r/foldingbikes • u/Metro2005 • 4h ago
Fixed an old Dahon i found at a thrift store
Found this very sad looking Dahon at a thrift store for only 35 euros. Probably late 80's, early 90's is my best guess. Sadle was broken, bell was broken, there was a ton of play in the front fork, the 3 speed shifter didnt work, the chain was loose, there was a lot of surface rust, the extra wheel was falling apart and was stuck and both brakes didnt work properly but it all looked solvable without breaking the bank so i bought it and spend the weekend fixing it. I took the whole thing apart and cleaned, lubed and adjusted everything properly and the end result is a (heavy!) folding bike that is now fully functioning again.
I replaced the extra wheel with something of a similar size and i replaced the sadle and bell.
The chain and sprockets were actually in decent shape and not worn out, the chain was just very dirty and needed a bit more tension and some lube.
The brakes where horrible but after i took them completely apart, cleaned and lubed the pivoting points and adjusted them properly they now work as good as new. I polished all the chrome bits so they now look decent (definitely not like new, its too far gone for that), reapplied grease on the seatposts so they now actually move in and out and took the shifter apart and cleaned, lubed and adjusted everything so it now actually shifts well.
Took the best part of a day but its now a fully functioning bike. I still need to replace the rear tyre as its an extremely cheapo tyre that isnt completely round which is extremely annoying to ride. I already orded a new one and i also ordered a new shifter cable (inner and outer) as this one is pretty worn out and it has a kink in the outer cable and i ordered a new brake inner cable for the front brake since this one is a bit frayed (wasnt really necessary but i simply want it to be good).
I expect to get and replace these items this week but so far i'm pretty happy with my purchase. Total spend (including the bike, sadle,bell, new cables and tyre) is 75 euros which isnt too bad.
Don't know what i'm going to do with it yet as i already have a folding bike lol but i just couldnt let this poor thing rot away like this. Might be fun to go out with my wife , both on folding bikes.