Origami, Part 1: The Unveiling

At long last, it's new bike time.

Irregular readers may recall that way back in the winter of aught-nine, I had a minor pining episode over the Xootr Swift folding bike. Well, after much hem-and-haw, I have finally scratched that itch.

Before I actually start showing stuff and quasi-reviewing the bike, I should give the obligatory blogger disclaimer: Xootr paid me absolutely NOTHING to write this stuff. In fact, they have no idea (yet) that I'm writing it. As far as they're concerned, I'm just a dude in Iowa with a credit card who wanted a bike. I know, very Consumer Reports, right? I may solicit them once the review is underway, but as of this date, there's been no contact between The Cycle World Headquarters and Xootr Central beyond that of a regular old customer off the virtual street.

With that out of the way, let us begin... with a tiny box:

(helmet included for scale... and yes, I'm a fathead, but my head is not THAT fat) 

The UPS guy was kind of flummoxed by this. "That's a bike?" All I could think to say was, "I hope so!" By the way, my invoice shows that my order hit Xootr on 5/6, and this cute little box (which I'm saving for future shipping/travel) was in my garage six days later. Not bad a'tall.

And while we're at it, how about a quasi-Freudian "check out the size of my seatpost!" shot?

 (overcompensate much?) 

Here's the spy shot with our test subject still clad in its disguise so the bike-paparazzi can't get a look at what's under the hood:

Okay, kids, that's enough for today. Time for bed. Watch for future installments covering assembly, fit, and first impressions.