Latest ‘mods’ - strengthened mudguard and new light

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Kell

Veteran
My black edition mudguard lasted less then a year before cracking.

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So I got one of those aluminium ‘stripes’ and a new mudguard.



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It’s not brilliantly designed as you have to drill out the end rivet in order to put the mudguard flap on.

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The other PITA is the wheel. It doesn’t come with one, and I was finding it hard to buy one online for a decent price. So I started to try and drill my old one out, but in the end I hacksawed my way through the old holder.

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As everything was in bits, it was a good opportunity to swap out the old reflector for the light/reflector combo.

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Hopefully, this mudguard will last a little longer.
 

12boy

Guru
Location
Casper WY USA
I am a little slow...did you get a new fender plus the Al strip, or use the old fender and the new strip. Either way it looks like a nice, clean job.
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
I do own that "aluminium strip" as well - just that it is not aluminium but stainless steel... ^_^ So unfortunately a little heavy. It is the Milianparts Plablo (which I happend to buy locally during a visit in Barcelona at CapProblema, one of the oldest Brompton shops there (and the initial inventors of the Brompton Championships) who are closely tied to Milianparts and share some staff with them. I had no issues mounting it, including the roller wheel and it fulfills the job of protecting the mudguard really well (and for that reason steel works way better than aluminium would). Regarding the rivet of the mudflap: Not too much what Milianparts could do about that as the rivet comes from Brompton. Under normal circumstances it is even a good idea: Before the rivet the mudflap was mounted via a screw which led to loss of the mudflap relatively often as the screw unscrewed due to vibration. i lost two flaps that way. A couple of years ago (maybe 6 or 7?) Bromton switched from screw to rivet there and loosing the mudguard has been history since.

Kell's cracked mudguard looks a little mistreated - in 13 years of heavy Brompton usage I happened only once to crack a rear mudguard (while quite hectically disembarking a subway) and even that looked still better than his. :becool:
I did however not use the Plablo for too long - the bike it was mounted to got equipped with a rear carrier only a couple of months later (so no need for the Plablo there any more) and while I generally like it I hesitated to mount it to my lightweight L-Brommi to avoid the extra weight. So the unprotected mudguard on this bike is now scratched but still intact.

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Kell

Kell

Veteran
Steel makes more sense. I'd not really looked, just assumed. I'ts an odd texture which is why I assumed alu...

As for the mudguard, I'm still massively surprised more people don't have this problem as it's the second one I've cracked in four and a bit years.

And in fairness, the mudguard was cracked, but not completely through. I twisted it off to get at the wheel.

I'd be interested to see how you removed the old wheel - or did you buy one separately?
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
As for the mudguard, I'm still massively surprised more people don't have this problem as it's the second one I've cracked in four and a bit years.
I assume the difference ist how yo deal with the fold. If you smash the wheel on the ground while folding or in unfolded state this possibly makes a difference to dealing with it more gently and softly like i.e. using your foot to support a softer (but not slower) folding process or putting the folded bike more softly and sorrowfully onto the ground. The one break that I suffered from was when I was in a massive hurry and thus lacked conciousness, smashing the bike much harsher than I usually do.
I'd be interested to see how you removed the old wheel - or did you buy one separately?
If I remember correctly I drilled the rivet out and it worked flawlessly - drilling through the aluminium rivet is like drilling through butter.
 
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Kell

Kell

Veteran
Ah - maybe that was the problem. It was rotating.

The one holding the mudguard flap on was gone in a couple of seconds, but I was drilling the one holding the wheel for 15 minutes or so and you can just about make out that I'd hardly made an impression.
 
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Kell

Kell

Veteran
Regarding the rivet of the mudflap: Not too much what Milianparts could do about that as the rivet comes from Brompton. Under normal circumstances it is even a good idea: Before the rivet the mudflap was mounted via a screw which led to loss of the mudflap relatively often as the screw unscrewed due to vibration. i lost two flaps that way. A couple of years ago (maybe 6 or 7?) Bromton switched from screw to rivet there and loosing the mudguard has been history since.

Well they could have designed it differently and stopped it at the bolts holding the wheel, so that it doesn't involve you having to replace the rivet at all.

That would have made a lot more sense. As would selling it with a wheel.
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
Well they could have designed it differently and stopped it at the bolts holding the wheel, so that it doesn't involve you having to replace the rivet at all.
That would have made a lot more sense.
Because the design is way older than Bromptons mudguards with rivets for the mudflap. Variability/two versions in a product that probably sells in very small numbers is a nightmare and possibly they let manufacture a big batch years ago and are still occupied selling them (just an assumption).
As would selling it with a wheel.
Possibly, but this would have increased the price as well as the cost and added complexity and inventory to the making. I am totally fine with the Plablo as it is.
 
OP
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Kell

Kell

Veteran
Because the design is way older than Bromptons mudguards with rivets for the mudflap. Variability/two versions in a product that probably sells in very small numbers is a nightmare and possibly they let manufacture a big batch years ago and are still occupied selling them (just an assumption).

Possibly, but this would have increased the price as well as the cost and added complexity and inventory to the making. I am totally fine with the Plablo as it is.

Yes, but MMMV. ;-)

I just find it odd to offer a product that involves a fair bit of DIY to make work.

Unless I've missed a trick and the roller wheel is available to buy as a stand-alone part, for those people not very confident to tackle drilling it out, it's a bit of a non-starter.

And most of the third-party wheels I've seen are very expensive. As my wheel looks a bit rubbish (it's the original from 4 and a bit years ago) I'd have liked to be able to replace it with something that matched the new mudguard and strip.

Not that it will matter in two months or so when it's all covered in crud...
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
Just adding, I've found a US site selling the wheels as 'rack' wheels.

https://www.perennialcycle.com/rear-rack-rubber-roller.html

Using their part numbers, I've retrospectively found it on the Brilliant Bikes site...
But it's for pre-2016 racks and is no longer available.
So going on your logic above, perhaps it was possible to buy the wheels as a stand-alone part when the strengthening strip was designed...
I am not totally sure but I think the rack wheels of the older make that you found are not compatible/identical to the one on the mudguard of the L-version. I do have a bunch of them somwhere in a drawer as I exchanged them for easy wheels, so I can check (if I ever manange to find them of course). :laugh: The rear mudgard wheel as a spare part is available as well, but only in combination and mounted to it's holder. Which makes sense given that it is fixed to the holder with a rivet and only very few persons do have the tools to deal with rivets at home... So milianparts possibly did not get hold of seperate wheels and - given that mounting the Plablo does require at least basic tinkering abilities anyway the roller wheel should not be a shocker. If you consider your's to be uglily worn you can always buy a spare one and give the rivet-drilling another go. :becool:
 
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Kell

Kell

Veteran
You may well be right on the wheels.

But my thinking was that it would make a load of sense for Brompton to manufacture the same wheel for all applicationsrather than have have two different ones.

But then, common sense and Brompton don’t always seem to go hand in hand.
 
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