Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Tern Supremacy

Perfect for every occasion: the Tern P7i
Sometime back, I was talking about retrofitting my Dahon Speed P8.
To date, its one of the most versatile folding bikes I've come across and Tern Bicycles, a new player in the bicycle industry, had introduced the Link P7i.

Its perfect.. almost..
The Link P7i offers an internal gear hub.
What does this means? Less messy, easy to maintain and no more grease baby!
I did mention about fitting an IGH on my Speed. This would incur a heavy cost because the spokes have to be changed.
An alternative is the Alfine hub by Shimano. This is by far, one of the best and smoothest drivetrain I've come across.
The Link P7i, I believe, offers a Shimano Nexus 7. Good, but could be better.

A great touring foldie 
I want a bike that is solid.
On the Link P7i, there's no telescopic stem.
This means it would be firm ride. Not twitchy compared to the Speed P8.
The Andros stem, that gave the Dahon Speed TR its robustness is found on the Link P7i.
This means that its gonna give the rider a comfortable riding position.
I don't know if a rear and front traveller's rack could be fitted, but I am confident that if the racks are fitted, it would make an awesome touring folding bike.

Suggestions for improvements..
For better stopping power in any environment - hydraulic disk brakes. This would put the Link P7i in a class of its own.
The Speed frameset had proven itself and I think that if a Rholoff IGH can be added, this bike would go places! 
That said, I'll settle for a Shimano Alfine 11 anytime! 

1 comment:

cdstg said...

Yes that P7i looks great for touring if it had alfine 11 and then I could fit touring racks to it. I can't afford Rholoff.
But now I need three of these :-)