A tired Brompton for restoration - now sorted

[rogerzilla]

L3 or similar, something that's all there and is structurally intact (no rusted-out rear frames) but needs a good overhaul. Probably needs a rear hinge job, the gears are playing up and the wheels are shot. Anyone got anything? I just fancy doing another one up this summer.

 

[Gunk]

L3 or similar, something that's all there and is structurally intact (no rusted-out rear frames) but needs a good overhaul. Probably needs a rear hinge job, the gears are playing up and the wheels are shot. Anyone got anything? I just fancy doing another one up this summer.

From experience I would be very careful buying a worn out Brompton. By the time I finished mine it would have been cheaper to have just bought a decent one. The costs soon run away with you.

 

[rogerzilla]

True, but it's a project rather than a way to get a Brompton. I already have a pimped-out titanium one! There's no money in restoring old cars, either. My local dealer does rear hinges very cheaply if I get the old ones out; that's the miserable part of the job.

I do need to check parts availability, as Brompton have become very protectionist towards their dealers and fewer spares are now on sale to end users.

 

[rogerzilla]

Got a clean L6 for £300 with recalcitrant gears (but the axle key isn't broken). Will be a nice resto job.

 

[rogerzilla]

Got a clean L6 for £300 with recalcitrant gears (but the axle key isn't broken). Will be a nice resto job.

 

[Gunk]

Photos?

 

[rogerzilla]

20210605_174621 by rogerzilla, on Flickr

It's actually an S6L, on closer inspection. Mk3 frame but Sachs hub. The gear "fault" is merely a cable inner corroded to the outer - it's totally seized! The hub works fine by pulling the toggle chain. The derailleur works perfectly. Not too high a mileage, as the rear rim isn't concave and the folding pedal is still good. Rear hinge is ok although I might do it anyway, as there is a little play and the grease will be well dried-up.

I'll give it a total overhaul but it's really not too bad. I bought an L3 for £250 in 2009, and this is far less rough.

 

[Gunk]

Has it got a Ti triangle and forks?

 

[rogerzilla]

No, that's just the paint scheme.

 

[Gunk]

Usually silver forks and triangle denote the titanium version, if so you’ve done very well for £300

 

[berlinonaut]

Usually silver forks and triangle denote the titanium version, if so you’ve done very well for £300

No. The silver extremeties for steel bikes were invented around 2000 (if I remember correctly) and went at the end of 2008. It is easy to distinguish such a bike from a ti one in photos by two things:

- first, if the stem is silver, too, it is a steel bike. With ti Brommis just the fork and rear frame are "silverish"
- second: if the fork crown is round (in the form of a circle) from the side view it is a ti fork. If not it is a steel fork.

There are a couple of more indicators but these two are the easiest to spot.

A S6L for 300 GBP is a bargain anyway if it is not trashed or outworn. The bike in the pic dates from between 2005 and late 2007 and given what @rogerzilla says about it's state it looks like a snap.

 

[rogerzilla]

It's Nov 2005 and surprisingly unworn. The rear rim still has the original fine grooves, the insides of the T3 hub are great and it probably had its original tyres. Just a bit of surface rust on the hub and seatpost, which scrubbed off easily with oxalic acid paste. The paint is really good (there's a hard black undercoat to the silver parts); my 2009 S3L had to get it resprayed after a year because it all started flaking off. At the time, frames were being blasted in London and shipped to Wales for powdercoating a few days later, which meant some developed surface rust and the powdercoat didn't stick well. I believe they do it all on one site now.

The rear hinge had some play, certainly up to the 2mm allowed. Given the lack of wear elsewhere, it could have been over-reamed at the factory, or 16 years of sitting around did something adverse to the nylon facing. I have the new bushes in and someone is lending me the proper Brompton reamer. I could have a go with a 3/8" hand reamer but it would probably end in another bush replacement! The proper tool is a taper reamer with a very long pilot, which keeps it parallel and allows a "shave a little, then try it" approach to get the best fit.

 

[berlinonaut]

The paint is really good (there's a hard black undercoat to the silver parts); my 2009 S3L had to get it resprayed after a year because it all started flaking off.

Brompton changed the powder coating at the beginning of 2009. From there on the finish went from glossy before that to mate after that (apart from some special editions in recent years. The mate coating they use is way less robust in my eyes than the glossy one and the coating is less thick as well I think. Especially the mate versions of the first "mate years" were way worse than before. If your's is a 2009 this may explain your experience to a degree.

At the time, frames were being blasted in London and shipped to Wales for powdercoating a few days later, which meant some developed surface rust and the powdercoat didn't stick well. I believe they do it all on one site now.

The frame parts did the round trip to wales from the very beginning of Brompton until the latest move to the new factory a couple of years ago (four years ago I think). Since then they do the powder coating in house. One result of that move was a tremendous rise in special editions with special color schemes. And again, there were some paint issues in the beginning, long sorted as far as I can judge.
However, your issues should not be connected to traveling to Wales as this had been done for more than 20 years at that time w/o issues. One thing that might indeed have been a result of the painting in Wales is the limited range of colors in the early years: As production numbers were relatively low and the parts were sent to Wales in batches it was probably necessary to limit variability to always have enough color fitting frame parts on the one hand and not have overstock of certain colors on the other (as the welding of frames has been the bottleneck from the very beginning). Thus until the mid-second half of the nineties the extremities were always black and the main frame either black or red. Which then resulted in "red with black extremities" becoming the "classic" Brompton color scheme.

 

[rogerzilla]

And...it's all done. 16 years old but looks and works like new. It does need a chainguard (on order) but I took it across town this evening and it's very good. The gear ratios on the old 6-speed are pretty close. Worst job: getting the old rear hinge bushes out. The tap just ripped out (this happens when they've corroded in after years and years), so they had to be cut and collapsed inwards, a 2 hour job

 

[Morninglight]

And...it's all done. 16 years old but looks and works like new. It does need a chainguard (on order) but I took it across town this evening and it's very good. The gear ratios on the old 6-speed are pretty close. Worst job: getting the old rear hinge bushes out. The tap just ripped out (this happens when they've corroded in after years and years), so they had to be cut and collapsed inwards, a 2 hour job

Do you mind to post pictures of your titanium brompton please :-)