On 12/3/2017 12:10 AM, LF wrote:
On Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 10:30:49 PM UTC-5, wrote:
NYT'S TRAVEL section gift list

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/gifts...t-folding-bike

Only time will tell. Dahon design flaws can show up after a while. For example, I was surprised to find the spoke nipples on my relatively high end Dahon Speed 7 were aluminum -- discovering this only after stress fractures dislodged the spokes. Why would the designers choose failure prone aluminum over the standard brass nipples?

I wonder if that was just a marketing decision, little different than
designing stupid-light components into an ordinary bike. There are
customers who will spend extra money for the chance to say "Look! It's
got aluminum spoke nipples!!"

I was luckier than my friend, who's aluminum Dahon frame also developed stress fractures. Over time, many of the nuts and bolts rusted on various parts of my bike rusted. The Speed 7 looked good when I bought it. Over time, the design flaws blossomed. I have bikes that are older, and held together much better.

It occurs to me that folding bike design is much more difficult than
standard bike design. There are lots more compromises (cost vs. weight
vs. compactness vs. ride quality vs. speed of folding, etc.). There are
lots of ways of achieving the folding. Most folding bikes have much less
triangulation than standard frames, so forces and torques are
concentrated in smaller areas and potentially generate higher stresses.
And of course, different designers strive to come up with "innovative"
solutions, for market differentiation.

Also, I think designers may push limits a bit more, justifying that by
saying "People are going to carry it, so it's got to be light; and
nobody's going to ride it very far."

Our Bike Friday New World Tourists are doing fine, although I've heard
(rarely) of some big guys having trouble with cracks around the bottom
bracket hinges. But there have been more problems with Bike Friday's
more "innovative" Tikit model.

--
- Frank Krygowski