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Second verse, same as the first: 1. Go for a walk twice a week. 2. Salad lunch three times a week. 3. Finish one of my cross-stitch projects. 4. Work out twice a week; ride my bike once a week. For those of you who followed along last challenge, you may notice that *nothing changed at all*. After the trip (which was awesome!) I'm feeling a need to re-establish these patterns after a successful challenge last month. I have so many things I'd like to add (Writing! Decluttering! Going to a PT to see about my knee! Fitness classes!) but I've been down that path before...and down that path lies burned-out traaki. If this is going swimmingly, then maybe I'll add in another goal. But for now--this is it.

Maybe not the typical type of gear for most people, but I really want to get one... Anyone have some tips? Ideally I want a good quality bike (worth what I"m paying) that folds up fast (don't live in a nice neighborhood!), has multiple gears (there are a few hills around here), and that will be comfortable for bike rides around the city - probably maxing out at 6 miles one way in most cases but on rare occasions doing as many as 10. What I don't need is a mountain/nature bike - will probably stick to streets and sidewalks, something designed for longer regular riding capabilities or cross-country mobility (do they make folding bikes like that?) or professional grade, or whatever. All of that stuff is awesome, sure, but it's also going to ramp up the price. I'm hoping to spend about $500, max, although I could be talked into $700 (and waiting a couple months to do that) if the argument was good enough. While I haven't done all the research - only about 10 hours so far over a couple of months - I've looked into Bromptons (lowest price I saw at the local bike store was about $1,300, eep), Dahon (am looking at the D7 as a contender), Bike Friday (also starts at over $1000), Greenzone (can't find much info on them), Citizen Bikes (was almost convinced on minimal info to get a Gotham, but then started finding negative/not-good-enough reviews) and a couple others. In looking at Craigslist today I just found out about Terns (there's a Link C7 available for $300, although I'm wary of buying used bikes with such a high stolen bike crime culture here - have had 2 bikes stolen myself already!). Anyone know of other brands/models I should take a serious look at? The hardest part is that I'll probably end up buying the bike sight unseen and untried, as I've been to a few different bike stores in the area and only one keeps folding bikes in stock (and only Brompton, at that). I'm in the US, specifically in DC, if that helps! 5'8", 175lbs ... bummer, too, because I had a Bike Friday folding bike offer that was just too big for me (minimum recommended size of 5'11")!