Let's See Your Folding Bike

[rogerzilla]

Have you realised you've left the reflectors on?

 

[TheDoctor]

I don't think I've ever had a show-stopping failure on my Brompton, or not one that was down to Brompton specific parts. The ten day tour I did on my M6R, I checked the tyres and cables, lubed the chain, fitted new front brake pads and that was it. My coast to coast ride, I didn't even do that. No problems at all.

 

[CharlieB]

I am surprised to read about touring and all those parts in one paragraph. Too many times in my case a single non-Brompton part, that was blindly trusted, disabled my planned activities at the very start of travel. These days I severely limit the use of such parts and I religiously take along a recovery kit of original Brompton parts until it is clear that the situation is stable. Obviously taking along the recovery kit increases the weight rather than lowers it, but it is a potential investment in the future.

A very fair and valid point.
No problems so far, but I've always avoided the very suspect aftermarket items seen on eBay. Always.
Almost everything has come from SJS Cycles here in the UK, who have a good Brompton reputation to maintain. I would expect and hope that they'd only stock more reliable items.

 

[rogerzilla]

There's some right garbage made in the Far East for Bromptons. Since Brompton stopped supplying Ti seatposts years ago, I bought an aftermarket one from the Bay of Thieves. It was so flexible - probably too thin-walled - that I rode it 100 yards and then removed it. Luckily it wasn't too expensive.

There are a few exceptions - some of the Joseph Kuosac stuff is good.

 

[CharlieB]

There's some right garbage made in the Far East for Bromptons. Since Brompton stopped supplying Ti seatposts years ago, I bought an aftermarket one from the Bay of Thieves. It was so flexible - probably too thin-walled - that I rode it 100 yards and then removed it. Luckily it wasn't too expensive.

There are a few exceptions - some of the Joseph Kuosac stuff is good.

There's your answer.

 

[CaptainWheezy]

I've had quite frankly ridiculous amount of stuff from Bikegang.co.uk (warning, the website is a bit slow). They have at least one guy in the uk (Newcastle area i think) but are Taiwan based. They have many of the same aftermarket parts that SJS stock but without their mark-up. If you're prepared to wait a bit longer for shipping you can save quite a bit.

Regarding aftermarket seatposts, the H&H posts they stock at least appear to have undergone some formal testing, with the test certificates shown on their page. I've got 2 x carbon posts and the Mrs has 1 titanium one with another currently on order and not had any issues with them. Have to say, I'm happy with pretty much everything I've had from them (mostly H&H branded parts) plus some Tange headsets and some Multi-S seatpost clamps.

We have 4 x Bromptons between us and its become a bit of a hobby customising them, but to be honest they don't get heavy use commuting, they're used mostly for days out so our use case my differ from others.

The Mrs has:
A cherry blossom S6L with dynamo lighting, just about to be upgraded from shimano to SON
A house red S6L-X (heavily modified), currently weighs about 9.6Kg

Mine are:
A black lacquer black edition S6L that i fitted a rack and SON dynamo + lighting to so I guess its now an S6R
A flame lacquer black edition S6L-X (again, heavily modified), weighing about 9.5Kg

 

[rogerzilla]

I've had quite frankly ridiculous amount of stuff from Bikegang.co.uk (warning, the website is a bit slow). They have at least one guy in the uk (Newcastle area i think) but are Taiwan based. They have many of the same aftermarket parts that SJS stock but without their mark-up. If you're prepared to wait a bit longer for shipping you can save quite a bit.

Regarding aftermarket seatposts, the H&H posts they stock at least appear to have undergone some formal testing, with the test certificates shown on their page. I've got 2 x carbon posts and the Mrs has 1 titanium one with another currently on order and not had any issues with them. Have to say, I'm happy with pretty much everything I've had from them (mostly H&H branded parts) plus some Tange headsets and some Multi-S seatpost clamps.

We have 4 x Bromptons between us and its become a bit of a hobby customising them, but to be honest they don't get heavy use commuting, they're used mostly for days out so our use case my differ from others.

The Mrs has:
A cherry blossom S6L with dynamo lighting, just about to be upgraded from shimano to SON
A house red S6L-X (heavily modified), currently weighs about 9.6Kg

Mine are:
A black lacquer black edition S6L that i fitted a rack and SON dynamo + lighting to so I guess its now an S6R
A flame lacquer black edition S6L-X (again, heavily modified), weighing about 9.5Kg

Are you selling the Shimano hub? I quite like them, although they weigh an absolute ton compared to a SON or (especially) SP hub. Literally twice the weight of an SP SV-9!

