Brompton: There's more to life than FTP and 53x11...

[Ray]

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

The internal 3-speed hub has wide jumps to the ratio changes, the 2-speed d�railleur a much smaller jump. So to run up or down with the smallest jumps in gear ratio will always require a double shift.

I think of my Brompton 6-speed as my modern half-step bike.

On windy rides where I need all six gears, every shift is a double shift.

-Ray

[weaponsgrade]

I have the three-speed internal with the reduced gearing option. It's been fine for my maybe 8 mile commute that includes flats and a few hills (6% grade). That said, my recommendation, based on your roads, is to get either the single, double, or six speed. The three-speed hub is a heavy and expensive upgrade. The six-speed is achieved by having two cogs on a three-speed hub and a derailleur. So, if you're going with the three-speed, you've already accepted the big weight and cost and going to the six-speed isn't that much more.

[OtayBW]

Tried a couple of Bromptons today with a couple of impressions, FWIW:

-- As expected, really nice engineering and foldable design - really well done.

-- For my purposes, I could easily be very happy with either a fixed, 2, or 3 speed; 6 is just more than I need for what I plan to do with it.

-- Seemed like this thing had a lot of wheel flop, in that (at least at low speed) it oversteered quite a lot - e.g., small steering effort would cause this thing to fall right into a turn requiring a kind of twitchy correction. I don't know what the trail is on these things, but it sure seemed like a lot. I don't know - you look at it and it looks like it has almost no trail....I could get used to it, but it was a bit of a surprise.

Still for a short commute, it could be the way to go.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by NHAero

The regular Bike Fridays are travel bikes rather than folders (have owned two). I'd like to hear a comparison of BF's folder, the Tikit, vs. the Brompton. The Tikit is a Rob English design, looks like a very fast fold but haven't seen in person.

I guess that bikefriday still has a short video showing how to fold a tikit. I saw one in person and it's easy/fast.

My bf has 3 speed Sachs hub and 7 cog cassette for the widest overall range of any of my bikes. I like having gears for all occasions but I think I could be pretty happy with 7-9 cogs without the triple hub on most rides.

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

-- Seemed like this thing had a lot of wheel flop, in that (at least at low speed) it oversteered quite a lot - e.g., small steering effort would cause this thing to fall right into a turn requiring a kind of twitchy correction. I don't know what the trail is on these things, but it sure seemed like a lot. I don't know - you look at it and it looks like it has almost no trail....I could get used to it, but it was a bit of a surprise.

Yes, Brompton steering is very fast although calling it twitchy is more a quality of how the rider steers the bike then something about the front end geometry. Nice light touch is all you need. I don't think it is possible to ride a Brompton no-hands-on-the-bars. This quick steering is perfect for weaving through, between and alongside city traffic and street obstacles.

Normal road bike steering feels comically slow after time on a Brompton. Those first 5 minutes are always a hoot - from steering an F1 car to steering the Nimitz.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

Tried a couple of Bromptons today with a couple of impressions, FWIW:

-- As expected, really nice engineering and foldable design - really well done.

-- For my purposes, I could easily be very happy with either a fixed, 2, or 3 speed; 6 is just more than I need for what I plan to do with it.

-- Seemed like this thing had a lot of wheel flop, in that (at least at low speed) it oversteered quite a lot - e.g., small steering effort would cause this thing to fall right into a turn requiring a kind of twitchy correction. I don't know what the trail is on these things, but it sure seemed like a lot. I don't know - you look at it and it looks like it has almost no trail....I could get used to it, but it was a bit of a surprise.

Still for a short commute, it could be the way to go.

You get used to the steering...plus it rides much better with a bag up front and a little weight. Even a Krypto chain lock and the D-Bag helps.

[tumbler]

You definitely get used to it. It felt funny for all of 5 minutes and then my mind/body adapted and everything was fine. It's actually nice at low speed and in traffic jams. I frequently slip between stopped cars on my commute so I can maneuver around traffic jams or ride on whichever side of the street has more room. The ability to make swift turns in tight spaces is pretty nice for a city commute.

[fuzzalow]

Updated picture of my reworked Brompton. The bulk of the work was to change the fit & position in the bike as much as was attainable given the constraints intrinsic to the demands of a folding bicycle. The riding position isn't perfect but it is all that could be done with what was available.



