Hey All,

I am very close to buying a xootr swift, but then I discovered this forum and am starting to have cold feet.

One person on this forum said the following:

"The Swift, as dozens of fellow swifters here have told, is a flying dream on hard surface. But if you just happen to pass gravel or other even slightly rough terrain, it's a nightmare on the Elm Street. After couple of hundred meters your hands don't have feel any more, your back feels like being harleying a whole weekend and you just have to make a break."

I also noticed many complaints about the folding mechanism. Is in really hard to open/close the seat post quick release? I heard it caused one member's hands to bleed!

Xootr has promised to fit my xootr with a big apple tire in the front and back - but after reading these posts I'm concerned that even my rollerblades would ride better on the streets of Berkeley than the xootr swift.

Does anyone have comments on how the xootr handle's moderately rough roads with big apple tires? Is it a huge difference from a normal, non-folding bike without suspension? I'd hate to waste close 1k on a bike I can't use!

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I might hold of my purchase until I hear some more info on the ride since there is no place I can test drive the bike.