Dahon Vitesse Folding Bike - Review

The Dahon Vitesse Folding Bike has a lot of great features that make it ideal for commuting, traveling, or just tooling about town. It features the Shimano Nexus gear system, operated by a grip-shift style shifter on the handlebars connected to an internal drum gearing system in the rear hub. Shifting was smooth and fast - it rivaled, or even outperformed, the shift capability of Shimano Ultegra on my comparable Slingshot Folding Bike.

The finish on the bike was quite nice, with sharp black accented by white lettering. The clamps which hold the folding and adjustable parts of the bike together were stiff and inspired confidence in their holding ability. The seatpost is really, really long - at 6'0", I fit up fine on the etched number 6 on the post, leaving space for legs of perhaps a person 6'4" tall. Similarly, the handlebars adjust nicely up and down to give any rider the desired aggressive or laid-back setup on the bike.

The Vitesse comes equipped with a bike rack which has 3 straps attached to it. One nifty feature is that the seatpost has a bike pump built right into it! You just need a patch kit and you're ready to go. Folding the bike up takes about 1 minute tops, and when you do, there are two magnets on the left side of the bike that quickly remind you which way to set up for all the folds, which way to actually fold the bike in two, and then click together to let you know the bike folding is done. Great design, a sturdy bike, and a solid ride.

It is priced at about $650. You can find the Dahon Vitesse on QBike.com from top online bike retailers.