Brompton DIY full service

[Elybazza61]

Brompton, increasingly, won't sell you spare parts. They are trying to protect dealer business, I think. I wouldn't buy another one because of this; the best thing about a B was that you could get everything for it, whereas a Dahon or something might be impossible to repair.

Yep,they wouldn't supply the shp I work in as we aren't a Brompton dealer,we only do odd jobs on them now,(tyres etc) no servicing as such;we now tell people to take them to Halfords,,,

 

[chriscross1966]

Btw, when we say hinges we mean the rear frame pivot, not the hinges in the main frame and handlebar stem... thos bits last forever, but Brompton will supply spares to a dealer if they need replacing.... I've only ever taken them out to have a frame repainted, and that is a far more likely reason to replace them that them wearing out. You can buy titanium versions of the rear frame pivot on ebay, ive been running on one for a couple of years now and it's been fine.

 

[rogerzilla]

I had mine resprayed (the factory paint fell off after a year of dry use* - Brompton aren't interested in paint issues) so the seat tube liner had to come out. I broke it out, cleaned up the inside of the seat tube and, when the frame came back, glued a new liner in with Extreme Power Glue (a glue that stays flexible - most places sell it). Didn't need reaming and works perfectly. Either I was lucky or it's just another myth to get a bit of work for dealers/factory.

The hinge pins in the stem and main frame don't need to come out for painting. The parts can just be painted as they are and worked free between coats. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what was done with mine, and it's still perfect after 10 years.

*apparently they now paint them onsite, which should be better; they used to ship them to Wales for powdercoating, which gave enough time for rust to get a hold before the paint was applied

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

I had mine resprayed (the factory paint fell off after a year of dry use* - Brompton aren't interested in paint issues) so the seat tube liner had to come out. I broke it out, cleaned up the inside of the seat tube and, when the frame came back, glued a new liner in with Extreme Power Glue (a glue that stays flexible - most places sell it). Didn't need reaming and works perfectly. Either I was lucky or it's just another myth to get a bit of work for dealers/factory.

I think you were lucky. I bought the parts to do my seatpost sleeve recently, and when I did a test run of the sleeve I couldn't get the seatpost back in, which is why I had to take it to a dealer to have it reamed and fitted properly.

(I say properly, the seatpost still slips a bit and they managed to get grease on the seatpost. I imagine the two are related but I don't have the time to take the saddle off and clean it all up on an evening so I'm going to have to look at that at the weekend.)

 

[ukoldschool]

Surely the 'reaming' doesn't do anything other than clean the surface up and make sure that the old pits of seatpost liner are gone. Its not actually taking material off in the traditional sense of the word (to make the hole larger) , all the 'wear' would be in the plastic so the approach above will work without the need for a tool

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Surely the 'reaming' doesn't do anything other than clean the surface up and make sure that the old pits of seatpost liner are gone. Its not actually taking material off in the traditional sense of the word (to make the hole larger) , all the 'wear' would be in the plastic so the approach above will work without the need for a tool

That's not my understanding based on the Brompton installation instructions supplied with the sleeve(s). That mentions a reaming tool that is used after the seatpost sleeve is glued in.

 

[ukoldschool]

ah that makes more sense then, so making sure the plastic insert is reamed out to the correct diameter (sorry, was just my misunderstanding)

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

ah that makes more sense then, so making sure the plastic insert is reamed out to the correct diameter (sorry, was just my misunderstanding)

No worries. I thought the same thing until I tried to do it, then I went "Oh no." and phoned the local Brompton shop!

