Anyone have experience of the Dahon Vybe C7A, we are looking to get a pair of folding bikes rather than a Rack for our full size ones, it appears that to get anything half decent you need to spend over £250.00 the Dahons come in at £280.00. At the recent Mini meet Keith said he was very happy with his Carrera model from Halfords does any one else have one of these? As always any advice welcome.
Cheers
Rick

What size wheels are those please?

Hi Rick and Ellen
As you say we have a 16" wheel Carrera and the 20" wheel Dahon. The 16" wheel was mine originally but found I wobbled a lot on the small wheels so got the Dahon. The downside of my Dahon is it only has 3 gears and makes it very hard going up hills. My fav choice would be 20" wheels with a min 8 gears. By the way got Dahon on Gumtree for fraction of the price. Good luck in your search......... Chris

Thanks. 20" seem to be easier to steer.

Hi Rick and Ellen,

We have two 20inch wheel Dahons, I used one of them for 2 years to cycle through London to work from the rail station so have some experience of them. On balance the real question is "where are you going to be cycling" the biggest issue with them is getting them up hills and cross country. If you are happy to get off and walk, which you will have to unless you are very fit, then you may find them OK. They are limited to light off road use, maybe paths through woods etc but they have no suspension and they have limited gear range. Up hill you will find bottom gear is not low enough and down hill you will have to freewheel.

They do pack up small enough to go in the car and they have proved reliable, however, on balance, we both prefer our full size bikes as they are much more comfortable and easier to ride in all situations. it is for this reason we have ordered our eriba with the (very expensive) cycle rack from AL, for the price of a good bike we thought it was worth having access to our full size bikes. If you do go Dahon, research the gear range and get the lightest one you can justify. Our 7 speed one is noticeably heavier than our 8 speed one.

On a side-note, I did convert the 7-speed to an e-bike with a kit from ebay, went like a bomb, a good 18mph on the flat and took every hill I came across, but it did add considerable weight to the bike.

A few years ago I rode Lands End to John o' Groats on a Dahon Espresso....
This was a 26" wheel folding bike that also had 21 gears....

I found the bike very stable and finished the trip in nine days which says something for the ability of the bike....also at no time did I have to get off and push up any of the hills.... Two of us in the cycling team rode these bikes and we chose them for both their stability and folding capabilities as we needed to be able to pack the bikes away into a small space in the vehicle that brought us back from Scotland....

I think that a 26" folder is a good compromise......It feels like a full size bike to ride (because it is) and when opened up it looks like one too.... When folded a couple of these will fit into a car OK (although they obviously don't fold as small as a 20" wheel folder) and would easily be carried in an Eriba and on site can be locked up under the van...

The larger wheels are so much better than riding on smaller wheels especially in the UK with our pot holed roads and with a triple chainset and a 7 or 8 cog rear cassette (the newer models have an 8 speed cassette) you have something like a full set of gears.
(The one I rode had a 48/38/28 chainset and a 14-28T rear cassette)

A number of other manufacturers also make 26" wheel folders although I have not had a chance to ride any of those.

For those of us who had sturdy 'ride anywhere' bikes like Raleighs when they were kids, many of the modern small wheeled folding bikes seem flimsy in comparison. However, as said above, they are a compromise, but more than capable as potter-a outs when on your hols.

You may find fitting podgier tyres a help. Some of the Dahons come with smooth pencil thin rubber bands on their 20" wheels - they are awfully twitchy to ride with no spring or give. Horrible to ride on gravel tracks, you feel you may bust a rim. There's plenty of slightly wider aftermarket tyres to choose from.

Personally I love classic old Raleigh Twentys or Stowaways. They are cheap as chips on EBay, really sturdy, the Sturmey Archer hubs and enclosed chain guards mean less oily mess to wipe against your caravan fittings. Plus being a lower value you don't worry about chaining them up somewhere 'foreign'.

Have a wonderful time bike shopping! :)

Rick - if you've already got full-sized bikes why not take them along inside the van and save yourselves a lot of money in the process? I can't imagine that two carefully stowed and padded full-sized bikes can possibly take up more room (width wise) than a couple of folded bikes. If a friend of mine managed to pack a Norton motorbike into his Puck I'm sure you'd get a couple of full-sized bikes through the door LOL.

Easiest way is in through the back window onto the made up bed.
Takes 2 tho'.
And don't forget an old sheet so you don't get "bletch" on the bed.
Ken

Bletch ?

How would you steady and pad them to stop them damaging the inside of the van in transit?

Thanks. We have two folding e-bikes and carry them in the 'van. They are in carry bags and I steady them by dropping the seat backs down either side and squishing in some cushions. Can't put them in the car because the back is already full of dog cage. But they are very heavy to lift in (though good for going up hills) and we am looking for better ways to carry them or stow them. Have just had a helpful conversatiopn with campnsnooze via pm's re their drawbar carrier. Fiamma make one for e-bikes which might be an idea. Lots to think about over the winter!