Considering buying a Doppelganger folding bike - any advice?

bobobear

New to the boards - any advice appreciated.

Currently living in Japan but coming back to Ireland in the next few weeks. I'll be carless so want a bike, preferably folding.

Brompton is out of my price range, but there's a pretty popular Japanese brand of folding bike - Doppelganger.

I can't find any reviews in English, does anyone know anyone who has one? I'm thinking about the 206streak model. 12.3kg, folded size 800×640×360mm.
Is this too big/heavy to carry on the Dart (in a bag)?

Here's a link to the page. http://www.doppelganger-sports.jp/bike/product2/206/1_1.htm

It's in Japanese, but you can see a picture.

I know this is a long shot, but if anyone notices any obvious problems with the bike I'd be really grateful for a heads up.

Thanks.

Doctor Bob

Hard to tell much just from the pics, but they look like variations on the Dahon brand, which is the biggest manufacturer of folders. The main visible difference is the frame- the top tube (or is it the downtube...?) has hollowed sections where the Dahon is solid. The geometry looks pretty much identical. The parts spec is a mystery to me.

Pretty sure I've never seen one over here, and they look like the kind of bike it'd be hard to miss!

Dahons don't fold as small as Bromptons (I don't think anything does [except the Mobiky and others with tiny wheels, but they're really in a different category]), but they should be fine on the DART.

Here's a little video showing a Dahon in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCBter8nUo

If you're in any doubt, it might be worth considering waiting until you get home to purchase. For starters, you'd have an LBS to deal with instead of a shop on the other side of the world; second, you might get a good lightly used folder on adverts.ie or similar sites.

tomasrojo

The negative that stands out for me is that it seems to fold in the middle. Most good folders now fold in three, rather than two, to form a more compact package.

It looks like the old-fashioned pre-Brompton folders, which had a bad reputation for spongey riding and poor compactness.

tomasrojo

Actually, looking at that Dahon clip, it looks as if Dahons fold in the middle as well. My mistake. Dahons have a good reputation, so ignore what I just said.

What is your price range? Maybe you could get a very basic Brompton? 3-speed and no rear rack. I think they're about €800 here.

Somebody here got a Dahon for about €400 (I think) and were very happy with it.

EDIT: Here's the thread that discusses the Dahon for about €400.

tomasrojo

Speaking of folding bikes, I quite like this photograph:



http://bikesthatfold.com/content/view/56/

You can get forty-two Bromptons into a standard parking space. That's about €35k of bike.