Today was cold (22 degrees at 7AM, rising to about 44 by 2PM) but
clear and sunny, and the latest 2" snowfall is finally off all the
roads, sidewalks and bike paths. That made it a good day to test
folding my GT3 into the back seat of my Prius, and taking it someplace
other than my local bike path.

I ended up at Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village, IL, which has a
popular 7 mile paved rec path through woods and alongside lakes.
Today's task was to explore all the side trails on the GT3. Doing so,
upped the distance to 17.3, and the total time to an hour and 20
minutes, including a short stop while I carried the bike around a tree
that had fallen and blocked the path. Heart rate same as two weeks ago.

Today's ride answered a question for me - namely, am I fast enough on
the GT3 to keep up with the advanced group of the local bike club,
which rides 14-16 MPH, on rides up to about 38 miles. The answer is
"probably." Including the tree stop, I did 13.35 miles in the first
hour, which included some ups and downs (we don't have what the rest
of the world calls hills around here.) I still felt fine after the
ride, except that my toes were starting to get cold with only wool
socks protecting them in their open weave cycling shoes.

Peak speed reached today was 22.9MPH, which felt fine except that one
time it happened I had to thread through a space not much wider than
the bike. I might take that one a bit slower next time.

Packing it into the Prius was harder now with the fenders mounted than
it was without them. Next time I might also try removing those and the
front wheels to make the package smaller, especially once we have two
trikes to transport. We'll also be needing to cover the car seat to
keep it clean.

One strange behavior I'm noticing is that every once in a while I'll
hear a strange noise from the rear as though the chain isn't feeding
correctly. Pedaling backwards for a moment always fixes it
immediately, and it seems to be correlated with going over a high spot
or a bump, but I haven't really figured out the cause yet.

Last note: for anyone interested, there's now a new red GT3 in stock
at Village CycleSports in Arlington Heights, if anyone else in the
Chicago area would like a folding trike. (http://villagecyclesport.com/)