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The Future Automobile > E-Bikes > I went to Dahon’s offices in China to see the best in folding bikes
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I went to Dahon’s offices in China to see the best in folding bikes

9 hours ago 18 Min Read
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I went to Dahon’s offices in China to see the best in folding bikes
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On the subject of folding bicycles, there’s one title within the recreation that deserves extra credit score than every other for placing these compact transportation machines on the map. Dahon has been behind a few of the largest improvements which have turned folding bicycles from quirky newcomers to mainstays of city transportation. The corporate has workplaces within the US, Europe, and China. And it was the third I went to see, hopping a experience to Shenzhen to fulfill the corporate – and its maker – head to head.

Contents
Take a look at drivingClosing ideas

Folding bikes are thought of an integral a part of metropolis biking nowadays. Imagine it or not, the best-selling electrical bikes within the US are folders. However that wasn’t at all times the case. It took somebody with unconventional pondering to rewrite what the world thought of a correct bicycle.

Aerospace physicist Dr. David Hon based the corporate in 1982 (and put the “Da” and “Hon” in Dahon). As a lifelong bike owner, he was pissed off at how cumbersome bicycles had been. Their measurement made for a superb experience however sophisticated the power to move or retailer them in a house or workplace.

So he went again to the drafting board, engaged on methods to fold bicycles to be extra compact in measurement but nonetheless supply a sufficiently sturdy and comfy body for correct driving. The objective was to make bicycles match higher into an city dweller’s life with out sacrificing experience high quality.

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The primary business Dahon bike hit the market two years later in 1984, setting new requirements for folding bicycles. There have been different folding bikes round, however fashions from corporations like Brompton, Raleigh, and Bickerton had been area of interest and costly, to not point out affected by body rigidity points that always plagued folding designs. Dahon targeted as a substitute on concentrating on mass market enchantment with one thing that was each inexpensive and sturdy.

Over the subsequent few a long time, Dahon turned the world’s largest producer of folding bicycles, at instances claiming over 60% of the worldwide market. They expanded manufacturing to a number of factories, launched a variety of fashions for various driving kinds and budgets, and licensed a few of their know-how to different manufacturers. Their designs influenced the whole folding bike trade – pushing rivals to enhance folding pace, weight, and experience high quality – and helped popularize the concept folding bikes may very well be not only a quirky area of interest, however a severe transportation device.

As electrical bicycles grew in reputation over the previous decade, Dahon started growing folding e-bikes, however with its personal signature aptitude. That meant a rising variety of light-weight, compact electrical bikes that bucked the trade development in the direction of heavy, high-power fashions. And as a lot as I take pleasure in a calming pedal, these new folding e-bikes had been what I used to be most concerned with seeing on my tour of Dahon’s design headquarters. And I used to be not dissatisfied!

The workplaces home lots of Dahon’s groups, from the designers to the advertising staff and extra. The partitions are lined with all the parts used on completely different fashions produced by the corporate, which doubles as cool wall artwork and a real-world reference in order that designers can stroll over and contact the very components they use to construct bikes.

Simply off the primary workplace space is the showroom, which is full of what seems like over 100 completely different bikes. A lot of them jogged my memory of conventional Dahon kinds I’ve seen earlier than, however simply as many had been surprising new kinds I by no means knew existed, like full-size highway bikes that also fold into compact packages, folding mountain bikes and even carbon fiber folding commuter bikes. I used to be particularly stunned to see a folding e-tricycle with an enormous picket cargo field up entrance!

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One of many first new electrical fashions I used to be capable of get an up-close take a look at was the brand new Dahon Ok Feather, an electrical bike that weighs a mere 12 kg (26.4 kilos). For an electrical bicycle, that’s very a lot a featherweight! Actually, later within the day once we took the bikes exterior, a gust of wind actually blew it over whereas I used to be on the point of experience.

This was simply earlier than the general public launch and so I used to be getting an early take a look at an e-bike I didn’t suppose may have even existed. For comparability, the lightest folding e-bikes I’ve been used to driving are practically twice as heavy as this.

