Long time lurker turned poster here. Just wanted to share my experience and perhaps get some advice.

About 6 months ago I bought a Dawes Lightening Sport. Not the greatest reputation, I know, but it was cheap and new, got me around town, and damn it was pretty. My first road bike, and a suitable replacement for my old Wal-Mart Schwinn. It was slowly starting to coax me away from my sedentary lifestyle and enjoy riding for the first time in ages. I had it decked out. Frame bag under the seats, LED head- and taillights, cyclometer, nifty water bottle cage, the works. All entry-level equipment, mind you, but it was mine. It was what made my bike unique.

Flash forward to yesterday morning. My boyfriend works on-campus at the college we go to. We wake up and he is almost late to work. I agree to take him (because parking is a nightmare) and we leave at 9:55. He forgot his cigarettes, so I dropped him off and planned on running upstairs to our apartment, grabbing his smokes and biking back to campus to deliver the goods. I pull into the parking lot, look up to our apartment, and there is a gaping hole where my precious bike had been only 45 minutes earlier. Just gone. I assumed that since I lived on the second floor and had the bike in front of my living room window secured to the balcony with a cable lock I would be fine. I was wrong.

It's a strange feeling. I am not experienced enough to consider myself a true "biker". I don't even own a pair of cycling shorts. And I'm not my usual firey self spitting and howling like a crazed cat out of anger. No, I just feel resigned to the fact that it is gone. My bike is gone. And it just makes me feel sort of hollow. Even now, my helmet and air pump are sitting in a lonely corner of my living room mocking me. The head unit of my cyclometer sitting uselessly on top of my training log, never to be reunited with the mount still attached to MY bike.

Sure, I filed a police report within the hour. Checked the local pawn shops and LBS's. But I don't really have much hope that it will be returned to me. I'm going to give it two weeks. If it's not back by then, I'll just consider it $350 down the drain and start fresh. I've even started looking at new bikes, because I don't want to be out of the saddle for too long.

I've pretty much decided on a Trek 7.2FX WSD. But a part of my is too afraid to leave it on a rack on campus while I'm in class. Which is why I'm also considering a folding bike like the Dahon Jack. Something relatively rugged that I can just fold up and lug around to class with me, thus eliminating the post-theft paranoia.

It is a 7 mile round trip from my apartment to the college, with a few patches of really rough asphalt (almost feels like riding on cobblestone) and one absolute monster of a hill that I still can't tackle without walking a bit. Has anyone ridden a folding bike under these conditions? I would also like to eventually increase my mileage and I don't know if a folding bike would be willing to grow with me.

...is it too soon?