Here a few pictures of my as yet unnamed new bike. It is a Dahon Cadenza XL bought at a substantial discount from Chain Reaction. It looks like the Cadenza is being phased out which is a shame as the 26" wheeled bikes in Dahon's current range look awful (in my opinion).
The bike was purchased for a specific purpose. I now spend some of my working week in London and have foolishly decided to try for a SR Series this audax year. Therefore I need to get some serious miles in. The plan is to take the bike on the train one day a week and then ride home in the evening, a distance of 40-ish miles. The first trip will hopefully be this Wednesday. The bike folds in the middle (I will post some folded pictures at a later date) so will be allowed on the train if the experiences of Oaky of this parish are anything to go by, he has a Cadenza too.
The bike came without mudguards, a rack and bar ends but did come with Schwalbe Big Apple tyres. The Big Apples have been replaced by Marathon Pluses which I already had. The saddle has already been taken off as have the pedals. The saddle you see is temporary pending the purchase of another Brooks. All the bits taken off are up for sale so get in touch if you're interested.
The disc brakes and very high rack mounts made fitting the rack a right nightmare. I managed to find this one with adjustable legs but I still had to get busy with a drill and hack saw.
The disc brakes also caused problems with the mudguards so on the rear I had to use the rack mounts and on the front the low rider mounts. Again much hack sawing was required.
The bike has an 8-speed Alfine hub. This is my first experience of gears inna can since the the 3-speed Sturmey Archer Elswick Safeway I used to ride to school. I'm impressed and keen to know what they will be like for climbing. I have yet to pit the first gear against The Mighty North Hill.
The stupid tapered bars make fitting stuff on them difficult.
I've done about 60 miles on it so far and I like it.