Hmmm, I want to make it clear I really wasn't being smug about cost. I think the two differences here *are* cost and folding convenience. But cost in a *negative* way. I own both expensive and not-expensive folding bikes. If the bike costs more I have more incentive to bring it in. And if the bike is more convenient to fold and manipulate while folded, and to cover, it's easier to bring it in.

I *can* say that the convenience factor has proven itself so valuable to me that I will think twice about buying another folding bike which is inconvenient enough that I'd typically lock it up outside. I view it as a really important feature of a folding bike.