My Dahon Jack’s frame creaks – what’s a good city folding bike?

...Should I buy a Montague? -NYC-Rider at large
Does anyone own an LX or Paratrooper. Are they ready for the city? Dahons obviously aren't. My new bike shouldn't creek. It's unfair to big-city riders to have only 2 main classes of bike anyhow; mountain and road cuz cities are full of dirt, parks, inclines, curbs, traffic, glass, rocks, potholes, drops. rain sleet, snow, heat humidity and thievery. As well as small apartments, occupied by avid intermediate cyclists who love riding but hate dealing with the shortcomings of most bikes. My girl has one of those little Dahons that you always see women on, with a basket in front, with a Whole Foods bag in the basket. Nice on the paved roads of Mid-to-Lower Manhattan or from the subway station to the office but definitely not for detours through the glass-laden streets of the Stuy or the stop-and-go traffic jam that is Chinatown. What bike can serve a real city rider who doesn't wanna pretend New York's only bike paths are in the parks or marked with chalk? Will a Montague do?

1. I’m not in NYC, but my needs from a bike are similar, needing to switch from something that does well on pavement to a bike that can easily cut through the park. I didn’t go with a Dahon, carbike, or other low end folding bike because of the creaking and the extent to which I could get more for the money with a non-folding bike.

   I think the Montague would probably do what you want, but if you can get away with a full size bike you can much more easily get something that will transition easily from road to dirt. While the Montague would do better than what you have now creaking less and handling parks better- it still would lag far behind a similar priced non-folding bike. Since the Montague doesn’t fold all that small it certainly didn’t seem worth it to me.

   There are other options that fold small and don’t seem to creek but they are much more expensive (and I can’t guarantee they don’t creek for a guy as big as I am- I’ve just talked to owners, a friend had a nice Moulton he liked but he only weighs 140 pounds) and I can’t personally see spending 5 grand and up for a folding commuter bike.

   One bike I’ve never seen in person but wanted to try (I never put enough effort into doing so since I decided on just getting a new nonfolding bike) is the swift folder- they seem to fold in a way that wouldn’t creek too much and they fold down part way fairly quickly (though to fold all the way it looks like they take longer than average) But- they’re made in Brooklyn and designed for NYC- so they may be just what you’re looking for. http://www.swiftfolder.com/index.html A number of NYC shops carry them so you could check it out pretty easily to see if you think it would work for you. It looks like a good option- though I still feel the ideal would be to spend less money on a nonfolding bike.