Tern is a privately held company that designs, manufactures, markets, and sells bicycles for everyday use. The company is based in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and has offices in the US, China, Finland, and the UK. The company's primary products include

folding bicycle A folding bicycle is a bicycle designed to fold into a compact form, facilitating transport and storage. When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings, on public transportation (facilitating mixed-mode commuting and bicycl ...

electric bicycle An electric bicycle (e-bike, eBike, etc.) is a motorized bicycle with an integrated electric motor used to assist propulsion. Many kinds of e-bikes are available worldwide, but they generally fall into two broad categories: bikes that assis ...

s, and cycling accessories which are currently sold in 65 countries.

History

Tern was founded by Florence Shen and Joshua Hon, wife and son of David T. Hon, founder of the established

Dahon Dahon is the world's largest manufacturer of folding bicycles with a two-thirds marketshare in 2006. The company was founded in 1982 by David T. Hon, a former laser physicist, and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with assembly facto ...

brand of folding bicycles. Initially the company was the subject of litigation between Dahon and the founders, but a settlement was reached in 2013. The

Arctic tern The Arctic tern (''Sterna paradisaea'') is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south a ...

was the inspiration for the company name, due to the fact that it travels the longest distance of all migratory animals and is light and small, qualities the company attributes to its bicycles. The company's

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

favicon A favicon (; short for favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons, associated with a particular website or web page. A web designer can create s ...

is of an origami tern taking flight.

Products

Tern currently has ten bike lines: GSD, HSD, Quick Haul, NBD, Vektron, Short Haul, BYB, Verge, Link, Eclipse, Node, and Roji. Each bike line offers different models with different specifications. Tern also has an accessory lineup, which includes its sister brand BioLogic. In August 2014, Tern announced its first electric bike, the ''eLink''. The ''eLink'' weighs and folds in under 10 seconds. It is equipped with mudguards, rack, chainguard, lights, and features a Shimano Nexus 8 internal hub and Schwalbe Big Apple tyres. Tern partnered with

cargo bike A cargo bike (also known as a box bike, carrier cycle, freight bicycle, cycletruck, or freight tricycle) is a human powered vehicle designed and constructed specifically for transporting loads. Cargo bike designs include a cargo area consisting o ...

specialist Xtracycles to create the Cargo Node, a folding cargo bike that uses the Tern Node bicycle and Xtracycles' rear cargo extension attachment. The companies announced the product via a Kickstarter campaign on September 17, 2015, and raised US$153,638 to help fund the project.

Dahon lawsuit

From 2011, Tern was the subject of litigation between Dahon North America Inc. and Joshua and Florence Hon. Specifically, the lawsuit charged that Joshua Hon and Florence Hon breached their fiduciary duties as officers of Dahon to start the competing companies Mobility Holdings and Tern. On April 2, 2013, industry media reported that Dahon unilaterally declared its legal disputes with Tern were settled.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Taiwanese companies established in 2011 Cycle manufacturers of Taiwan Manufacturing companies based in Taipei Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2011 Electric bicycles