I appreciate the responses, but WHY is it not recommended? or why do you not want to do that? Is it hard to tighten? Does it wear the parts out? There has to be a real reason and I just want to understand why.

For sure, a simple fold and toss in a trunk (not really tossing, but you get the point) is simple and I WILL keep my folder for jaunts nearby where I'm not carrying a load with me so I don't need to worry about a weight limit (as I'm not over at or over the weight limit) I just WILL be for a bike tour.

I'm talking about folding a bike maybe once a month tops, or once every few months (more likely) for when I want to go a bit farther from home for a bike ride needing to put on a train or in the trunk of a car ( live on the east coast, so train travel is a thing, but it's also rural with lots of rail trails everywhere too). I'm talking about taking it on Ragbrai, etc. (That will be a once in a lifetime thing I want to do - hopefully next year - And doing the Katy trail, etc.) I grew up in Iowa - doing RAGBRAI is definitely on my list of things to do. My husband is from Europe, I would like to do some riding there too. They are FULL of rail trails!

I have a used NWT already, but I fear I'll top it out when carrying gear (maybe I shouldn't worry about that? I'm NOT topping out upper weight limit now, but carrying gear, I will go over weigtht limit... but if I have a travoy attached to a rear rack? is that better/easier on the bike (I already own a Travoy with adaptor for a rear rack hitch).

I just don't want to be in the middle of nowhere when it breaks because of being overstressed.