Is it just me that doesn't like the Brompton?

[TheDoctor]

It would appear not, at least not until every last Bromptoneer has repented of their foolishness.

 

[colmac2000]

That would be because the non Brompton owner was still reassembling their bike down the end of the platform.

The fold-unfold speed seems pretty much the same between my Tern and my Brompton tbh. It just feels longer on the Brompton because of the relentless twiddling that is required.

The blog on rust quoted above is reassuring...I think I'll probably hang on to the bike and see if I can't get into it. After all, through the cycle scheme it is only ("only"!) costing me £580 so I can sell it on in a year and probably not lose money.

 

[jay clock]

The fold-unfold speed seems pretty much the same between my Tern and my Brompton tbh. It just feels longer on the Brompton because of the relentless twiddling that is required.

The blog on rust quoted above is reassuring...I think I'll probably hang on to the bike and see if I can't get into it. After all, through the cycle scheme it is only ("only"!) costing me £580 so I can sell it on in a year and probably not lose money.

If you are getting it for that I suspect you will be in profit in a year's time

 

[jay clock]

[QUOTE 3615707, member: 45"]They soon pass them on the road though while they're fiddling with their trouser clips and doing the special wave at all the others.[/QUOTE]
Special wave? I daren't try that as single handed riding is far too dangerous

 

[jay clock]

Also re the flexing mine must be less bad because I have the S model (flat bar). Slightly lower position and less knob-end look to the bike.

I went for bright orange for the full W1A look

 

[colmac2000]

It's the S model a completely different frame or is it just the handlebars that are different?

 

[jay clock]

but because the bars are not that weird shape the level is about 10cm lower than the M

 

[Summerking]

I loved my brompton, found it all day comfortable, the dayglo lycras hated me for waving at them :-)

 

[Shortmember]

Well no you are not alone. But if you think that was bad you should have tried the first Bickertons! The handlebars flexed in/out and forward/back to an alarming amount and getting out of the saddle saw the whole thing flex like cooked spaghetti! Yet they sold and people raved about them. By comparison the Brompton is a Rolls Royce, but not as good a ride as my Dahon Speed-Pro or even Dahon Boardwalk! Neither of which fold as elegantly as the brompton.

The flexing of the handlebars on a Bickerton is largely curable if petrol is trickled between the bars and the clamp, as advised in the owners manual. The resulting stiffness allows me to get off the saddle and 'honk' up steepish slopes without too much drama.
When I first bought my Bickerton Classic second hand 17 years ago it did feel wobbly and unstable, and it took me a while to get used to it nodding its head and shaking its butt under hard pedalling, but now I just let it 'do its thing', confident that it isn't going to throw a hissy fit and chuck me off.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

The fold-unfold speed seems pretty much the same between my Tern and my Brompton tbh. It just feels longer on the Brompton because of the relentless twiddling that is required.

The blog on rust quoted above is reassuring...I think I'll probably hang on to the bike and see if I can't get into it. After all, through the cycle scheme it is only ("only"!) costing me £580 so I can sell it on in a year and probably not lose money.

Slippery slope my friend, slippery slope...

Its working its arcane magic on you already, by the time you've finished paying it over CS, it'll have persuaded you you'd rather part with a kidney & both testicles than let someone borrow it for 5 minutes

 

[StuAff]

The Tern Uno, from the photos I've seen, looks like it's yet another Dahon clone/knockoff/rebadge job. The only bike I've ever had stolen was a Dahon, and I was absolutely delighted. It was a horrible thing, with a horrible fold, a horrible ride and a horrible setup. The second worst thing about it was the adjustable handlebars. The worst thing about it was the fact that the folding mechanism always felt as if it was about to come undone- and did, on more than one occasion.

The Brompton is probably the best all-purpose commuting folder out there - the reason they sell so well isn't fashion, it's because they're good at what they do. They're expensive because, unlike most other bike manufacturers, Brompton haven't sacrificed quality for cost and still manufacture in London.

It is a Dahon, essentially...there was some family political reason behind the change of name.

No, and no, essentially. Dahon was, until a few years ago, actually not one company but three. Two- Dahon China, which controlled their factories there and Dahon North America (distribution there) were owned by the founder, David Hon. The other, Dahon Global, controlling worldwide sales & marketing, the majority of R&D and based in Taiwan, was owned by David's estranged wife Florence and their son Josh. Florence and Josh set up Tern in 2011, continued to control Dahon Global, including patents on many of Dahon's then range, and brought most of their design team with them. Not surprisingly years of legal wrangling ensued, eventually resolved in 2013. So if Terns resemble Dahons, it's not surprising, it would be more so if they didn't.

On the issue of Dahon quality, I'm on my third- Chutney was one of the last of the pre-split models- and I can say that the quality had improved significantly between my 2004-model Jetstream XP and the 2010-model Speed Pro TT, let alone earlier models. Frame is considerably stiffer on Chutney, zero creaking, hinge much improved. Josh and team have continued to make big improvements and if I were in the market for a new folder, Tern would definitely be on the shortlist. Dahon, IMHO, has dropped the ball big time on design, and as for their current sales representation in the UK…diabolical. Only a few bike models seem to be easily available in this country, you seem to either have to import or request ones that aren't listed. Parts availability (a long-term bugbear for owners) continues to be dreadful. I ended up importing a chain catcher from Germany a few years back, and I'd still end up doing that now... Tern, on the other hand, have an extensive network of dealers, Evans plus independents, full range and components widely available online- and fortunately many of them fit current and past Dahon models just fine. I've just bought a Tern rack to fit on Chutney as it was easily the best option.

