Kell
Veteran
- Location
- High Wycombe/London
Now available for all Bromptons. Apparently.
Can’t see them on the site yet.
Can’t see them on the site yet.
Chpt 3 V2 hinges
- Thread starter Kell
- Start date
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berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
GBP 75 - total bargain
https://www.brompton.com/catalogue/...ares/aluminium-hinge-clamp-and-rear-frame-set
OP
OP
Kell
Veteran
- Location
- High Wycombe/London
OUCH.
I had hoped they'd be reasonable.
Stupid of me really.
I had hoped they'd be reasonable.
Stupid of me really.
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
What is the benefit? Do they make you irresistibly attractive to supermodels?
berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
Wrong question. Dozens of companies make shitloads of money with selling bling-bling-products for the Brompton. Most of their products add little to no benefit and some make the bike even worse. I guess after years of watching this development Brompton simply wants a piece of that cake.
If you want hinge clamps that add a benefit you should look here: https://www.eerdermetaal.nl/SpedDial.html
OP
OP
Kell
Veteran
- Location
- High Wycombe/London
Do they still make them? Clicked the link and saw the video, but if you click on their link to buy them, I couldn't find them in their shop. Don't need any, was just interested in price.
Nibor
Bewildered
- Location
- Accrington
They look to be about £30 https://www.bikegang.co.uk/bikeganghut/Speddial-Finger-Dimple-Improved-HINGE-CLAMP-KIT-p96670075
berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
Price used to be - as far as I remember - around 40€ for the pair. I do have them on one Brompton and do like them very much. Definitively an improvement compared to the factory ones. The actual version v3 is 52€: https://www.eerdermetaal.nl/brompto...an-2021-onwards/p/144536378/category=85767001
berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
GeekDadZoid
Über Member
Bike Gang are a Taiwanese based shop.
berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
I know. Which means the clamps travel around the world, in the current situation delivery times may be long and there may be import duties. On the other hand if you look at the webpage of eerdermetal in the Netherlands in their offer for the Speddial-clamps they write:
The SpedDial kit for Brompton is a coöperation of Stephan Bianchi from Rivise Products in Santa Cruz, California and Vincent van Eerd, Eerder metaal, Amersfoort , the Netherlands. It's fully made in the USA, and some things are done in the Netherlands, like packaging work, testing and working on follow up generations.
If you look up Revise Products you'll find out that it seems to be a two year old pretty small company in the film industry with like 3 employes and about 45.000$ yearly revenue. I was not able to find a homepage quickly. So it seems that the clamps are possibly a side product and Eerdermetal is the main seller who also does major part of the distribution and the development in the Netherlands. Maybe he has even taken over the product and Stephan Binachi has invented it and organized the manufacturing in the USA but now stepped out of the active bussiness due to his other business interests. Don't know. Looking at Linkedin Stephan Binachi seems very much involved in mechanical product design and there's a link to the original old (if not outdated) American hompage of speddial that includes a list of resellers (that include Bikegang) https://www.speddial.com/retailers. This also lists the former webshop http://speddial.eu/ which seems no longer to be available.
However: To import a product from Taiwan if you are in the UK, while the product is manufactured in the USA, packaged in the Netherlands and then (instead of being shipped a short way over the channel to your door from there) probably shipped to Taiwan and from there to the UK seems not to be the direct route.
Furthermore the pictures in the Bikegang shop do show silver clamps. Vincent van Eerd writes in his shop:
from the second generation on the kits will only be available in black,
So according to the pics and the possibility to choose between silver and black at Bikegang they seem to sell the first generation of the clamps. Nothing wrong about them - that's the version I do own, too. Still when buying now I would obviously probably prefer the latest version, assuming it would in some ways be enhanced (not that I would miss something on v1). Eerdermetall currently sell a version 3, invented in Jan 2021. Changes between second and third generation are according to Eerdermetal
The current third generation features a less firm (-50%) stainless steel spring for smoother, faster rotation of the levers. the clamps have rounded off edges and some other nice improvements. The longer lobe of the clamp plate has a small low spot to clear the round section of the main frame hinge. No need to reuse the rings from the original Brompton clamp kit anymore as these are supplied with the kit. The bolt heads now have a tighter press fit into the levers which has certain benefits. A bit too technica to explain here. Let's just say it's better. The longer 55 mm bolts for pre 2004 short wheel base Bromptons are no longer supplied in the kit by default but can be ordered by choosing the option: 'pre 2004 short wheel base (SWB)....' at no extra cost. And last but not least the instructions inside are completely rewritten to make installing the kit 'fast and no more fiddly'.
Changes between 1st and 2nd generation are:
From the second generation on the kits will only be available in black, The clamp plates are lubricated and protected by a PTFE impregnation of the anodised finish and the longer lobe of the clamp plate has a step in it to clear the hinge where it get's wider. The clamps are a bit shorter than the first generation which had the length of the original Brompton clamps. This is done to better match with the width of the hinges giving a nicer look without any compromises performance wise.
Bikegang seems to sell the first generation, so there is a bit of a difference between the two offers. The less stiff spring of v3 could be nice, judging from my experience with v1 (not dramatic, just nice). There has been a rise in price some time between 1st and 3rd gen though, the price for the 1st generation is still outlined on the outdated speddial-page for v1 at Eerdermetal - according to that it was 36€ back then, the 3rd generation currently costs 52€ at Eerdermetal.
PS: On the original speddial homepage there is an interesting FAQ about the product. Apart from other things it mentions price and places of manufacturing:
Why did you decide to offer SpēdDial hinge clamp kits?
We were frustrated by the time and dexterity required to unfold and to fold our Brompton. We discovered others offered products to solve this problem, but they were expensive and only partly effective. Our idea was to produce a solution that was as effective as possible and to make it affordable by combining a few custom mass-produced parts with inexpensive off-the-shelf components.
Hmm, while I think the speddials are excellent, I consider them not to be a cheap product. Especially not at the current price... On the original hompage they are still advertized as "Under $40 the pair" - but this also seems to refer to the outdated original v1.
Where is SpēdDial made?
SpēdDial is assembled in California from parts made in the USA and Asia.
This is somewhat different from the claims on the Eerdermetal homepage. So probably something has changed over time.
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ExBrit
Über Member
- Location
- Southern California
OMG - the 90's called, they want their website back!
berlinonaut
Veteran
- Location
- Berlin Germany
I do prefer working products from a simple, fast website over non working products from a "modern" overloaded javascript rich website full of SEO optimization, marketing-bullshit, fancy videos, stock photos and with no useful information about the product. So probably everyone has his preferences.