After all, the Ok Feather doesn’t precisely have an enormous energy ranking, but it surely’s loads enough for a mean metropolis commute the place the rider merely needs to get some help in order that they don’t arrive at work sweating. As soon as they get there, the bike folds up into one thing sufficiently small to simply carry up the steps and conceal away beneath a desk.

Subsequent up was the E Hemingway, one other folding electrical bike that I didn’t suppose may exist. That is mainly an electrical folding gravel bike, one thing that may deal with being loaded down by massive cargo panniers and tackle conventional gravel biking or bikepacking, but continues to be so small and compact when folded down. It even has mounting factors all alongside the body and fork so as to add extra equipment, similar to fork racks and frame-mounted attachments, providing much more potentialities.

However what actually blew my thoughts was the brand new electrical cargo trike from Dahon, referred to as the Cargoe T8. It has plenty of spectacular options. Initially, it’s a tadpole trike, which means the 2 wheels are within the entrance as a substitute of the extra conventional two wheels within the again design. That makes it far more steady feeling as you experience it.

Subsequent, it’s a entrance loader, as evidenced by that olympic-sized swimming pool of a picket field within the entrance. Not solely does it look lovely, but it surely’s really enormous. I took it for a check experience with two adults sitting within the entrance cargo field and the bike felt prefer it was being ridden empty. Extra on the check rides in a second although.

It’s additionally acquired a powerful powertrain, with a 48V 20Ah battery (960 Wh) powering a mid-drive motor that will get matched with a Shimano 8-speed internally geared rear hub. Then there are hydraulic brakes on high of that to present highly effective stopping power – which is strictly what you need on a cargo trike rated to hold 190 kg (420 lb).

And naturally, the cherry on high is that it’s acquired a folding design (in fact, it’s a Dahon in spite of everything). There’s even a cute little “fourth wheel” caster that drops down under the motor mount with the intention to push the folded trike extra simply, similar to when you wanted to wiggle it round a storage or into an residence constructing’s elevator. It actually is among the best-designed tadpole cargo e-trikes I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a LOT of trikes.

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Take a look at driving

After touring the Dahon headquarters and assembly the staff, the pleasant of us at Dahon ready plenty of their new e-bike fashions exterior for me to check experience. And as you possibly can think about, driving is one of the best half!

I began on the E-Hemingway, and regardless of not having any true gravel to check it on, the city driving loops I did had been nonetheless a superb check for the bike’s really feel. I used to be stunned by how properly stiff it felt, particularly contemplating folding bikes are notoriously flexy of their frames as a result of lengthy, spindly nature of the stems and tubes.

I used to be additionally uncertain how it will really feel with all the baggage mounted on both aspect of the entrance and rear wheels, but it surely didn’t supply me any points. If something, it was bizarre how a lot of a non-issue it was. The mounting factors had been clearly effectively thought out, and the fork mounts hold the load near the axis of rotation, additional decreasing any unusual feeling from extra weight on the fork.

Subsequent was an excellent lighter feeling bike, the Ok-Feather. At simply 12 kg (26 lb), that is positively a featherweight within the e-bike world, folding or in any other case. And whereas the bike’s 16″ wheels do make it really feel smaller whenever you experience it, the bike nonetheless feels good within the dealing with division. It takes some getting used to, but it surely was very confidence-inspiring.

I simply stored pondering what an ideal e-bike this is able to make for my mother-in-law, who wants to hold an e-bike up the steps to her second-floor walkup residence, and so she wants one thing as mild as doable that may nonetheless take her to the prepare station she makes use of to get to work. Plus, the truth that it folds up so small makes it even simpler to stow on the prepare. She’s an awesome instance of simply how many individuals may use a tiny, light-weight e-bike for a last-mile (or extra!) kind of experience.

To be sincere, I’m not often ever on folding e-bikes this small, and but it nonetheless felt fairly pure to me after the few seconds of “Whoa, these are little wheels!” feeling whenever you first get on.

