I have been riding the bike all summer and I am a Happy Camper. It does what I need for an urban utility bike.

I have the same shifting issue as the previous review (4:5 or 5:6), but aside from that (and I expect to cure that this fall when the bike gets a tune up), I have had not issues – and at 215#, I am a big bear for this bike.

It’s fun to ride. It’s really handy. No bike racks! I fold it up and stick it in my van in lieu of one tote. When van camping, it sits behind the front seat at night. It has fit in well to our style of operations and really opened up the country. I can now explore my surroundings at 5-10 mph vs. on foot. Love it.

On the boat, it rides athwartship in the forecastle foyer and lets me get around the ports to explore, exercise and get the groceries.

I could have even used it on the job last year. We kept having to go to remote subpanels (1000′ away) to turn power off and on as we worked. Unfold bike, pedal off and do it. One of the crew had a skate board, so he got that job.

The major drawback is that with 7 gears, it does not climb steep hills. The NorthWet has steep hills. Thus, I am researching 26″ folding mountain bikes (wanted: Jeep that folds) for next season. Front suspension, 21 gears, 3′x3′x1′ footprint.

For this, I am looking at the Dahon Matrix and Montague Paratrooper.

I think the Systems folks have always thought I was a GUI guy, and the GUI folks that I was a Systems guy

I’ve tried to take advantage of that to get useful things done once in a while.

While he isn’t an individual contributor anymore, I’d say Steve Klinkner, now a Director of Engineering at Zynga, is one of the best examples of someone being a solid engineer as well as a someone who has built good GUIs. NetApp was so engineering dr…