Hi sifus. Newbie here and i will be purchasing a new dahon vybe as soon as stock is available. Since the vybe comes only with 7 speed, im thinking of upgrading it in the near future to higher speed. What are my options and whats the cost like? Do i need to change the wheel set as well?
Bro azamunekurone seems to have sucessfully upgraded his vybe, mind to share some info? Appreciate any replies

Thanks Sifu for the advise... and ya, if still hv problem climbing slopes with the granny gears, then I really need Will PM you when I decide to go ahead with the mod ...

Thank you for the advice!

the new dahon speed D8 selling at S$799 in singapore, do u think is worth it?

Just slightly higher than Malaysia. If convenience is the factor, it should be OK. Why don't you hunt around in Togoparts if there's any used unit? Most Singaporean bikes are in good condition, they don't ride much and also many of them are upgraded with really nice components.

www.togoparts.com>MARKETPLACE>Folding and Commuting Complete Bikes

First you must understand the theory of using the gears. Many misunderstand and starts freewheeling themselves till they get cramps we take an 8 speed as an example with 11T/32T

Presume, you ride a bike, let's say in a gym or riding on a flat ground. Choose a setting where you can ride comfortably without stressing. Eg. 53T front x 15T (usually 3rd gear). With this you ride just casually and you can ride for say 30 minutes without stopping and it doesn't really tire you out. Now! as you ride you came to a gradual slope and the pedaling gets a bit hard, so, you shift into lower gear (means bigger gears at the rear) Eg. 24T (that's the 6th gear) and at this ratio, you get back the same pedal force you exert at the flat roads. You stay at this ratio and never ride even lower gear that many riders tend to do! You shift at the same pedal force that you are comfortable with. And then you hit an even more steeper slope , so you shift up until you get the same force you exert at the flat roads.

So, further on , you come to an even more steep and you have shifted to the last low gear 32T and you still can't get to the same pedalling effort, then you ran out of gears. Here, you either have to push harder till you cannot continue and push lorr. In the case of 2 chainring, here you can downshift to 39T (front) and this will give you another few notches lower gearings and it you have triple 30T for the granny gear as we call it, then you have even lower than lower gears.

Over time, you improve, first your pedalling effort can go harder and also your time frame , you can pedal longer like 2 hours continuous or maybe more. That's how we train, slow and patiently. If you just rush in 'gung ho' style and get yourself all cramp up, you will think cycling is lousy and give up! Hahahaa

Thanks for the great explanation and so much more easier to understand now. As I m still a taman rider with some moderate climb only, I was originally thinking of just mod the front chain ring (3 or 2) and keep the current 7 back (neo's). Still ok or not ? if ok, how much ahh ? Not expensive component but also don't want non branded chapalang stuff ... thanks

Yes, it is done before but it depends on your present crank now. If you see 5 lock nuts on the crank holding the chain ring, then you can just buy the smaller 39T (130BCD) chainring and bolt onto the present set up BUT if your present chain ring is the one piece type (means the chain ring cannot be taken out), then you have to buy another crank which cost quite substantial. The cheapest I notice is about RM180 for double chainring. Then the FD adapter and the FD itself and finally the shifter which are sold in pairs. All in all averaging about RM600.

On the other hand if you mod the rear first, you need an RD, shifter (also a pair), a cassette and new chain and cable. Let me do the calculation again, Gear inches is our aim. Simplified means, the bigger the number, the lower the gear and also the easier it is to pedal, in the expense of speed of course. You cannot have both. so, if your setup is 7 speed, usually the rear cogs are 13T to 28T . The front , I assume is 52T because my former Dahon Eco C7 was that size. For this setup, the gear inches ranges from 80.00 GI to 37.14 GI.

OK, let's say you maintain the rear setup and modify a second chain ring. So it's 52/39T with 13/28T at the rear. For this the GI is , 80.00 GI to 27.85 GI, so that is a gain of 9.19 GI on the lower gear spectrum but no change on the higher gear.

OK, now let's say you go for the 10 speed rear modifications. The rear cassette ranges from 11T (which gives you more speed, you can even pedal when you are going downhill) to 34T. With this the GI will range from
94.54 GI to 30.58 GI. With this you gain 6.56 GI on the lower gear BUT you gain 14.54 GI on the higher gear. Means you can ride faster on flats and downhill. Also sometimes with more gers the ratio gaps are smaller making gear changes fluid. Like with less gears, eg. your pedaling becomes hard so you shift to lower gear but one notch higher the pedaling becomes to free. That's why roadbike gears are near!

