Advantages of a folding bike

Putting the Bike Friday New World Tourist in the back of Gladys' car was surprisingly easy--the only easy thing about this bike so far.

I was rescued from disaster yesterday by Matt, the amazing mechanic at dialAbike. He took me in at 3:30 on a busy afternoon, and stayed overtime to make sure my bike would hold up for my tour. He did a great job, but desite replacing the derailleur, straightening the rings, and rerouting the gear wire so it no longer pulled the derailleur sideways, the chain still rattles against the derailleur in the highest and lowest front gears. Bent chainrings, broken front derailleur, cheap, crappy, mismatched gearing and the substandard wheel tape the guy who installed my dynamo found--none of that belongs on an 185O dollar bike. It was so bad the last mechanic offered to write Bike Friday a letter. I gratefully took him up on it. But it's taken case of, at least provisionally, and I am excited about getting on the road!