Craig, I am saving for a trail bike as we speak(!).

craig I thought you called them 'postie bikes' over there.

I already have one, and it's awesome. My wife and I took it out for 4th of july, when the whole city was a mosh-pit of traffic, road blocks, and crowds. We have a celebration here in provo called 'stadium of fire' which is put on by donnie and marie osmond, so it really is a big deal. We are a city of some 50,000 people, and we get a huge influx of population for the day of the 4th. To give you an idea, people actually camp out the night before along the parade route. There is not a square inch along the several mile route that is not reserved ahead of time. IT gets crowded and most of the city is damn near impassable.

As I said, my wife and I had no trouble navigating anywhere we wanted. Sometimes we'd have to ride up onto people's yards or cut through landscaping or back alleys between dumpsters and pallets to come out of a 3 foot gap between buildings. It was a lot of fun, we got around just fine. We even ran a few road blocks but the cops couldn't do anything about it, they yelled at us and tried to stop us but in the end I knew they were stuck at their post and overwhelmed keeping order anyways. We were never pursued. Anyways it would have been too easy to ditch them and they knew it.

top speed about 50 mph with two adults (a bit faster with just one person), fuel economy 100mpg or thereabouts. vehicle weighs about 170 pounds, so even tying it to the back of your car isn't entirely out of the question. Lifting it over an impassable obstacle is also not too difficult.

I have tried taking it down some railroad tracks as well. And I have a few observations to share. For one, you can't really navigate to the *side* of the tracks. The ballast slope is too steep and you'll find yourself constantly sliding out. You also can't rely on the empty area next to the ballast, in the dirt. You'd be amazed how much debris or impassable vegetation grows right up to the ballast, not to mention bridges. there is an amazing ammount of small gulleys and culverts that require small bridges that you never notice until you have to navigate them. You'll find yourself constantly getting off the bike and porting to the other side of any little obstacle. You might as well walk or jog, you'll get around faster. Pretty much the only place to ride the tracks, is between the two rails. And you will find many spots where the ballast fills between the ties nicely and you feel like you can speed up, like it's just a gravel road. And then you'll suddenly come to a spot where the ballast is several inches shy of level with the ties, and very quickly you will find yourself bucking wildly as you jump and bump and hump across the wooden ties, there is about a foot or more of space between each tie, so it's really really bumpy. I rode some tracks a couple months ago on the same bike and I was only able to make about a mile in five minutes and I'm a very profficient rider. You just can't get any speed on railways without losing control or getting your guts bucked right out of your rib cage.