Let's have a look at the Brompton B75 again. Brompton makes a
range of compact folding bicycles; the B75 is their budget model, although
it's still not cheap. As of early 2021 the price has risen to £795, but
Brompton's website has been out of stock since June, so I have no idea if it
actually remains on sale or not.
Brompton achieved the B75's low price by using older components and cutting
out some of the standard accessories. There are no mudguards, for example, and
the pedals are fixed instead of folding, but on the positive side the bike is
£400 cheaper than the next-cheapest Brompton. £400 will buy a lot of
accessories.
In September I took it to Lucca in Italy, with a combination of Easyjet
and a pair of Ikea Dimpa bags. Plus a yoga mat and some padding. 2020 will
not go down in history as a swell year, but at least I got to cycle around
Lucca's battlements on a Brompton, so there is that.
On a personal level I don't have a problem with the lack of mudguards; I'm a
fair weather cyclist, and I don't like the thought of subjecting my B75 to
rain and mud. Brompton sells the mudguard and the mounting poles separately; a
rear mudguard set totals around £40 or so.
Bromptons aren't widespread enough to have come to the attention of the
Chinese clone market, but on the other hand if the market was flooded with
Chinese clones there probably won't be a Brompton any more, so perhaps that's
a good thing.
Folding pedals aren't essential. The right pedal is mostly enveloped by the
frame when the bike is folded up. I find that the left pedal digs into my leg
if I try to carry the bike in its folded state, but it's more an irritant than
a deal-breaker. Brompton's official folding left pedal again totals around
£40; I bought a second-hand set of MKS XP-EZY removable pedals instead, for
around £25:
They're heavier than the standard plastic pedals and more awkward to carry
around - the grease gets everywhere - and in fact they're more useful for
transporting a Brompton by air, but for occasional use they're more compact than a folding pedal and less
likely to snap off or rub against something. That's a running total of around
£80 by the way.
Which reminds me of the Ikea Dimpa bag, which is exactly the right size for a
folded Brompton, as if they were designed for that purpose:
It's an Ikea Dimpa with another Ikea Dimpa inside it.
The Dimpa costs £3 from Ikea. Inevitably people sell them on eBay for £12 +
£1.50 p&p as BROMPTON BIKE BAG L&&K - MINTY! but they're
£3. I bought a bunch of them. They double as floor mats if your bike has muddy
tyres or indeed as long-term storage for the bike during the winter. They also
carry a tonne of clothes as well. They're not airtight, so it's safe to
transport people in them, but try to be inconspicuous because they're
transparent.
Bromptons are held together with two clamps, which are screwed into place
thus:
And before I go on there's another accessory I need to mention - grease. I use
a greeny-yellow grease made by Shimano, which is apparently a licenced version
of Motorex 2000, which gets good reviews on the internet:
Is it any good? I have no idea! I've probably used far too much. It smells
manly and it has ruined one pair of trousers already, which is all I expect of
grease. Top marks. It's around £10.
But back to the clamps. The clamps spin freely, so you have to hold onto them
while screwing them into place, which is annoying if you're also trying to
keep the bike upright. There are a wide range of solutions for this, ranging
from replacement clamps to modified margarine tubs, but I bought a pair of
EZ-Clamp springs. They're 3D printed bits
of plastic that keep the clamps aligned with the hinge. A pair plus post and
packaging came to £9.90 when I bought mine:
Is that a hair in the bottom-left? That's what happens if you use too
much grease. Your hair falls out. NB the chipped paint is apparently
normal.
Yes, that's too much grease. I'll wipe it down. It's a good job I took some
close-up photographs of my Brompton in a well-lit studio. The hinge pins do
eventually wear out and are not easily user-replaceable, but after riding
several hundred miles by B75 is just as rigid was it was when new, so here's
to another several hundred miles.
