Adding gearing to a single speed Tern / Dahon

[KneesUp]

I'm thinking of getting a folder of some sort for a new job - I will only need to travel some days so it'll be a budget (i.e. secondhand and not a Brompton) purchase.

I'm quite taken with the simplicity and weight saving of a SS for this, but if, for example, I bought a single speed Tern / Dahon and found my fitness wasn't quite up to it, I presume it would be just a case of getting a geared hub if I wanted to add gears at a later date? The Terns seem to horizontal 'track' drop outs. I can't see an issue - just checking in case I've missed something?

Of course if you've done the conversion then I'd definitely be interested to hear how it went. Thanks.

 

[raleighnut]

You should be able to drop an SA hub straight in as they go down to a 120mm OLD (at least the old ones do)

 

[KneesUp]

Cheers - I think the 120mm might put me off a bit - I''d like the option to add a cassette at some point if I find that I love the bike - I could, for example, skip the train on the way home and get a nice 30 miles in - or use it as my 'take on holiday' bike for going out exploring places, and for both of those I'd want a decent range of gears because a) my knees are shot and b) I don't fancy standing up on a folder. I'll narrow my search to the ones that already have a cassette as I assume they will be 135mm OLD.

 

[raleighnut]

Cheers - I think the 120mm might put me off a bit - I''d like the option to add a cassette at some point if I find that I love the bike - I could, for example, skip the train on the way home and get a nice 30 miles in - or use it as my 'take on holiday' bike for going out exploring places, and for both of those I'd want a decent range of gears because a) my knees are shot and b) I don't fancy standing up on a folder. I'll narrow my search to the ones that already have a cassette as I assume they will be 135mm OLD.

I don't know what the OLD on a Tern/Dahon is though you would have to measure one but it won't be any smaller than 120mm.

126mm will take up to a 6 speed freewheel hub, 130mm up to 10 speed freehub and 135mm is MTB territory. I'd be more worried about fitting a derailleur to 'track ends' though, the old steel dropout adaptors would work but look a bit messy.

 

[KneesUp]

Messy I can live with - not fitting is more of an issue! I know the single speed is 120mm because the spec was in a review I read, somewhere on the internets. I also know they do they with 135 spacing because there was a Tern with the SA hub that is 3 speed plus a cassette, which only comes as 135mm..