Posts tagged “dahon”  

Some of you may have seen me take a few laps on the Dahon Mu EX between races at the Ballard crit this weekend. While I was doing that, a real folding bike race was going on in London -- the annual Smithfield Nocturne.

Photo: Moff.

Also see the Brompton World Championships.

Readers know that we're fans of Dahons and folding bikes in general. We've ridden them all over the Pacific Rim in our travels and hang with the Dahon crew when we're in Taipei.

I suspect Dahon heard our insistence that they lighten up their bikes, cause they built a super light one, and equipped it with SRAM Red components.

I first rode the Mu Ex during SXSW and took it with me to Portland. A pleasure to ride, the bike is responsive, fast, and performs.

The Novara crew is in Vietnam and Steve Gluckman Facebooked this photo. Reminds me of all the various bikes we saw in our Asian travels and a reminder that in other parts of the world, people just ride bikes as transportation.

Two of our partners and favorite urban bikes in one shot. That's a bike culture money shot with a Madsen and Dahon.

Uploaded by Dapper Lad Cycles | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Last year in Taipei, we along with everyone else, were amazed by the increase in ridership and cyclists. Following that up, Taipei is testing a Bike Share program. They've already got Bike Parking. Eric Mah, Marketing Specialist from Dahon demonstrates how it works in this video

Bike Share aside, I dig that Giant bike with its funky-fender, dynamo hub, and all.

Eric is blogging about biking to work with his co-workers, including the gas masks they wear.

1/2 links seem in these days (3 posts and counting from us); especially on a Vintage Dahons. This bike was spotted by Steve Gluckman, Brand Manager Novara, during a trip to Taipei for the bike show.

Read more about Steve in a MTBR forum from 2002: Bike jockey by design.

We like the Madsen bucket bike so much, we set aside a tee and brochure from the schwag they sent us for the Mobile Social SXSW.

See this shot of the Madsen carrying a Dahon.

Dahon is at the Taipei Bike Show and wanted to say hello. They're supporting us at SXSW with the Sycons, a SRAM Red-equipped Mu EX and Mu SL.

The Mobile Social SXSW is brought to you by our Partners at these Levels of Hugga.

We’re in Taipei and Dahon’s Matt Davis talks to us about the Taipei Bike Boom.

Yesterday Byron and I stopped by Dahon’s HQ office in Taipei. As the world’s foremost manufacturer of folding bikes, Dahon keeps a tidy space with a few rows of desks, a meeting room, and a prominent showroom of innovative bikes. After being greeted by some of their staff, we all grabbed some bikes and hit the river bike path.

During Interbike, we talked at length with Dahon about Taipei’s Bike Boom and saw it today. A year ago, when we rode the the river bike paths, we saw handful of cyclist, including us. Today, there were bike traffic jams, bike pit stops, and a steady stream of bikes in both directions. Sometimes crazy bikes; often fully-kitted-out, euro-style cyclists on folding bikes; all of them having a good time. We saw more Dahons that I could count, KHS, Giant, Birdy, one Brompton, and some unknown brands. The adage “build it and they will come” applies in Taipei and the bike boom is directly attributed to the City spending millions of bike paths and infrastructure.

We’re back in Taipei this weekend for blogging, bike riding with Dahon, and attending the Intel Developer Forum. We’re also hosting a party on Sunday and Taipei bloggers are invited.

Details

Sunday October 19, 2008
7:00pm - 9:00pm
In House
No.90. Song Ren Rd
Taipei, Taipei City

Please tell us if you’re coming on Upcoming.

We’re buying the drinks, appetizers, and we’ve got some goodies to give away

Andrew and Byron have both weighed in on their favorite gear at Interbike 2008, and I’m overdue.

First off, I was excited to see that Xtracycle is releasing a center stand. We’ve blogged extensively about Big Dummy Bettie 2.5 and Val’s custom center stand. We love Val’s stand and it’s rock solid. We’ve used it while blending smoothies, and its great for stabilizing heavy loads. Val’s stand is pricey and out of reach for most xtracyclers, so this seems like a good option that is compatible with your WideLoaders. Retailing at $139 we’d love to see a handlebar mounted lever release integrated into the Xtracycle center stand, but we’re excited this product will soon be available.

More photos from the Bikehugger Interbike Mobile Social… Including this one with the beacon in the background emanating from the Luxor Hotel. Riding down the strip in Vegas was a highlight of the trip. Riding with Xtracycles, Dahons, Mundos, and Fossil Fool, made this the most unique group ride at Interbike. We’re already planning our next Mobile Socials at SXSW, and Portland’s Webvision.

Uploaded by Dapper Lad Cycles | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We rode the Strip from the Sands to Mandalay Bay … Dahons, Novara, Xtracycles, Big Dummies, Mundos, A2B electric, a Bike Blender, and more. Trouble free, fun, and massive. The next day, I qualified it as following the Bike Hugger prescription to “do epic shit.”

Uploaded by LightenUpBikes | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Business and cycling meet at the Biz, Bikes, & Brew event — similar to our Mobile Socials with an emphasis on networking. We posted on deals on the bike earlier and have ridden with Dahon and others. A couple weeks ago, I met up with a potential new business partner and Bike Hugger was vetted by REI during one of their legendary lunch rides.

There isn’t a handbook for these rides, but I’d suggest

• Take a pull and a good, hard one
• Ride hard, but don’t drop the VP of whatever
• Don’t pop-off about your skills and then suck
• Bring the good wheels
• Ask where the sprint is and line up for it

Following folding bikes in pop culture, we just got tipped that Dahons are on the CSI:NY set, at Pomono College for their Green Bike program, and were on the Coachella Amtrak Train with DJ Mark Farina.

At Coachella, the DJ booth ran on full solar plus bikes being used as a charging station for iPods and phones.

(Photo Credit: MXF of the Sycons)

All over the news here in Shanghai, on CNN International, is NYC’s congestion charging initiative. Following London and the UK, NYC is about to implement fees to drive into the city. Woohoo we say and Dahon has already got a page up supporting the measure and expect other manufactures to follow.

We’d hope most people would just realize, “hey you can ride in,” but if we’ve got to do some hand waving to help, then ok.

Your thoughts on city’s charging to drive?

The French Concession has bike and scooter only roads that wind around and we rode them with Jonathan from the Crash Test Dummy Blog while he shot video. Yes that’s rather recursive, but so it goes in the bike blogosphere …(and I never see this angle, as I’m usually the one shooting video)

Notes:

• We’re riding Dahons
• That’s the Hugga Bag I’m wearing
• Dude was roasting a shoe and some really good popcorn
• Another dude nearly crashes looking at our bikes and admiring our awesome helmets. Jason and I are the only people in all of China wearing awesome helmets. I bet next year’s fashion will have a helmet influence; especially the 5-yr old helmets we travel with. This girl was really impressed by them.