Lights. It's important to have lights, otherwise you'll be killed if you try
to cycle at night. A Brompton is no use to you if you're dead, unless you're
trying to dodge inheritance tax. Or perhaps you need a way to transport your
soul through the underworld in relative comfort, but you only have limited
room in your coffin. So, yes, there are a couple of niche cases in which a
Brompton might be useful to you if you were dead start again
Lights. It's important to have lights. Luckily it's 2021 and tiny little
sub-£20 USB-charged LED lights are widely available. I have two on my front
handlebars, viz:
Why mount them at an odd angle? The B75 won't fold properly if both lights are
attached to the middle of the handlebars. There's some debate on the internet
as to whether dual lights is a good idea or not. The argument is that people
might read the light signature as a distant car rather than a nearby bicycle.
Luckily the majority of my commute is on a cycle path segregated from a main
road, so that's not an issue; you might have better luck with just one light.
Rear lighting is more awkward. The EZ-wheel rods are too low for comfort, and
the lights are fouled by the rear reflector:
Furthermore every time I fold the bike I bang the lights against the ground.
In the end I bought a second brand of light for around £14 that had a long
enough strap to go around the seatpost, which is 31.8mm in diameter:
The B75 comes as standard with an extended seatpost, which I find essential as
I'm almost six feet tall. As such I can leave the light in place when I
retract the seatpost, because there's enough length for it to remain outside
the frame. The one downside of a seatpost-mounted light is that it gets in the
way of Brompton's seat-mounted rear pouch.
None of these lights are bright enough to cycle across country at night in the
Outer Hebrides, but they do at least warn pedestrians that I am moving among
them at relativistic speeds.
How much is that? £120 or so? Less if you already have lights and don't need a
folding pedal.
The B75's other big omission is the front luggage block, this thing here:
Bromptons have a luggage system that's somewhat akin to a proper hiking
backpack. The luggage slides onto a metal frame, which slides onto the luggage
block. The rack doesn't turn left and right as you steer the bike, which is
initially disconcerting but helps keep the luggage from sliding off sideways.
Alternatively you can tie an ordinary bag onto the frame with string. I
really need to work on this.
Why not just wear a small backpack? Bromptons are rear-heavy. The
sit-up-and-beg riding position forces all of your bodyweight onto the back of
the bike. Front-mounted luggage improves the weight balance. The arrangement
above, with the floppy bag, is crude, but when loaded down with lunch and a
can of fizzy pop the B75's handling is noticeably better. It feels more
planted somehow. In theory a front-mounted bag creates more air resistance,
but the B75 is not a speed demon.
I mention the luggage system last because it's the most expensive standard
upgrade. The official Brompton luggage block is around £20; eBay clones are
around £17 or so; the frame comes in a variety of sizes at around £35.
Official Brompton bags are anything from £75 up but you might be able to
improvise your own solution. Probably better than mine.
EDIT: Another simple upgrade is a titanium seatpost. In the following image it's in the
middle, sitting on top of a titanium laptop, flanked by standard-length
and extended-length steel seatposts:
It's the same length as the extended seatpost plus the stopper. On a personal level I prefer the extended post. I can't stretch my legs with a standard seatpost. The extended version also has a bit of space for a light:
The titanium seatpost with a light. Why did
I even grease that nut? What for?
I'm old enough to remember when titanium was well rad. You could buy cameras,
watches, bicycles etc made from titanium, although as far as I know only Apple
went so far as to make a laptop out of it.
The problem is that laptops continually shrunk in size throughout the 2000s,
so it was pointless shaving a few grams from the weight of a laptop by making
it out of an exotic metal. In watches and cameras the weight savings were
equally pointless, and furthermore titanium looks dull in comparison to
stainless steel. And it's very expensive. It was overshadowed in the 2000s by carbon fibre, but there are still
titanium bicycle frames on the market if you have coin.
Titanium is roughly the same strength as steel but half as dense, so for the
same strength it weighs less. It's also more bouncy, so apparently
it rides better. On a subjective level I haven't noticed a difference but of course it's just the seatpost; the rest of the bike is still steel.
I bought my seatpost from eBay for around £60. It's noticeably lighter than the extended steel model, to the tune of around half a can of Coke. When installed in the bike I can't tell the difference, but I suppose it compensates for the slightly heavier weight of my removeable pedals, plus the
lights and luggage block etc, so it's not entirely pointless. If nothing else it's a conversation-starter.
