You keep repeating this and that about touring, your need for 2x, 50/11* & RD ground clearance, about a mythical future tour in Asia where you'll buy a 349 trifold. Have you actually done any in, say, the last three years? What actual experience do you have with "flight light touring"? Sorry, DG, I'll believe it when I see it, part and parcel of the idle chatter here. Don't tell us; show us. But first things first, before acquiring the 349 trifold, have you acquired the portable CPAP machine yet? There's a Walter Mitty aroma to all of this.


* On a recent tour, I hardly ever shifted into 47/11 on 406 wheels, not because I am out of shape or obese, I am not. I didn't simply because these flat bar folding bikes simply don't provide a good tuck position so on that gear you end up fighting a lot of wind resistance, a fool's errand on tour. It's a tour, not a race; you don't blow your load fighting the wind unnecessarily. I very much doubt you, given your acknowledged overweight and physical condition, need 50/11. Sorry. As inspector Callahan famously remarked, "a man has got to know his limitations".