My new Jetsream arived today. It took all of about 5 minutes to take it out from the box and assemble it ready for riding. I just had to insert the seat-pin and screw on the pedals.
I checked it over to see if there were any faults and it looked pretty good apart from a scuff on the frame that had removed paint in an area of about 6mm dia, the pedal bearings were very notchy and while I was doing up one pedal, the end was going backwards and forwards so the spindle must have been bent.The pedals are definitely the weak point. They're very heavy as well because of the folding mechanism, so with the other problems too, I might change them. Can't fault the rest of the bike though.
I tried it down to the supermarket and everything worked. I didn't need much pedal effort because the gearing goes very low, but of course the speed was also correspondingly low. Everything had been nicely adjusted by Evans - gears, brakes, etc.
The suspension seems not bad considering I haven't adjusted anything. The front suspension seemed better than that fitted to most electric bikes, but obviously not like the air forks fitted to my other bikes. the back seemed a little more harsh, but, again, I'm used to air suspension.
I looked it over when I got home and spotted a little spring-loaded plunger attached to the front linkage, but I can't find any purpose for it. Unfortunately, although I got three different manuals with the bike, there's virtually nothing specific to this model that explains the front suspension (or anything else useful for that matter). I think that's poor on the part of Dahon.
The drop-outs are 70mm front and 130mm rear. I know you can fit a large motor in the rear because people have already done it, but I don't want to do that as I already have powerful ebikes. I want something quick and convenient to get out of the house and down to the shops with good climbing power to get me back up the steep hill with my shopping. I keep my much faster and more powerful Giant BPM in the porch and it's a bit wide to get through the door. the Dahon goes through easily.
I'll probably use a Q100 cute motor that I have lying around.
I'll put some pictures and explain the electrical choices in a new thread tomorrow,a fter I've had a good look at the bike.
Thanks again jerry for pointing this one out. I'm pretty sure that this is exactl what I was looking for.
