5 gear Bromptons

[steveindenmark]

I have come across a 5 gear Brompton. I knew that they make 6 gear bikes, but not 5 geared bikes. Are they quite common?

Is there a big difference between the two?

It doesnt seem worth the while a Company designing a new gear system, just for one gear. Or is it?

 

[TheDoctor]

Brompton used to buy in 3 and 5 speed hubs from Sturmey Archer. When SA went bust, there wasn't another 5 speed hub, so Brompton came up with the 6 speed instead.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

That's a shame, I would have liked one with a 5 speed hub.

 

[raleighnut]

You'd have thought they could have grafted a 7 speed Shimano Alfine hub into a Brompton.

 

[TheDoctor]

The 6 speed has a wider spread of gears and is lighter. I'm sure they could fit one if they tried, though. Someone does an 8 speed Brommie - @Trikeman has one IIRC.

 

[Blue Hills]

I have a 5 speed Brompton. I bought it only a matter weeks before the Sturmey Archer mess (as I understood it they didn't so much as go bust as they were asset stripped by a bunch of ****s) when it immediately became technically obsolete and Bromptopn had to move to the 6 speed.

I like it and the arrangement of the gears - I regularly ride it up the big hill to my house with a ton of shopping and it has been up Sardinian mountains (well very very big hills) .

It was recently serviced by the excellent Bicycle Workshop in London and they said there would be no problem keeping it running.

I like the fact that there is no derailleur - seem to remember that the mechanic at Bicycle Workshop ventured the personal opinion thag he preferred the arrangement of gears on the 5 speed to the 6 speed.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Yep, I have the SA-8 hub and highly recommend it:
http://www.benlovejoy.com/cycle/brompton/

 

[Brommyboy]

I still see Bromptons with the new SA5 fitted. It is far lighter than the SA8 and gives a good spread of gears. When I ran the original SA5, with the 44T chain ring I used a 13T sprocket for normal use, and changed that to a 14T for laden touring. My first tour was in the Highlands of Scotland, covering nearly 700 miles in the two weeks, from/to Inverness.

 

[roundthebendbromcycle]

I heard the sa5 was a great gear, tad trickier to set up but worth it I had the sach 3 speed, when it died I wouldn't pay the second mortgage free to transfer back to sturmey archer, and couldn't find another sachs,

I used to have 12 gears on my brompton, the six speed plus a mountain drive, that was a wonderful range of gears, used to tow my inflatable kayak with it, cycle to a nice spot on the river, pump the boat up put the bike and folding trailer on the boat and paddle back downstream, full body workout that was.

Down to one at the moment, need to get the 2 cogs fitted at the back again and get parts for the mountain drive. Then I have 4 well spaced gears, that'll do.

 

[Blue Hills]

I still see Bromptons with the new SA5 fitted. It is far lighter than the SA8 and gives a good spread of gears. When I ran the original SA5, with the 44T chain ring I used a 13T sprocket for normal use, and changed that to a 14T for laden touring. My first tour was in the Highlands of Scotland, covering nearly 700 miles in the two weeks, from/to Inverness.

Do you know if this be used with the earlier 5 speee bikes if you ever had to replace it?
I used to have an idea that changes to the brommie rear triangle after the sturmey mess may have caused problems but then also have a vague memory that Bicycle workshop in Notting Hill said that it could be used.