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Why get a folding bike and ride to the station? Take it easy and you don't sweat, I assume our vaguely in condition. You can then fold up your bike and get on your bus, get off the other end and ride to work.

Even better on your way home you could ride all of the way.....

http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/

Bikes sold with no pedals is quite common in the UK. It allows the bike shop to claim they didn't sell a complete bike and they don't have to comply with some laws. They also get to charge you for pedals as an extra.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=40 72

My last bike purchase arrived with standard Shimano SPDs which wasn't very useful because it's a folding bike and needs a folding pedal.

http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/

Have you looked at folding bikes by Dahon or in the UK Brompton?

Any motorcycle small and light enough to fold into a backpack would be pretty underpowered and slow. Why not a folding bicycle?

I've always wanted a vehicle I could put in a backpack and stow on the bus when travelling.

Try this: Brompton bicycle. Admitedly, it makes for a large backpack (one exists for it though) but I hardly ever need it. And it's lighter and faster than those stupid 1- or 2-wheel contraption, by virtue of you being the power source.

Or, if you feel like looking like an idiot and riding something somewhat unstable, you can try this: this thing is truly small, yet ridable.

There's a guy in Surbiton who has one. I've seen him buzzing about on it a couple of times and it looks really neat! It they were a bunch cheaper I could see myself getting one!

Mind you, a mate purchased one of those Brompton Folding Bicycles a while back (train cancelations at Waterloo, so he got the bike and cycled home!) and it's excellent! Probably a better bet than the Segway, and already a bunch cheaper too!

I use a Brompton folding bike http://bromptonbicycle.co.uk/ and don't use a lock. You don't need a lock when the bike can fit under your office chair. The bike comes with me wherever I go, e.g. underneath the shopping cart as I go grocery shopping, etc. I keep it in the trunk of my (compact) car --in fact, it folds small enough that I can fit my wife's Brompton as well as mine in the trunk-- and if I need to go somewhere were parking is a problem, I can park a few blocks away and zip to my destination on the bike.

Here's a (coralized) link to my web site showing the bike as it unfolds:
http://dreaming.org.nyud.net:8090/~kwtam/folding/b ike/
(as usual, Slashdot has inserted a space into the text...)

I use a Brompton folding bike and don't use a lock. It comes with me wherever I go. You don't need a lock when the bike is collapsible into a volume that fits under your office chair. (I'd post a link to my web page showing the photos as it folds, but my web hoster would strangle me for slashdotting their site.)

In a never ending qwest to be the second geekiest guy in the world after the Tron guy, I use and love my Brompton bike. Its expensive, but it folds up for carrying -- an elegant engineering feat.

What we bike riders really need is:

1) Tires that don't go flat!

Get $10 tyre-liners like Mr Tuffy's. Ever since I started using them a year and a half ago (and only in my rear tyre, to boot!), I've had zero punctures despite commuting five times a week through streets littered with broken beer bottles.

And in the rare event that you do get a flat, use a CO2 inflator to cut out the most frustrating part of on-road flat repair: pumping.

2) Something to keep the rain and road dirt from putting a big skunk stripe up our backs when riding in wet climates. There are fenders, but they don't work well.

Maybe you're using the cheapo snap-on plastic types. Get the real thing and they eliminate every drop of spray. They don't look so conspicuous either if you get them in black (unless you have fancy candy-coloured tyres).

3) The ability to fold the frame so that it can fit in the back of a small car or on the bus.

Plenty of options available for you here. Probably the best and most popular are the Brompton and the Bike Friday. And if you're really hardcore (but obviously you're not), check out S&S frame couplings.

4) Brakes that work in the rain.

Pssst. I'll let you in on a secret. Use the front brake, it's really not that dangerous.

5) Tires that don't go flat. So important, I'm saying it twice.

Well, I wouldn't recommend solid tyres but hey, if you really want them, it's a free country.

We don't need auto transmissions, $150 helmets, $1500 frames that weigh next to nothing, and stupid yuppie mommies who want to pass stupid yuppie mommie laws to protect us for our own good.

Agreed on all those points.

In fact, I HATE bicycle helmets. "But," the yuppies tell me, "you NEED a helmet for safety! It should be illegal to ride without one."

Well I'll agree that it should be your choice whether or not to wear a helment, but still it's pretty stupid not to wear one. It's your head -- don't go suing somone for not having told you about the risks when you go crack your skull on the pavement.

The same people who say this think nothing about strapping two skinny long little boards to their feet and flying down an snow-covered mountain at 50 MPH with nothing on their heads but designer sunglasses!

Umm...I guess you haven't been on a ski slope recently, because the biggest trend these days is for everyone to be wearing helments. In fact, it's almost a fashion statement now regardless of which demographic you fit into -- they're all going for the freeride / x-ski look. But hey, as a ski patroller, I'm all for it if it saves lives and minimises injuries.

You want a

Brompton Bicycle (Bromptonbicycle.co.uk).

Ride to station, fold it up, ride to work, stash it under your desk. Sorted.