Bike Friday New World Tourist, more

I have now ridden the NWT several hundred miles, and I have enjoyed it. Despite the whippiness of the handlebars, it is really fun to ride. Very comfortable (perfectly set up for my preferred riding position), it rides like a road bike, albeit a very lively one. It tracks nicely, no problem at high speeds. (I've gotten it up to 37 mph with nary a shimmy, even with a handlebar bag.) The gearing (triple front, 8 sp. rear) is good, erring, if anything, on the easy side, which is OK. The easy gear is absurdly easy. Fine. The hardest gear won't allow me to pedal at 30 mph, but so what? What's my hurry?

The 1.5", 100 psi tires roll nicely, and are well suited both to road riding and bike path riding.

Folding and transport are as easy as advertised. During our Arizona trip, there was no problem checking it as luggage in its suitcase, although the suitcase developed a crack in one corner. (I have patched it with epoxy, but I suspect I'll need to reinforce it with glass cloth/epoxy.) Each day, I rode 20 miles before breakfast then did a quick fold and popped the bike in the trunk of the rental car for the day.

Only two comments during my week of riding: From a newspaper seller on a corner in Tucson: "Doesn't it roll slower with the small wheels?" And from three teenagers in Tucson as I rode by: "What the fuck?"

Other details:
Drop bars (quite wide, split at the stem to allow for disassembly when transporting), bar-end shifters, Shimano Deore hubs, Nashbar fat bear trap pedals (really nice--wide platform, grippy, cheap; not stylish, but very nice to ride), Tektro linear-pull brakes with interrupter levers in addition to the normal levers (all Tektro). Brooks B.17 saddle, but with a memory foam cover (more about that later, in case anyone is interested in my butt boils, and who wouldn't be?)