I don't have a serious roadbike so I don't know your level of expectations, but my Boardwalk works fine for me. My girlfriend took it once to DC with me, and we did 15 miles around the city with no problems. I was on my mountain bike (~$500). I think the Boardwalk has better build quality. And it does fold/unfold in less than 15 seconds with little practice. Gearing (6spd) is a bit too low for cruising above 15mph, but adequate for city riding. I don't have experience with other folders, but dahon website,
www.dahon.com has very friendly and effective user forums and I felt pretty comfortable buying the Boardwalk without a test ride. Dahon has more expensive models which can be serious tourers. But you can't beat the Boardwalk for cost/performance ratio. I would love to test ride their higher end bike though, so see how much better they could be than the Boardwalk.
mt700a1