 

[12boy]

If you want to get maximum use from the seat post, keep it grease free including skin oil from your hands. Have a bit of alcohol i a bottle and a rag near where it sleeps so as to wipe it down frequently. Don't tighten the QR for the seat post more than necessary. Overtightening it can damage the frame and/or ovalize the seat post.
I am not sure if this actually helps but I have a tiny tapped hole in the frame that allows me to inject heavy oil in the rear hinge from time to time.
The rear brake cable and housing can stick after a while so the brakes don't easily return to the open position. If you remove the brake cable housing you can buy housing by the foot and your lbs can cut you a new one. Jag End has some housing that is both wrapped, like brake housing, and linear like derailleur housing, that I have found works very well for the rear brake as the brake cable run is fairly complicated.
Other than new chains, tires and brake pads the bike is pretty durable. The 1-2 speed rear wheel has cartridge bearings and the wheels stay true well. I did replace my headset with a King Gripnut and that has worked flawlessly for years.

 

[mickle]

It's been 15 years since I last worked in a Brompton dealership. I cant speak of the modern era but back then the rear pivot used to be a strictly 'factory only' job. And they were always replaced FOC under warranty and the shipping cost covered by Brompton both ways too. I always thought that was a bit unnecessarily generous.

Even when our vastly experienced and exceedingly competent senior mechanic offered to buy the factory tools and take the any necessary training they refused to let us do them in house. The impression we got was that they'd had one too many frames wrecked by cack-handed shop mechanics.

The challenge I had as a not-profesh-but-fairly-competent mechanic was with the cable runs. Brompton more than any other bike I know of, requires that the cable lengths and their specific runs are absolutely critical to get right. I remember very stupidly pulling all the cables off a Brompton in one go (as you'd do with any regular bike) and then having to bloody well work out how they all went back on - without another Brompton to refer to. Doh. So replace them one at a time, make a mental note of how they run and cut the outers precisely to match the lengths of the originals.

 

[confusedcyclist]

The challenge I had as a not-profesh-but-fairly-competent mechanic was with the cable runs. Brompton more than any other bike I know of, requires that the cable lengths and their specific runs are absolutely critical to get right. I remember very stupidly pulling all the cables off a Brompton in one go (as you'd do with any regular bike) and then having to bloody well work out how they all went back on - without another Brompton to refer to. Doh. So replace them one at a time, make a mental note of how they run and cut the outers precisely to match the lengths of the originals.

Great tip regarding the cables, and thanks for the historical context too!

 

[rogerzilla]

Definitely buy the correct length cable outers (or, cheaper, measure the genuine ones and cut new outers to exactly the same length; Brompton's Jagwire cable isn't the best and you could use Shimano cables, with the nice smooth drawn inner wires, instead). There are many variations according to handlebar type and SWB/LWB frame. If you get the wrong length then, at the very least, they won't lie neatly together and may catch on the chainring or other parts. If you fit SWB cables to an LWB H-type, the bike may not even fold.

 

[Kell]

There seems to be a lot of 'musts' and 'must nots' on this thread.

I originally bought an H-type with the really high handlebars, but with the intentions of fitting low risers bars to it as soon as I got it.

Which I did.

The cables were clearly too long, but did not affect any operations at all. They just looked a bit daft.

So I shortened them all. Wasn't too difficult and I just used some guesswork.

Here's how it started:

Here's what it looked like after I'd stuck lower bars on:

As you can see, the cables are clearly too long, but as they didn't affect anything, I left them until I had time to shorten them.

 

[mickle]

There seems to be a lot of 'musts' and 'must nots' on this thread.

I originally bought an H-type with the really high handlebars, but with the intentions of fitting low risers bars to it as soon as I got it.

Which I did.

The cables were clearly too long, but did not affect any operations at all. They just looked a bit daft.

So I shortened them all. Wasn't too difficult and I just used some guesswork.

Here's how it started:

View attachment 456996

Here's what it looked like after I'd stuck lower bars on:

View attachment 456997

As you can see, the cables are clearly too long, but as they didn't affect anything, I left them until I had time to shorten them.

Very good. Let us know how you get on when you cut them down to the right length.

 

[rualexander]

I put new cables on my brompton recently, didn't measure them, just made sure they were long enough for the fold to work ok.
No problems, works fine.
Also put a triple chainset and front derailleur on it, and a 16 tooth sprocket, and had to change the tensioner to the six speed version to be compatible with the larger sprocket.
Just back last week from a week touring in the Western Isles.