Dahon Boardwalk 6-Speed - Major Upgrades

Keeping the classic Dahon Boardwalk 6-speed on the road.

I'm very pleased with the major upgrdes to my Dahon! The bike rides smoothly - no more creaks and grumblings - and looks much better, in my opinion, with a sleeker crankset and a splash of purple to complement its dark green paint. In the process, it went on a diet, thankfully, or at least it feels much lighter.

The above photos illustrate previous cranksets: the first photo shows the 48 tooth one piece crankset that was installed a couple years ago, which vastly improved my pedaling range. The second photo displays the original one-piece crankset, possibly original, a 52T that was difficult on my older body.

 

Our son and his girlfriend talked me through removing the old parts and replacing the bottom bracket, crankset, and pedals. Their younger strength properly tightened the bolts.

Our bike mechanic son swapped in some new parts: Gripshifter, new cables and purple housing, rear cassette, and chain. He knew the bottom bracket was failing, and sure enough, after a week of riding during Jan-Feb's unusually balmy weather, I limped homeward with an awful creaky noise radiating through my feet. It was fortuitous though, because in addition to replacing the bottom bracket, it was time to get rid of the ugly one-piece crankset for a better upgrade. There's a lot of Web help, fortunately, and I sourced Litepro crankset, a common upgrade among Dahon owners. Going forward the new two-pice crank will enable me to easily replace the ring going forward.

Of course, buying components was contagious! In addition, I bought new pedals (old ones were loose), lock-on grips (yay) because I was tired of the cheap ones that rotated, I put there years ago. There's also a new Schwalbe Racer rear tire. 

Beside the frame, handlebar, and derailleur, the original wheels appear to be holding up well. It is interesting that for a 2003/4 lower end model, the bones of this bike are great. For it's smooth, steel-frame ride quality an durability - as I was telling someone the other day - I equate this Boardwalk model with a 1980s mountain bike, of course, in small wheel form.

And lastly, tired of the ziptie securing the fender to the rack, I dealt with a more permanent fix for the rattling fender.The metal fender is irreplaceable - the option is a black plastic version - so I'll do anything to keep this original classic intact.

Phew! Let's hope this baby will keep going for many more years.