of touring, > MTB, etc. Good cross section of the cycle touring world. > > It took everyone at least 1-2 hours to put their bikes together & get > everything functioning properly. There are no "quickies". The Bike Friday > people were probably pedaling the soonest but seemed to have lots of little > tweeks to do to brakes & gearing. The Dahon was the most problematic but > the guy had only had it a month & bought it used. > > The guy with the S&S bike spent little time adjusting once he was > assembled. > He had to leave the tour abruptly & I wound up breaking his bike down & > packing it, using only some photos he kept in the case. Since I had lots > of > time & had never done this, I took much longer than it should have, > probably > on the order of 3 hours. The only real glitch was getting the front wheel > to cooperate with the case spacers, & I solved that by removing the tire so > give the wheel some wriggle room. > > Other than the frame couplers, the S&S system does not require much more > dis-assembly than my Atlantis does for air travel. No crank removal on > either. I believe the S&S was around a 56, with 700 wheels. My Atlantis > is > a 58 with 700s. The trick to the coupler bike is packing it into the case > - > it only goes in one way, hence the photos my companion kept in the case. > > I managed to dodge any over-size charges on this trip with my Atlantis but > in the future that will probably not be possible. For travel, the value of > getting your bike inside the 62" and 50 lb limits is substantial, like $300 > per flight with United. The coupled bike was a titanium racing bike & with > the case was in the mid 40 lb range. The case was pretty HD though. > > The Travel Check sounds interesting, gotta look that up. I'm also thinking > of converting my Atlantis to S&S, especially based on this experience. > > doug > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ItsFred > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 3:18 PM > To: Bicycle Lifestyle > Subject: {BL} Re: Surly Travel Check Frame > > > Please do not confuse an S&S coupled bike with a "folding bike" like a > Brompton - Bromptons, Birdies, and their ilk are highly compromised > commuter bikes that can be folded and unfolded in less than a minute. > That's the sort of bike where the wheels stay on. It takes me nearly > an hour to assemble my S&S coupled bikes! Packing it up is not so > quick either - I always clean the bike pretty thoroughly (why pack a > dirty bike), and wrap all the tubes and exposed bits in protective > covers. I remove the pedals AND cranks, chain, and lots of other bits > like bottle cages, etc. It's a job, but you wind up with a great bike > that fits in a suitcase. And by the way, cable couplers are easy to > install, easy to use, and make the job much less cumbersome - I can't > imagine speccing a packable bike without them. > > Fred Roses > (S&S-coupled Roark titanium road-sport, S&S-coupled Landshark stage- > racer, & S&S-coupled Bilenky tourer) > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bicycle Lifestyle" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
