Dahon folding bikes

[Iain C]

Here's ours...bought secondhand from Wandering Star (Brian) of this parish and given a bit of a partial re-spray, full strip down and service and some new parts. SWMBO and I are fairly keen cyclists with a spattering of carbon fibre this and full suspension that in our shed, and the truth is that these are not great bikes...heavy, not stiff, and arguably geared too tall. But as a mode of transport for a keeping on a boat, and one that once folded, will fit two of them down one quarterberth of a Sabre 27, they are nothing short of complete genius and we absolultey love them. They cope pretty well with any terrain, I'm pretty big 6' tall and they manage fine with me on board, and they have taken us to places that we never would have visited on foot.

I totally agree with Dylan on hub gears being ideal...a derailleur system is much better, but they are quite fragile and I know we would have bent the hanger on countless occasions on board.

Go for it...you won't regret it Dylan!

 

[bedouin]

I took the Tern onto the boat for the first time this weekend. As a cycle it did its job very well (getting back to where I had left the car after moving the boat to a new marina).

The downside was that it takes up a lot of space on board - I was only going for a short trip so I left it tied in the saloon - I am not sure how easy it would have been to store in a more out of the way place. A more compact folding bike - like the Bampton or even some of the cheap 16" ones - has the advantage in that respect.

The other thing is that I was very glad not to have derailleur gears - they would have been very exposed when folded and also posed a hazard to the clothing of people brushing past. For boat use I would say that hub gears are a must.