Brompton 3.5 year ownership report

[berlinonaut]

At the other extreme, there is a Brompton employee with a long commute who needs a new rear hinge every few MONTHS.

I have to say I find that incredibly hard to believe.

Well, Mr. Zilla is telling a very single sided story here. Not for the first time. The fact comes from Brompton themselves, of an article in their Zendesk-support-database that is no longer available. But it has been quoted in this very forum: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/brompton-clones.278930/post-6550726

How often will this need doing?
The time in which these bushings wear out varies enormously dependent on the amount of use, style of riding, rider weight/power output, number of folds, general cleanliness of the bike, etc.
For comparison: our resident test technician rides approximately 30 miles a day, 3 days a week on his Brompton and requires a rear hinge replacement service around every 4 months.

So the person in question is supposed to destroy things - it is his job to outlast components as quickly as possible. To tell the story hiding this fact and to pretend that this would be normal wear by an average rider ist at best misinformation if not a flavor of purposefully spreading fake news. And to complain about it is as if you would complain that a car is defective after a crash test in the factory and to state that it would thus be of bad quality.
Also: The distance covered by this guy in three months sums up to roughly 1500 Miles (if he only rides to work with his bike w/o any additional rides), this is clearly way below average for a worn hinge but also possibly way more than many riders cover even over a year.

No idea why some people especially on this forum seem to have the deep desire to constantly claim Bromptons would be of inferior quality - based on fake news. There is enough to criticize with Brompton w/o fake news, based on reality. Where this hate and extreme bias comes from - no idea what the motivation is behind this. Possibly reality is not dramatic enough and the hate sits too deep for whatever reason. Should not be trusted.

 

[T4tomo]

For comparison: our resident test technician rides approximately 30 miles a day, 3 days a week on his Brompton and requires a rear hinge replacement service around every 4 months.

I still find that staggering. Yes I only covered 10 miles a day, but 5 days a week when I was Bmuting, on an SL3 I bought in 2005. I had a couple on non London commuting years, and changed to a 2 bike commute in maybe 2019, so that's at least a dozen years use. I had to replace seatpost sleeve, but rear triangle hinge is still as good as the day I bought it.
Other than that I upgraded brake levers out of choice, replaced a rear mudguard (failed at stay join) and a crankset that departed company with the chainring, and obviously a chain, sprocket & tyre or two.

 

[Kell]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that for the first two years of its life my Brompton was folded to go in the car, unfolded to cycle to the station, folded to go on the train, unfolded to ride from the station to work, and then the rear was folded as I used to leave it in 'park' mode at work as it was easier to lock. And then unfolded to ride to the station. Folded to go on the train. Unfolded to ride back to the car. Folded to go in the car and finally unfolded when taking it out of the car to put in the garage. Repeat five times a week.


Now it only gets folded twice a day, three days a week.

 

[berlinonaut]

The sleeve wars. With every fold. So if you fold often you need to replace the shim earlier than someone who barely folds his bike. When the seat post starts slipping you can tighten the bolt a tad more. But not too often. If you ignore that, don't replace the shim and tighten the bold excessively instead you may/will damage the frame.

This is btw. what you typically end up with when you ignore the wear of the seat post sleeve:

(Pic taken from here: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16497014/)

 

[cougie uk]

So if I've not had my seat slipping - I'm not constantly doing my clamp tighter - I've got no problems with my sleeve then ?

 

[berlinonaut]

So if I've not had my seat slipping - I'm not constantly doing my clamp tighter - I've got no problems with my sleeve then ?

Nope. Disappointed? 😊

 

[Fields Electric]

Mine is folded 8 times a day. 6 miles a day. The seat post sleeve lasts 2 years with regular seat post cleaning. The rear hinge seems to be working out at 3 years between replacement. Thanks for the seat post clamp pictures. Given the distortion on the seat post. It looks like the sleeve has almost worn to nothing. Much more than mine before it’s replaced.

 

[ukoldschool]

This is btw. what you typically end up with when you ignore the wear of the seat post sleeve:

Incorrect, that is what you end up with if you overtighten the clamp. You cannot say for certain whether the user ignored seat post slippage, only that the clamp was clearly overtightened. It could be that the user had a dirty or greasy seat post.

 

[berlinonaut]

Incorrect, that is what you end up with if you overtighten the clamp. You cannot say for certain whether the user ignored seat post slippage, only that the clamp was clearly overtightened. It could be that the user had a dirty or greasy seat post.

If you've seen this defect a couple of times and have followed researched the root cause you can fairly say that

This is btw. what you typically end up with when you ignore the wear of the seat post sleeve:

That's what I did. As I did not take the above picture myself I obviously cannot claim or testify it for that specific case/bike - but on the other hand the person who took and posted the picture did and I consider him trustworthy.

So what's your point? If you are not Conan the Conquerer you will not be able to produce a defect like that w/o a worn seat post sleeve.
If you are Conan the Conquerer w/o a worn seat post sleeve you'll rather destroy the seat post itself or the saddle clamp screw before achieving this kind of frame defect.
As you can see in the picture the defect seems to have been there for quite some time already, so it probably wasn't Conan the Conquerer producing it as you won't be riding your Brompton far with a defective seat post or an exploded seat post clamp. Not even as Conan the Conquerer.

 

[ukoldschool]

you could start an argument in a paper bag mate