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Dahon Cadenza Solo (09) | $814.46
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BikeRadar verdict

4 out of 5 stars

"One gear, clever folding mechanism, good ride"

Tue 28 Jul 2009, 9:00 am BSTBy Neil Pedoe, Cycling Plus

The Cadenza Solo is a folding bike that combines ‘proper’ sized wheels with an almost invisible folding mechanism and ultra-low-maintenance setup to produce a fun and fast ride.

  • Frame & fork: A solid frame with a virtually invisible fold mechanism (9/10)
  • Handling: Difficult to fault – great balance for carving through town (8/10)
  • Equipment: Being a singlespeed there’s not much of it, but everything works perfectly. The pump inside the seatpost is a great idea – every commuter bike should have one (8/10)
  • Wheels: Mountain-bike sized 26in wheels are a great call on a folding bike – great ride quality and handling (8/10)

Dahon continue to dominate the folding bike market with a vast and varied range of bikes that come in every size of wheel and for every type of riding. The Cadenza range is made up of three flat-barred 26in wheel models, all with the same cleverly folding frame design but with different equipment depending on what they are intended for.

A the top of the range, the sleek-looking road Cadenza combines a compact double chainset, disc brakes, high pressure, low profile Continental slicks and flat bars for a fast city street machine.

The Cadenza 8 swaps the road gears for more robust and maintenance-free Alfine hub gears and much fatter tyres; while the Cadenza Solo – tested here – goes for one-geared purity, as low-maintenance as you can go, and a modicum of bling in terms of the red anodised hubs and a novel bar and brake lever hood setup.

As all three models share the same frame, which comes with all the right fixing points for disc or V-brakes, mudguards, rack, cable runs, a rear mech hanger...  This is a versatile frame!

The Solo’s distinctive bars aren’t just for looks – the cow horn shape lets you ride with your head high so you can keep an eye on road dangers around you, and the fact that the STI style hoods position the levers themselves under the bar means that you can use as many of your fingers for stopping as you feel necessary. It’s a much more powerful and convenient braking solution than, say, braking from the top of the brake hoods on a conventional drop bar setup.

This commanding position goes well with the rest of the ride too which, though no lightweight, is agile, planted and great for carving through busy city streets.

The 26in wheels spin up easily, and whether you’ve opted to keep the rear wheel flipped to its singlespeed side with freewheel, or flopped it round to the fixed side so that the back wheel is kept in perfect unity with your legs, acceleration is good.

The use of an eccentric bottom bracket makes for easy chain tensioning, while still letting you drop the rear wheel out for puncture repairs – something which is made even easier by the clever seatpost and seat, which doubles as an effective track pump.

Even if it didn’t fold, the Solo would be a fun, fast and stylish fixie. But add in the near invisible double ‘lockjaw’ joints – one on the top tube and one on the down tube – and you open up a whole new world of multi-modal travel for you and your bike.

Only needing half a turn with an Allen key to unlock each hinge, the fold takes just a few seconds to complete and is easily quick enough for the train platform, bus queue or the boot of your car.

A magnet and plate by the front and rear axles means the folded bike stays folded too. The resulting package is not as compact as a Brompton, or even a smaller-wheeled Dahon, and the bars do stick out a bit but it’s easily good enough for any of the above travel situations.

An even more compact fold is not much more bother either, thanks to the clever headset and steerer cover that lets you loosen one bolt, then slide off the stem and bars without the fork dropping out of the frame.

The only small niggle was that the paint at the lockjaw hinges was starting to chip – though perhaps this was expected because a small bottle of white paint comes in the box with the bike.

Dahon cadenza solo: dahon cadenza solo

About BikeRadar reviews: Our review scoring system has changed in 2010. Therefore recent reviews may have comparatively lower scores than past reviews. Click here for a full explanation of our ratings.

Manufacturers description

Sometimes, the simpler the journey, the more enjoyable it is. With the Cadenza Solo, Dahon have created a simple bike to get you around. There are no suspension air springs, 27 gears, or hydraulic cables to mess around with. Need to climb a hill? Stand up on the pedals. Dahon's one concession to technology is the latest LockJaw folding technology that makes the Solo easy to carry with you anywhere so transporting or storing your bike never gets in the way of you riding the bike. Isn't that what technology should be for?

User Reviews

Post your review

  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    It's so tempting for us London Underground/road commuters, but these lock-jaw Dahon bikes have a reputation for not being good folders. I.e. OK if you need to fold them occassionally, but not likely to fall apart if you need to fold them daily. Is that true?

    Also, there are rumours that London Underground turn these away even though their literature clearly states folding bikes are allowed on the trains. Apparently, they mean Bromptons and Brompton-sized only... 24" wheels not welcome. Can anyone confirm that?

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    typo alert - "...but likely to fall apart if you need to fold them daily."

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    Also wondering what the true weight of the thing is - 14kg seems pretty heavy for something "minimalist"? Dahon.com list it as 11.. but most online bikeshops list it at 14. Was considering a normal singlespeed, but this looks nice if the weight is OK.

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    Way to heavy for a single speed!!!!

    These lock jaw frames weight a ton although they look nice, better pick up an 08 dahon Jack and single speed it, Much lighter with a better folding mechanism to boot.

