Bickerton

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Dec66

A gentlemanly pootler, these days
Location
West Wickham
I saw one locked to some railings yesterday in Camberwell; I thought they made odd-looking square sided tube things, but this looked rather stylish, Brooks saddle and all.

Anyone got one, and how do they compare to a Brommie?
 

Kell

Veteran
Wasn't one of the Dahon/Tern clones was it?

docklands-1824-u.jpg


I looked at one of these before getting my Brompton, but decided I wanted to go for smaller wheels this time.
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
Wow, they must have more models than sales ... the website line-up is a indeed a model of confusion, how do you work out which model might be for you? The image is they are to go on your plane or yacht. Commuting or touring appears to be strangely absent so perhaps I'm not the target market. Weird marketing. As for the welding - I've seen better on arc furnaces!

http://www.bickertonportables.co.uk/
 

Brommyboy

Über Member
Location
Rugby
If you look at the website, there are really only four models. The final two digits of the code number give the number of gears for any one. I believe that all the models are Tern productions for Bickerton.
 

midlife

Guru
I rode one in the mid 70's. There was one hanging around the shop to help us sell the Stowaway / Kingpin.........worked a treat :smile:

Shaun
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
 

Ridgeways

Regular
I was at the launch party for this film, at the invitation of Harry Bickerton. I had earlier met up him with at his home and factory, to try interesting him in some of my travel photos for promotion, but my bike was really too modified to be of value for that purpose. He was definitely enthralled though, with what I had done with his creation, and asked me to bring my photos along to the launch to show others there. It showed the versatility and adaptability of the design, if nothing else.

The one item of conversation I remember from that evening was Harry's comment to my girlfriend of the time that however non-boring a person I might be, I was probably hell to live with! It was said in jest, but I never did work out why one characteristic equated to the other . . .
 

Kell

Veteran
I keep seeing one of these on my commute. The guy that rides it is literally just pottering along in Hyde Park though, so I've no idea how it would respond to a fat knacker like me trying to pedal it while stood up.
 
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Ridgeways

Regular
It would respond horribly to anybody trying to pedal standing up; the hinge joint alone would tear itself to pieces in fairly short order.
 

Kell

Veteran
The image is they are to go on your plane or yacht. Commuting or touring appears to be strangely absent so perhaps I'm not the target market. Weird marketing. As for the welding - I've seen better on arc furnaces!

http://www.bickertonportables.co.uk/

Interestingly (or not, you can be the judge), I was bought a book about the history of Brompton and it was the 'yacht market' that was instrumental in Brompton's initial success.

It goes something along the lines of having readily available transport at whichever port you land in so you can pop to the local supermarket or restaurant without having to rely on taxis.

IIRC, he was about to give it all up and call it a day when a chance encounter led to an investment.
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
Interestingly (or not, you can be the judge), I was bought a book about the history of Brompton and it was the 'yacht market' that was instrumental in Brompton's initial success.
The lesson from that was yachting was not going to become a significant part of the Brompton market. Its a bit of small and difficult niche to capture. Well unless you can give the chandlers a very special deal!

Anyway thank you for resurrecting my long forgotten comment. Do we know if Bickerton had much success in 2016? I haven't seen any. But then I'm no longer a dinghyman.
 
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