In the end, if you have modded the rear and now also modded the front as well, the range is from 94.54 GI to 22.94 GI. Just for comparison purposes, my Dahon Speed is 3 x 9 speeder. The gear ranges from 96.36 GI to 18.75 GI. That's a very wide range because the chain ring is 53T/40T/30T and the rear 11T/32T . See picture, pardon, tak cuci bike after last week's ride.

This weekend (starts from Friday) , we have a ride from Tapah Road (the railway station) to Teluk Intan. There we put up a night and next morning we ride to Sitiawan and also put up a night there. The last day Sunday, we will ride to Batu Gajah and then take the train back to Tapah Road. There are a few pullouts from this ride and there are a few empty slots. Anyone interested in riding this weekend? The road is quite flat but the distance is 30 km, 70 km and 63 km respectively. It will be fun! Anyone interested PM me.

aiyoooo...got work to do on weekend,otherwise will join u

when #ipohfoldies meet up with kl foldies and folding bike instant for the last kl car free day dec edition

terbaek bro!

Thanks for all the input!

Continuing to head toward road bike set up... Maybe next is getting good 451 wheelset and tyre!

This is good information. Thank you etigge.

pix spam

aiyok
didnt notice this,..sori

ok,vybe is a bike that u need to spent more to upgrade bcoz of the wheels.unless u can get boardwalk d8 or speed p8 if im not mistaken its freehub wheel

1st and for all the wheelset.if u can find cheapo wheelset as long as it use freehub with quick release and not freewheel.the freewheel like original vybe and only can use up to 8 speed max.

like me,
im using novatech hub coz dont want tu change the wheelset.besides,this hub is for mtb diskbrek got 32hole and i bought it quite cheap rather than change the wheelset.so i change it,but the front fork u need to force it open to fit the hub.original vybe wheel are 28spoke,so there is no problemo using 32hole hub!

after change the wheelset,u are open to upgrade what ever u want
for me i used 9 speed 11-25 sunrace cassette pairing with shimano sora RD taken out from my verge p9.oh ya,not to forget you must find hanger for rd also as neos rd are place in front.as for the crank i use shimano sora also,but this one its a compact crank sizing 50/34 bought 2nd.this is the reason why im pairing with road cassette rather than mtb cassette.as for the FD i also use the Sora and bought some cheapo rm40 hanger unbrand from the net.setting the fd its hard and took 3 hours to tune it right by my friend.

as for shifter,shimano have an option to use hybrid flat bar shifter for road but the price is quite pricey!so i took an alternative using the mtb shifter so i bought shimano alvio shifters.

so the cost rought estimated i upgred for current setup:
Shimano alvio shifter RM150
Shimano Sora FD RM100
FD Hanger RM40
RD Hanger RM30
Shimano Sora 50/34 Crank RM100 (new price is RM250 and comes with BB)
Shimano 105 Hollow BB FOC took from my 105 groupset
Shimano Sora RD FOC took from verge p9 (new price is around RM150)
Novatech Hub RM50 (new is around RM300)
Jagwire Cable Housing - RM30 (i use only for gear and not the brakes)
Schwalbe Marathon Racer 1.50 - RM85 for pair (new is RM85/unit)
Avid brake lever FOC took from verge p9 (new price RM70/pair)
Sram grips RM40

so the total cost is around RM625 consider some used parts lah.not to mention my front and rear rack and other accessories like Brooks saddle,bags and so on lah

Woohoo..thanks for the detailed explanation(big thank you). This really get me thinking if i should get another bike instead of the vybe. I decided on the vybe because i like the frame design and that its made of alu which doesnt rust but i did hear that its gona be more work and money to upgrade the gearing system on vybe compared to other bikes but definately wasnt expecting this haha. Will the difficulty level of upgrading the gearing system on a broadwalk be much lower and any cheaper? Or maybe if i show the specs that you typed earlier to the kedai basikal i wonder if they are willing to do it for me lol. Im sure its gona cost me a more significant amount too since i have 0 kangtao

Any idea where can get this?

Looks cool but check out the price dayum http://www.loopwheels.com/shop/

lol yeah i check out the website after asking.