There must be something novel or cool about how people see this bike. There is almost not a day when somebody on a bike, a pedestrian at a crosswalk, even a food delivery guy on an e-bike, doesn't have something positive to say about this bike! They want to know what it costs (I always lie) and where something like this comes from (I always tell them it is British and made outside of London). Stupendous!

People are receptive to bikes and the people that ride them more than one might guess. Riding a Brompton appears to make me one of them as opposed to me being one of the roadie-them, when I am when I'm not me being me on a Brompton.

[OtayBW]

^Either those are tiny garage door panels, or you've got a saddle setback on the order of, what...6+ in? How did the ride change? What did you achieve?

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

^Either those are tiny garage door panels, or you've got a saddle setback on the order of, what...6+ in? How did the ride change? What did you achieve?

Oh yeah, whole lotta setback. 175mm saddle setback from the BB. This is just a number and should not be accorded any significance other than it is a number that is used with other numbers to indicate something. All this setback number means is that there was rotation of the rider geometry aft-wards around the bottombracket.

The effect in doing this modification is to achieve a much greater closing of the hip angle in riding this bike over the "sit up n' beg" posture of an upright bicycle position. Sure, I could adapt to a new pedal stroke just for the Brompton but I didn't want to make that compromise. I wanted the comfort, balance, power and souplesse in riding a Brompton in a similar EuroPro fashion as I would ride a Eriksen, Pegoretti or any sporting bicycle.

As far as the change to the ride, Brompton rides likes its own animal anyway based on the quickness of its steering geometry and wheel size. It rides just fine. Even from a static weight basis, all the rider weight is still forwards from the rear axle. And in riding, most of the weight is down through the pedal cranks and bottombracket - it takes a fair amount of wattage to keep a Brompton moving!

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

...

The effect in doing this modification is to achieve a much greater closing of the hip angle in riding this bike over the "sit up n' beg" posture of an upright bicycle position. Sure, I could adapt to a new pedal stroke just for the Brompton but I didn't want to make that compromise. I wanted the comfort, balance, power and souplesse in riding a Brompton in a similar EuroPro fashion as I would ride a Eriksen, Pegoretti or any sporting bicycle.

As far as the change to the ride, Brompton rides likes its own animal anyway based on the quickness of its steering geometry and wheel size. It rides just fine. Even from a static weight basis, all the rider weight is still forwards from the rear axle. And in riding, most of the weight is down through the pedal cranks and bottombracket - it takes a fair amount of wattage to keep a Brompton moving!

As twitchy as I've found the Bromptons to be with almost no trail (admittedly, it's just not my cup of tea...), I can see your point in wanting to move to the aft and to unweight the front end. Whether or not your retrofit can approach the comfort, balance, power - and yes - suppleness of an Eriksen or Pegoretti, however, is pretty much a huge stretch (no pun intended...) for me. Good luck with it if it works for you, though.

[fuzzalow]

Thanks. There is no way I'd ever attempt to ride a Brompton no-hands. In an early bonehead move, I face-planted myself on this thing at 5mph folding the front wheel over - flop - crash - ouch! Literally taking one on the chin! Duh!

It rides as close to Euro-Pro as I could get it. I get a nice light touch on the bars, it tracks stable, straight and true. It rides OK. Several months now and it's all good.

[fuzzalow]

Updated for what is a finished Brompton. Almost two years duking it out through midtown gridlock with this contraption and still livin' to talk about it.

My frugalness had insisted on reusing an old NiteRider Digital from the ancient past. A homemade battery pack of 13 nickel-manganese C-cells fueled the NiteRider LED rear flasher and, when the halogen (HALOGEN!) front light was turned on, about 2 hours of run time! Just enough juice to get me far enough away from home after dark to get me lots of time to get killed with no lights on while riding all the way back home!

So the Brompton has been upgraded for modern LED lighting from Dinotte. XML-2 headlight and the Daytime Red Taillight. Anything to skew to odds towards greater visibility and survivability in Manhattan traffic. Although I don't consider Manhattan the riskiest of traffic to ride in because the traffic density rarely gives a driver enough time to text or use a smart phone. Cabbies cutting/short stopping for fares is something else.



Also installed a Sugino single chainring crankset to allow me to spin 175 crankarms. This is as close as I'm gonna get to making a Brompton ride EuroPro like my roadbike.

[velofinds]

OP, were you doing CP laps this morning?

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by velofinds

OP, were you doing CP laps this morning?

On some mornings, yes. On this particular Monday morning, no. Um, what bike was I riding?