Brompton prices

[Tenkaykev]

I had an Email from Brompton a couple of days ago. It seems that stock levels are getting better as there are several models listed for order on their website. What did surprise me is the price, perhaps I'd lost touch but they do seem to have increased a fair bit recently ( perhaps that is as a result of Brompton seeing the bikes being purchased and immediately appearing on Ebay at a substantial mark up )
The base B75 is £850 but with no stock showing, the 3 speed is now £1290, it comes with a Brooks C17 saddle and Cateye battery lighting which wasn't previously the case. £1390 for the 6 speed battery lighting / Brooks saddle and £1455 for the Dynamo lighting version. £65 for an upgrade to a dynamo hub and lights doesn't seem to bad a deal. The costs to Brompton of the Brooks saddle and Cateye lighting upgrades are probably minimal compared to the increase in the cost of the bikes. It will be interesting to see if their sales continue to grow, or if they are pricing themselves out of the market.

 

[rogerzilla]

I think a lot are bought on C2W schemes, so not with real money.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I think a lot are bought on C2W schemes, so not with real money.

Ah! I’d forgotten about that aspect.

 

[berlinonaut]

What did surprise me is the price, perhaps I'd lost touch but they do seem to have increased a fair bit recently (...)
the 3 speed is now £1290, it comes with a Brooks C17 saddle and Cateye battery lighting which wasn't previously the case. £1390 for the 6 speed battery lighting / Brooks saddle and £1455 for the Dynamo lighting version. £65 for an upgrade to a dynamo hub and lights doesn't seem to bad a deal. The costs to Brompton of the Brooks saddle and Cateye lighting upgrades are probably minimal compared to the increase in the cost of the bikes. It will be interesting to see if their sales continue to grow, or if they are pricing themselves out of the market.

As outlined in another thread the bikes in Brompton's Online store all apart from the Electric seem to have a C17 already for several months. I suspect that they have run out of their standard saddles and are stuck in transit with restocking. They might on the other hand have way too many battery lights sets and possibly may plan i.e. to upgrade the battery front light in foreseeable future. The fact that most retailers with online shops seem to have set the Brompton battery light to "not avail." targets in this direction as well. Still it is not a fact but just a speculation of mine. So it would make sense to package the battery lights to the bike (as most people need lights anyway, the configurator on the webpage is put off for longer periods already and people seem not to be too price sensitive at the moment).
If they have really run out of standard saddles an upgrade to another one like the cambium is critical to be able to sell bikes at all. Price wise those parts will add to the list price, typically not at cost but with the price Brompton would normally charge for them - that's what they have been doing i.e. with the extra bits provided with special editions, which would explain your recognition of a higher price. At the same time, with the bike industry run over by customers while at the same time the supply chains are unreliable I would not be surprised if Brompton raised the base list price as well, possibly even more than they do almost every year. Many bike brands have done that and prices for a lot of bike models have gone up massively, sometimes as much as several 100€ for the same bike.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

I ordered my Brompton in May so missed the latest increase but got the Battery Lighting but the standard saddle.

I also got the extended seat post without ordering it. So I think there has been a bit of hit and miss over the last few months with stock.

 

[rogerzilla]

The extended seatpost is the default now. The standard seatpost may have been long enough for the average UK man in the 80s, but it isn't now.

 

[TheDoctor]

£1390 for a 6 speed? My M6R cost under £650 in 2009, and it came with a dynamo iirc.

 

[Tenkaykev]

£1390 for a 6 speed? My M6R cost under £650 in 2009, and it came with a dynamo iirc.

Going by the BOE calculator that’s the equivalent of £891 as of 2020, the latest figures available. A little over 50% more expensive.

 

[rogerzilla]

The rule of thumb used to be that Bromptons held their value in nominal terms, i.e. your new M6R would still sell for £650 today. However, the escalating new price, demand from Indonesia/Thailand and the scarcity of new stock all mean that, on a good day, you could get over £1000 for it on the Bay of Thieves. Better than money in the bank.

 

[berlinonaut]

My M6R cost under £650 in 2009, and it came with a dynamo iirc.

I do have my doubts that this was the list price (which Brompton obviously charge in their own webshop). I do not have a UK pricelist from 2009 but one from 2011. According to that list a key model (so no special color) 6RD (six speed with rack and dynamo) costed £940 in 2011. I cannot imagine that there was a rise in price of £300 in just two years... According to a UK pricelist from 2004 a T6 (equivalent to the later M6RD) was £635 back then.

But indeed I myself bought a reduced 2008 S3L keymodel in the uk in early 2009 for £530.10 plus £40 for battery ligthening, so £570 total - just checked the old receipt. It was the time of the bank and real estate crisis and dealers did not sell Bromptons well as their usual London customers were in trouble, excange rates were more or less 1:1 and between 2008 and 2009 the painting changed from glossy to mate alond with some other obvious changes, so a time for a bargain... The offer I took was by far the cheapest available and it included a rebate for buying more than one bike.

A M6RD was 1099€ list price in Germany in 2009 and in 2021 it is 1820€ - a very considerable rise in price indeed.

 

[TheDoctor]

I think it was the last of the pre-BWR ones, and had been reduced. When it got stolen I (eventually) got a BWR M6R as a replacement. There was quite a price jump for the BWR hub.

 

[rogerzilla]

The irony being that some of us prefer the closer ratios of the SRAM/Sachs 6-speed. Spare parts are becoming an issue now, though. Das Fahrrad in Germany has the best selection of the dwindling stock and they will not ship to the UK post-Brexit. I had to get parts via a friend in the Netherlands.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

The extended seatpost is the default now. The standard seatpost may have been long enough for the average UK man in the 80s, but it isn't now.

Being 5'9 it would have been fine for me.

My friends electric came with a standard sized post.

 

[berlinonaut]

I think it was the last of the pre-BWR ones, and had been reduced.

So you were basically comparing a discounted offer for an "outdated" configuration from times when these was a massive economic crisis with a list price from today for not only an actual but an upgraded model (through the B17) at a time when demand massively outperforms capacity for more than a year already and scaling production further is immpossible currently due to the global parts shortage. Then you complain that the actual price would be considerably higher. I would think this is a little unfair and apart from that a perfect way to make oneself a grumbling, moaning unhappy man.

When it got stolen I (eventually) got a BWR M6R as a replacement. There was quite a price jump for the BWR hub.

German list prices:
M6R 2009 (with BWR) 1099€
M6R 2008 (with SRAM) 1199€

In fact in 2009 the prices not only did not increase, they decreased due to the economic crisis. Just opposite of what we see currently. That's what made 2008 models an extra bargain in 2009 - due to the massive technical and optical changes they had to be way cheaper than the current models but those were cheaper than list prices the year before already. So the leftover 2008 models ended up going extra cheap in 2009. A very lucky situation for a buyer but probably a one time opportunity.

 

[TheDoctor]

Right. I'm just saying they've gone up. And they're still the best folding bike out there. I mean, I've done a ten-day tour on mine. I could still sell it at a profit, but I'd never part with it.