Dahon Dispatch Blog: May 2006

In this issue of the Dahon Dispatch we talk to Rick Hartwell, Dahon Product Development Manager about the limited edition Hon Solo.

Q: Hi Rick, what was the inspiration behind the Hon Solo?

RH: The desire to have a classically styled bike in the line, but it’s really more than that, it’s about lines, colors, graphics, a balance that’s hard to achieve. A bike you’d want to be seen on when cruising to your local barista. Also the selection of retro components (Brooks, Sugino, Nitto Moustache, Suzue) are inspired by one of my mentors Grant Petersen of Rivendell.

This issue of the Dahon Dispatch, we talk with The Fat Cyclist - http://spaces.msn.com/fatcyclist/ - blog-child of Elden Nelson. The Fat Cyclist is a lighthearted look at all things cycling created as a space for Elden to track his fitness levels by getting on his bike(s) and simply enjoying the ride. Elden is also a regular contributor to www.cyclingnews.com.

1. Thanks for your time Elden. Tell us a bit about yourself and your Fat Cyclist blog?

By Daniel Mojahedi

(This article first appeared in Discover Taipei and is kindly reprinted with the permission of the author and the Taipei City Government Department of Information).

Every now and then, among the sea of scooters, taxis, and buses that crowd Taipei's streets, you can see a few brave souls riding along on a bicycle. Many of these people do not ride out of simple economic necessity. On the contrary, some of their bikes are worth more than the scooters that rush by them. So why is it that they ride their bicycles, when there are so many other convenient ways to get around the city? In this article, we will take a look at who is riding, what the government is doing to make the ride easier and more pleasant, and what you can do to get started.

By Jeff VanBlarcom

Dahon is a proud sponsor of 'Team Flō'. The team all ride Dahon Flo's and are achieving great success attacking races in the US including 24 Hour competitions in Moab, Temecula and Tuscon.

It first struck me at the grocery store in Moab. Almost everyone in the store was grossly overweight and remarkably unattractive. Such acne! Such prodigious flesh and grotesque expanses of skin! Such difficulty with the counting of the change! I had returned to the world of normal people from the fantasy world of avid mountain bikers at the 24 hours of Moab. Having just spent the last 48 hours or so in a artificially created place where almost everyone is fit and thin, television is a distant memory, lost wedding rings and iPods are returned to their rightful owners almost instantly and the motivation level is extremely high, it was quite a shock. I wanted to go back. I guess that I will have to wait for another year for the party to reconvene. It struck me again, almost literally, as I was on my way out of Moab and a passenger in the car in front of me unabashedly threw a small bag of trash out of the wind.

By Mark Jenkins

(This story first appeared in the October 2005 edition of Outside magazine and is reprinted with permission from the author.)

It's one of the great regrets of travel: you meet someone on a journey, come to know them intimately in just a few hours, then never see them again. You promise to keep in touch, but it seldom happens. When you get back home your own life takes over, and so does theirs, and the bond begins to fade.