I'm a mechanical engineer. Congratulations on your last year in college!

You picked a tough one dubstylee...bikes have a loooong history of optimization!

I did work for a while on redsigning the cranks based on shear center. As you recall, this is where you can load a non-symmetrical beam off axis, but incurr only bending stresses, and no torsion. This is perfect for the loading of a crank.

But in the end, you have a crash or something, and all your optimization goes out the window.

I kind of have to laugh at some fo the "aero" components too. Compared to my fat @$$, there's not much I can do to get any aero advantage by changing components!

Except for very specialized applications, you have to design the bike so it will stand up to all stresses it could possibly see. That includes touring loads, off-road shock loads, crashes, vibration, you get the picture.

For example, in my work, I have to design valves that may see very high shock loads (read: explosions). The shock requirements drive the whole design. If it will not fail in shock, then I'm not too concerned about pressure, fatigue, etc.

I do enjoy my folding bike, but I'm actually beyond the upper recommended weight limit. How about a smaller fold, and higher weight capacity?

Besides cycling, engineering design and stress analysis is my life. I've been doing it for about 26 years now. If you have any questions, ask me and I'm sure it's something I have forgotten !

Seriously, feel free to PM me and I'll help if I can.