Thank you for your input on the bike Tomato B.
I'm going to get a new folding bike with my jury duty money.
either the Kent Compact 16 from Bikes4families or a Pegasus folding from a local place in Chinatown.
I hope the Chinatown place has them for under $200, last year they had some generic 3 spd ones with the rear band brakes for $135. this year they have an entire new lineup of folding bikes, mostly 6 spds, not 7 like yours.