Test rode a Dahon...

Took the Speed D7 out for a real spin - 12 miles. Soon as I was out of the parking lot I lost the "it's smaller" sensation and really enjoyed how its teensy tinesy wheels squirted out from intersections. It cranked so nicely over the Kirby overpass and got the doubletakes from passersby. It was happy charging into the wind. It was enough like the position on the red bike - or perhasp it was just hte texture - that several times I automatically tried to twist the grip back onto the handlebars (they crawl off on the red bike).

Everything was peachy until I turned for the last three miles home. That sixth and seventh gear were just like the tippy top gears in the middle chain ring... making the same funky clatterings. There was also an extra vibration at maximum load.
I got back and asked "where's the *big* chain ring?" and we went to SHeldon Brown's website to discern gear inches and that, in fact, I had many fewer inches than the 7500 FX. We looked at bigger chain ring effects... and then I remembered that I wouldn't mind higher RPM if I had toe clips.
What it boils down to, though, is how much would a better bike be worth? OUt on the open road... I wanted POWer. I wouldn't have cared in town... welp, except what I didn't like at all was that the high gear didn't seem happy to be there. It seemed to help to twist the grip past the click point. Must email accordingly.
So. I like the bike lots and lots... and it could be a nice "fling" bike ... but maybe I want something a little more serious ;) I'm just not a 5-mile kinda girl...