@srw is dead right about Bromptons being the best commuter folder. Brommies do a a lot of things well, and a lot of things at least reasonably OK. There is no such thing as 'no compromise design', certainly not with folders, and Brompton have chosen to make a folding bike, rather than a bike that folds. That, and their determination to maintain backwards compatibility as they introduce improvements, does mean that in certain respects it falls behind the best of the competition, and they simply don't offer some of the choices and features that rivals do. Lightest? Nope. You can buy a 9kg Brompton, if you strip it down and fit the simplest gearing. Want a 9.something kg folder with gears and you'll be shopping elsewhere. You can't have a wider gear range than the six speed without going to third parties. Fastest fold? Nope. Smoothest ride? Nope. Simplest fold? Not necessarily (I've seen a few Brommie owners having problems), though that's more a case of learning how to fold it, rather than anything specific to the make. But definitely the smallest fold, and the most convenient (if not lightest) to carry folded. Though I'm not entirely sure why a young lady I saw at Victoria the other week was pushing hers into the station on the easy wheels rather than the rather easier 16" ones....

I wouldn't buy a Brompton- for my particular folding bike needs, Chutney ticks all the boxes. It folds small enough, it's nippy, comfortable, has proved more than up to the job of riding centuries (and barely slower if at all than the other three in the fleet). It's just a great bike. Using it for the Normandy/Belgium holiday this year will not in any way be a chore. But, it's never going to fold as small as a Brommie (20" wheels give in ride quality what they take away in size), will never fold as neatly or as stably (magnets don't hold that well and it sits better with wheels slightly apart anyway). You pays your money....

 

[shouldbeinbed]

<snip>Brompton have chosen to make a folding bike, rather than a bike that folds. <snip>

In over a decade of Birdy riding love in with regular short tests on Brompton's and others (just because i could really), your words above are exactly what I said over and over again.

My last owned Birdy's DualDrive went and it needed a costly refurb to get it back to pristine condition coinciding with my knees creaking more & Manchester Metrolink (Bagged Brompton or nothing rule for bikes) coming to my hometown and near to my workplace made the 'B' decision for me. Although I was not 100% convinced I ended up with Hobson's choice when all things and availabilities, costs etc of other folders were taken into account. I paid my money with a suck it and see attitude, pretty happy I'd not lose much if it didn't go well and I'd recoup enough to try something else.

IMO and it is just MO but garnered from real experience, Living with a Brompton and riding it regularly gives a whole new perspective and a lie to my long held reservations & the sentiment of the quote above, it is most definitely a bike that folds and folds well, but it is also a bike that can be and is ridden +/-daily in comfort, without compromise, in preference to a variety of other bikes - more and less expensive that the Brompton & with a ride quality that significantly belies cute 1-liners like ^

+1 on older Dahon's too, My Getaway has very much the same weight and overall folded footprint as the Brompton does & bagged I have no doubt I'd get away (no pun) with it on the Metro but it wasn't a viable option as a day in day out bike, when the Birdy gave out. It lives at work now and is happily ridden for short hops out on days when I've not ridden in, but is a rickety old hector with some interesting lurch and flexing under pedalling load and braking.

 

[StuAff]

a ride quality that significantly belies cute 1-liners like ^

A line best taken in the context it was written. Bromptons can be ridden 'without compromise'? All design is compromise. You might be able to ride a Brompton up, and down, the Stelvio Pass or Mont Ventoux, but I'd hazard a guess more people would prefer to do so on something with 700c wheels, probably made of carbon. Getting down to those places via train or plane would be a lot easier with a Brommie though! No bike, folding or otherwise, Brompton or otherwise, can do everything well, and folders involve more compromises than most. A Brompton is the folding bike answer for many, they are excellent bikes, but it depends what the question was in the first place...

Been there, done that with DualDrive (had one replaced under warranty)

 

[Flying Dodo]

No bike, folding or otherwise, Brompton or otherwise, can do everything well, and folders involve more compromises than most. A Brompton is the folding bike answer for many, they are excellent bikes, but it depends what the question was in the first place...

And on that bombshell, Goodnight!

 

[shouldbeinbed]

A line best taken in the context it was written. Bromptons can be ridden 'without compromise'? All design is compromise. You might be able to ride a Brompton up, and down, the Stelvio Pass or Mont Ventoux, but I'd hazard a guess more people would prefer to do so on something with 700c wheels, probably made of carbon. Getting down to those places via train or plane would be a lot easier with a Brommie though! No bike, folding or otherwise, Brompton or otherwise, can do everything well, and folders involve more compromises than most. A Brompton is the folding bike answer for many, they are excellent bikes, but it depends what the question was in the first place...

Been there, done that with DualDrive (had one replaced under warranty)

That clip just stuck out for me as it was exactly what I'd said on Bromptons for years, I didn't mean to misrepresent by snipping it out &
agreed, without compromise is OTT, but likewise in context it sounds a bit better. I think the bike overall meets the tone of the second post more than the first, Its not perfect, no bike I've ever had has been but even at £900+ in terms of its VFM, versatility & satisfaction I'm hard pressed to think of another bike I've had that has impressed me more.

Maybe that's why I'm the typical brommyw**ker convert, I've been deeply disappointed with more costly bikes I'd bigged up in my head as world beaters before I got them, with the Brompton I had a real suspicion it was emperors new clothes so have been extremely pleasantly surprised over the course of the last 18 odd months at how its performed.

I can't complain about the dualdrive, it gave near 10 years good use & the Birdy is still in bits in the shed awaiting the economic recovery landing at my doorstep to get it fettled again, then I'd have a dilemma