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    We weighed it at 24.2lb/11kg without pedals

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    I'm really dissapointed with this bike. I got it for a good price. Way under the RRP from a reputable dealer. When it arrived, the frame was severely scrathced in a number of places. Normally I'd have sent it back, but I needed the bike to commute to work since my other had been stolen from the station 2 days previously. So the first day I used it, the magnet which holds the bike together fell off. The store sent me a replacement. A few weeks later the first of many spokes broke on the back wheel. Again the store sent replacements. The frame noise I hear when riding is incredible. It sounds like a truly knackered bottom bracket, but the BB is fine. I've tried tighening the folding mechanism, but to no avail. Again this morning two more spokes pinged in the back wheel, just as I got out of the saddle to go up a hill.

    Also, the brakes are not great, very much entry level V-brakes which cause the bike to judder when you slow down.

    The bike is great to ride, the position is good and i love the single speed.

    But there just seem to be so many problems with it for a 2 month old £500 bike!! Not sure I could recommend it based upon my experiences.

    0.3
  • User review of Dahon Cadenza Solo (09)

    The jury is still out for me.

    The bike rides really well. It is comfortable, fast, has a good spread of gears, can be fitted with a rack and mudguards and folds small enough to stay out of the way at home and when visiting friends.

    However, after a couple of weeks and folding after every ride the lockjaw hinges started making unpleasant noises. After using some loctite and adjusting the bolts things were fine again for a while.

    They went awry again though and on a 20 mile ride I had to adjust the bolts 3 times, and more drastic action was therefore needed.

    I stripped down both hinges completely and re-loctited and greased all the bolts as I believe they should have been. The way the hinge works is that the hinge bolts and retainer bolts must all be just at the right tension or else it either makes the aforementioned noises , or it doesn't unfold, or the locking bolts don't turn fully.

    I'm hoping that this rebuild will at least give me a few months trouble free use.

    Having read about wheels on Dahon bikes before, I tested the spoke tension and wheel alignment when I first got the bike. Many spokes were too tight or too loose, and the wheels were not exactly round or true. I went round both wheels retensioning the spokes and improving the alignment so that the tension was more or less even. There were also problems with the tyres because the rim tape was not evenly positioned and was the wrong size. I cut the rim tape down so that the tyres seated properly on the rims.

    Since then I have not had any problems with rims or spokes. It would have been nice if the wheels had been laced 3-cross initially as the radial pattern can't help with longevity and the right sized rim tape had been used.

    I tried out the seat post pump and found that it was very difficult to attach to the valves because the pump needs to turn to screw onto the valve. I could do this if I held the pump upside down over the wheel with the valve at the bottom. Having done this I found that I could not get any air into the tyre as it all seemed to leak out of the adaptor at the end of the pump. I found out that this was because the tyre was pumped up beyond the pressure the seat-post pump could manage. I let the tyre down and then pumped as much as possible but found I could only get 60psi which is way below the spec for the tyres on this bike.

    To stop the leakage I put a small piece of old innertube and a spare valve lockring under the adaptor on the valve and pumped. After a few strokes the pump failed internally: the bung had blown off the end of the plunger and snapped the internal threaded plastic retainer.

    The seat post pump is almost a really good idea, but to fit in the space available the adaptor is a compromise as it cannot adequately grip the valve to get decent tyre pressure, and it seems that the plastics used are of poor quality.

    I'm not going to re-install the pump plunger into the seat post and instead I'll install a Topeak pocket rocket master blaster on the bottle cage mounts which will easily reach the 85psi needed for the tyres on the bike.

    I needed a shorter stem than the 120mm one fitted that used the same ATS adjustment system as the NVO stem. This is a very convenient system but the parts are difficult to obtain. Greyville enterprises is the importer but they had none in stock of the same model, although a newer model was available at double the price. My solution was to replace the stem using a cheap 95mm ahead model and use a 1 1/8" clamp on the steerer tube to avoid having to adjust the headset when removing the stem for storage.

    0.3

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Specification

Name:
Cadenza Solo (09)
Built by:
Dahon
Price:
$814.46

Available Sizes:
L, M, S
Available Colours:
White
Weight (kg):
14

Frame & Fork:

 
Frame Material:
OA Series 7005 aluminum with patented LockJaw hinges and a replaceable derailleur hanger. Integrated head tube
Fork Model:
Dahon SlipStream Puro U7 aluminum with double butted tubing. Disc/V/Canti brake compatible
Fork Weight:
827 g

Geometry:

 
Head Angle:
72.5 Degrees

Brakes:

 
Brakes Model:
Kinetix SpeedStop V Brakes

Transmission:

 
Cranks Model:
Sugino XD cold-forged 6061 cranks with chainguard
Cassette:
16 tooth sprocket

Wheels:

 
Front Wheel Weight:
1483 g
Rear Wheel Weight:
1724 g
Rims Model:
Kinetix Rim
Rear Hub Model:
Kinetix Track Flip/Flop Hub
Tyres Brand:
Continental
Front Tyre Model:
Sport Contact
Rear Tyre Model:
Sport Contact

Contact Points:

 
Saddle Model:
Biologic Aria
Seatpost Model:
BioLogic Zorin PostPump, 27.2mm
Stem Model:
Dahon F.I.T with patented ATS technology. 6061-T6 aluminum
Handlebar Model:
Kinetic Pro TT alloy, bullhorn 44cm c-c, 25.0 clamp zone

:

 
Standover Height (cm):
29 cm
Top Tube (cm):
58 cm
Wheelbase (cm):
111 cm
Bottom Bracket Height (cm):
28.5 cm
Chainstays (cm):
44 cm
Seat Tube (cm):
36 cm

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