My new Bicycle

Before Tony and I headed over to London, we did a bunch of research on folding bicycles, as we wanted to have the urban bike experience, and because space is a premium and bicycle theft is incredibly common in London, a lot of people opt for folding bikes that can be minimized and brought into the office or apt and stored.


We liked the Dahon bicycles as they were a moderated priced folding bicycle that got great reviews. I came to London planning to buy a Dahon Espresso. Unfortunately, they are all sold out in the city, but we were told that stores might get more by the beginning of September. Mind you the best weather in London is June-August. Since I couldn't get the bike at that time, I did the next best thing, I got a bid from the store for what is called the Bicycle to Work Scheme. This is a great system, whereby the British government, as an incentive for people to ride a bike to work will do a monthly withdrawal from your paycheck, pre-tax, thereby giving people a small tax relief, and allow people to pay off the bicycle in installments.

Luckily, a coworker of mine posted an add for a Dahon Dragon (yes the name made the bicycle destined to end up with a geek like me). It is a little different from the larger Espresso, and has only 20" wheels as opposed to the 26" wheels on the Espresso. 20" wheels are the largest size they allow in the tubes, and actually, there aren't many tube lines that allow bikes. However, the price savings of buying a used bike, not to mention that I could have the bike for my commute right away, made it an obviously better choice. So far it has proven to be a great bicycle.