Probably the most attention-grabbing of all my check rides although was positively the Cargoe T8, which was much more spectacular than I anticipated. Initially, I didn’t simply wish to check it empty, so two of Dahon’s staff members kindly obliged me by going for a experience collectively. They hopped within the entrance field collectively and we had been off, like a father and two grownup kids. The bike pedals properly, and the rear internally-geared hub is a key piece of equipment to make sure you can downshift whenever you inevitably overlook to earlier than coming to a cease. Getting this factor rolling from high gear, even with that mid-drive motor, can be troublesome when you forgot to downshift with a daily derailleur. That’s certainly one of many causes I really like these internally-geared hubs.

The rear rack battery isn’t essentially the most elegant-looking resolution, and I ponder if it may have someway been constructed into the picket cargo field, although that may have made battery removing tougher and robbed a few of the cargo capability. So as a substitute, it is sensible to maintain it simply accessible on the rack, particularly since most individuals will probably be charging this e-trike by bringing the battery to the outlet and never by bringing the whole bike inside.

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The intelligent folding possibility might not get utilized by everybody, but when somebody did wish to deliver it inside, this is able to be the best way to do it. It additionally lets you extra simply match the bike at the back of a big SUV or pickup truck mattress while not having to depart the tailgate open. It’s a distinct segment characteristic, however when you ever want it, you’ll be glad to have it.

I used to be additionally stunned to see that the entrance finish really steers. This isn’t like these massive cargo e-trikes the place the bike simply has a central articulation, which implies you’re successfully rear-wheel steering by bending the rear of the bike round. The handlebars even have linkage as much as the entrance and steer a entrance axle, to which the cargo field is mounted. It turns thus far that you are able to do tight donuts, even in a giant cargo trike! It’s one other factor that may seemingly take a little bit of getting used to, however within the couple of minutes of metropolis block maneuvering I did with the trike, I felt comfy sufficient to danger my two driving companions within the entrance field!

Closing ideas

As my day at Dahon’s Shenzhen headquarters wrapped up, I couldn’t assist however replicate on how far the corporate – and folding bikes as a complete – have come. What began as Dr. David Hon’s storage undertaking has grown into a world power, one which helped form the very thought of what a bicycle may very well be. Standing in that showroom surrounded by a long time of design evolution, from easy metal commuters to featherweight electrical gravel machines and full-blown folding cargo trikes, it was clear that the identical spirit of experimentation nonetheless runs deep right here.

Dahon’s affect is discovered in additional than simply the bikes they promote – it’s additionally felt available in the market they helped create. The truth that folding bikes (and particularly folding e-bikes) are actually among the many best-selling two-wheelers within the US owes an enormous debt to their early persistence in making the idea sensible, inexpensive, and interesting to on a regular basis riders. Even now, in a market crowded with newcomers, Dahon continues to push into niches most corporations wouldn’t suppose to the touch, from featherweight e-commuters to apartment-friendly cargo trike heavy-haulers.

Rolling away from Dahon’s Shenzhen HQ, I felt like I’d simply stepped out of a dwelling historical past e book for folding bikes – besides this one nonetheless has clean pages ready to be crammed. These of us aren’t simply cranking out bikes; they’re nonetheless experimenting, nonetheless asking “what if?” in ways in which hold the entire folding bike class recent.

Positive, the Ok Feather and E Hemingway wowed me, however that Cargoe T8? That factor was the mic drop. If there’s a greater instance of Dahon’s “folding with out limits” mentality, I haven’t seen it.

So yeah, you possibly can say I left impressed – not simply by the bikes, however by the sense that after 40+ years, Dahon nonetheless has extra methods up its sleeve. And if the subsequent few a long time are something just like the final, I can’t wait to see what unfolds subsequent.

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TAGGED: China, E-Bikes, ebikes
TheFuture Automobile August 21, 2025 August 21, 2025
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