Stolen bike. (long)

[farrellcollie]

I use a twenty inch folder (we have both a dahon speed8 and a downtube Viii) to commute 5 miles to the city campus where I teach. It is no problem at all to use on the horrible city streets of st. louis. I have used the folders on rides as far as twenty plus miles without incident. Check out both the full sized folders (the jack for example) and the twenty inch - the smaller fold may work better for carrying in to class. I take mine into my office and have had to carry it up stairs a few times when the elevator was out - I was very happy to have the smaller bike then. There is a student who also has a 20 inch folder that is left in the bike racks outside the building I am in. He has no trouble using it as the urban commute bike either (we talked about it one day as we met riding in).
Folding the bike is not a big deal - it takes about thirty seconds once you get used to it - but to carry it into a class - you might need a bag - they do get dirty, chain rubs on you etc. and they can be awkward to carry. I find that folding the bike takes me less time than when I try to chain it some place with my onguard mini thing. Locking it takes me forever. I probably have more practice in folding than I do in locking it to a rack. I really like mine and am glad I have them. There is an entire folding bike forum at bikeforums.net if you want more info on them.
Having a bike stolen really sucks.