Bromptons and folding bikes

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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I've been wanting a Brompton for a while so I can break up my commute and do the last part of the journey by bike. Last time I looked they were about £350 but I had a shock when I saw them going for £600 on eBay and over £800 new :eek:

What happened there? Am I looking in the wrong place?

So I'm still on the lookout for a folding bike. I can't really leave it at the station overnight because this is London and I don't want to come back to find things missing or the whole bike gone, so I'd prefer a folder that I can carry with me. I like how small the Brompton folds and how quickly it does it.

What are my other options for folding bikes? That A frame Sinclair bike thing is no good :D
 
Last years models are going a bit cheaper now but they are generally quite expensive.

The guy I used to work with had the £700 one and it was stupid how quick it just folds away and how light it was. Compared to the cheap folding bikes on them market it's 100 times better.

His was the one where the backwheel tucks under the frame rather than folds together with it.
 
Supercow said:
Be sure to get a little saddle bag to keep your tampons or Artificial pacemaker spares (choose appropriate) in

:)
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Never race a Brompton; there are only two possible outcomes and the best is that you scalped a clown bike.

Mate of mine was selling his Dahon for about £350, barely used. They tend to be cheaper than the Bromptons.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;15773355 said:
Never race a Brompton; there are only two possible outcomes and the best is that you scalped a clown bike.
Click to expand...

Sorry, the analagy/response is lost on me, and have no idea what "scalp a clown bike" means. I was just making a rubbish joke that folding bikes are for old people, or girls.
 
If from the Commuter Section of Bike Radar forums. Eveyone makes fun of Bromptons and other folding bikes but people avoid racing them when commuting because if you beat them then that's no challenge, but there is always the chance that they will beat you and that's just not worth contemplating.

SCR - Silly Commuter Racing http://www.itsnotarace.org/
 
HAHA, love it! :D
Everyone that commutes has done this before, whether you admit to it or not.
I once tried to drop the Police by acting as if I didnt see them trying to pull me over - The ULTIMATE scalp perhaps?
 
Aha, this is where my thread went. Plenty of you don't work or live in London then :D

This is my normal ride but I don't want it stolen:

IMG_3000.JPG


Reynolds 531 frame, retro Shimano uniglide hub with 12 gears, Flite saddle, skinny Hutchinson kevlar tyres on light alloy wheels.

Jonny ///M said:
The guy I used to work with had the £700 one and it was stupid how quick it just folds away and how light it was. Compared to the cheap folding bikes on them market it's 100 times better.
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That's basically what I thought. The others I've seen in bike shops have been heavy and have complicated or spazzy folding mechanisms or just don't fold down very small for on the train.
 
How do you stop things like the saddle and wheels being stolen? I know mine are on quick releases but normal axles etc only need an allen key or a spanner.

Problem is I'd have to leave it at Wimbledon which is fed a continual stream of scumbags from Croydon, no thanks to the tram :(
 
If it's a bike I leave outside then I try to make it look generally unattractive and I've been know to use skewers that need a nonstandard allen key to remove them. I also tend to use two u-locks, one for each wheel.
 
Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BLACK-ANTI-TH...temQQimsxq20091128?IMSfp=TL091128201002r28498

You cna get better ones, but you'd pay upwards of £40 for the pleasure. You can just see in the image that it needs, I think, a seven sided allen key to unscrew. You get one with the skewers.

Of course a theif could just get a set of these from ebay with the key rendering them useless.

They aren't great but, touch wood, I've not had any problems.
 
Cheers folks. Need to get some of these for the racer anyway because when I go to the shops it'll mean I don't have to take my epic long chain with me :D
 
i rember seeing a while ago some wheel that could only come off if the bike was upside down, tho i can not rember the link
 
I popped into an Evans today (not the shop for fat chicks) and they have a plain black one for £595, pretty much the model I'd be looking at. Still a bit steep but I got to have a play around with it. They are definitely the best of the folding bikes. The Dahons they had folded nowhere near as small and were heavier.
 
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