I have not one, but 4 folders come in over the winter months. The latest being a pair of Dahon Classic III folders. My lovely bride found them at a thrift shop, sent cellphone pictures. Of course the question was..."how much?" "They don't know, make an offer." I told her I would have to go down and see them first. She shows up at the house an hour later with them, the manager told her to just take them home and if we didn't want them to bring them back later or bring the money. Got both for $100, parts are a bit difficult to find, but not totally impossible. They apparently were made for two different markets or in two different factories. The red one has a Sturmey-Archer AW 3speed and a full chain guard, the blue one has a Sachs Torpedo 3 speed and a bash guard, there are several other differences too. I have already put new fenders and a rack on the red one so I can use it when I travel, I think of it as a poor man's Brompton. :-D
The other pair are from my LBS, someone brought them in for a repair estimate and decided to pass on the repairs and asked if anyone would buy them...yup, this sucker right here. :-P
The red one is a Rixe made in Germany, the gold one is an Atala made in Italy. Both have some interesting features and I will have to go a bit more in depth in a future post. For what it is worth the Atala is a better built bike than the Rixe. Both of them are single speed, Rixe has a coaster brake, the Atala a free wheel.
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