Thanks Jerry that's something I've been pondering over, suspension, having never ridden 20" before and heard that you feel the road/potholes more etc..that's why I mentioned the Downtube full suspension bike appealling to me and being so affordable at $500..just a shame about the high shipping and lack of UK distributors...
I guess there is a trade off as you say, how portable you want the bike to be, versus riding comfort. I've seen people say that fitting the big apple tyres can compensate somewhat for lack of suspension.. For me, I'd like to try and find some balance.. Ideally I'd like a bike that's light and easy to carry up stairs and maybe take onto a train once in a while..but comfort is important too..whether a comfortable padded & sprung saddle and big apple tyres will be enough, I don't know.. my 26" bike feels fine without suspension with my decent gel padded sprung saddle, even with thin road tyres.
There are some good deals on eBay for the Jetstream and that is most definitely where I'd buy one (not from new, waay too expensive). I'm a bit nervous about buying second-hand still though, even at those prices, it's a hefty price for a bike I haven't even seen!
My MTB originally had a jarring ride. It was worse than I remembered my old steel road bikes to be and it has suspension forks. I put it down to the aluminium frame. The 8fun 20" bike has a lovely ride quality. very comfortable to ride and it also has an aluminium frame. It has however got a fat sprung saddle and steel forks.
I cured the MTB with a suntour parallelogram seat post and brooks flyer saddle. Now it also has a really nice ride quality. It took some time for my posterior to become inprinted eith the brooks shape but now its great! the parallelogram bit is important because I originally had a poste moderne bracer seat post, but on long rides my knees would become sore due to the distance altering beween seat and pedal. to be fair I think that a b17 saddle would be lighter and the flyer springs are so thick they dont do anything!
Here is some of my wiseacring about which bike to get.
Brompton: Problem would be that the 16" front wheels you get from BMS battery would not be the right one. It hadn't occured to me that there were different siizes for 16" wheels. Wont discount. (That is you cant buy it cheap not that I still want one!)
Mezzo. Forget to unfold it properly and front wheel drops out while riding.
Dahon Mu XL sports 2009 (£500 was £900) on line. Rear hub gears and front forks are aluminium. Dont trust front motors in aluminium forks.
Jango T8 (£480 on line with free accessories was £800) badly executed suspension. pedal bob. Like the quick fold however and the bms battery rear 16" should fit.
Dahon Jetstream. Couldn't find one discounted enough.
The reason I went for the tern d8 was because it was the cheapest model with the N fold technology frame. This allegedly gives the similar rigidity as a normal frame. Plus it has steel front forks so a front hub motor could be fitted. (I will be fitting a rear hub however.) I like 8 gears as well because the nine and ten speeds have thinner chains. Dont you hate marketing?
Someones going to say its ok to fit front hubs to aluminium forks. All swans are white!