 

[CaptainWheezy]

Are you selling the Shimano hub? I quite like them, although they weigh an absolute ton compared to a SON or (especially) SP hub. Literally twice the weight of an SP SV-9!

Could do, hoping to get the wheel with the SON hub, new lights and a few other bits fitted over the weekend and then it will be just cluttering the garage up. It's not had a great deal of use so there's loads of life left in the rim. I'll take some photo's when its removed and drop you a pm.

 

[rogerzilla]

Thanks - they are pretty easy to service, even the notorious RH bearing, so they can often be made to roll better than other dynamo hubs. I have a bare one sitting in front of me right now but it's going in a friend's bike. Should be DH-F703-SB, the special one with an 8mm axle.

 

[12boy]

I am surprised to read about touring and all those parts in one paragraph. Too many times in my case a single non-Brompton part, that was blindly trusted, disabled my planned activities at the very start of travel. These days I severely limit the use of such parts and I religiously take along a recovery kit of original Brompton parts until it is clear that the situation is stable. Obviously taking along the recovery kit increases the weight rather than lowers it, but it is a potential investment in the future.
What do you carry in your recovery kit? Just curious.

 

[u_i]

What do you carry in your recovery kit? Just curious.

The recovery kit would just consist of the original part or parts needed for going back to the original configuration. I usually carry some tools anyway, but there would be a review to assure that nothing is missing for the potentially needed operation.

To mention on the occasion, I have two tool-set levels, one normally in my pocket and another bulky for any travel with a bike. Included in the latter are also replacement cables and a selection of bolts. Also a separate set consists of a pump and tube patches. There are no tools or pump on my Brompton as I rotate in the daily life between bikes, so it makes no sense to tie them to one particular.

 

[u_i]

There are a few exceptions - some of the Joseph Kuosac stuff is good.

Good to hear that there is some more solid ground to walk on.

I've had quite frankly ridiculous amount of stuff from Bikegang.co.uk (warning, the website is a bit slow). They have at least one guy in the uk (Newcastle area i think) but are Taiwan based. They have many of the same aftermarket parts that SJS stock but without their mark-up. If you're prepared to wait a bit longer for shipping you can save quite a bit.

Regarding aftermarket seatposts, the H&H posts they stock at least appear to have undergone some formal testing, with the test certificates shown on their page. I've got 2 x carbon posts and the Mrs has 1 titanium one with another currently on order and not had any issues with them. Have to say, I'm happy with pretty much everything I've had from them (mostly H&H branded parts) plus some Tange headsets and some Multi-S seatpost clamps.

I have quite some respect for Bikegang. They commonly use widely available parts and adapt them for Brompton and Birdy and maybe other folders. Sometimes I do not even use directly what they provided, just use their ideas for my own adaptation.

As to H&H, I got their tensioner for Brompton and it made the shifting go bad. The problem was in the tensioner pulley being placed farther away from the axle than in the original. This was presumably done to allow for larger cogs. Still, this was not disclosed in the tensioner description, nor were described any potential problems coming along with it.

Using mainstream components, well established in the market, is likely fine on Brompton when they fit. After all, Brompton also uses different standard parts. Scary are those small-run Brompton specific parts from fly-by-night manufacturers, that never really get tested. As far as testing by the Brompton market goes, it often seems to be "when it looks good on my bike, it is good enough for me", so it is hard to rely just on the fact that those parts persist in the market. The fact that the manufacturers and vendors are spread around the world, far from the consumers, also makes the likelihood low that they could be weeded out by the complaints from the remaining consumers and refunds.

 

[CaptainWheezy]

As to H&H, I got their tensioner for Brompton and it made the shifting go bad. The problem was in the tensioner pulley being placed farther away from the axle than in the original. This was presumably done to allow for larger cogs. Still, this was not disclosed in the tensioner description, nor were described any potential problems coming along with it.

Interesting you had issues with the H&H chain tensioners. I fitted them to our S6L-X's. I used them with the H&H CNC machined jockey wheels and also the replacement H&H pusher (the bit that presses against the sides of the rearmost jockey wheel to move the chain over). Setting it up required quite precise adjustments of the limit grub screws but I seem to have got it running smoothly on both bikes. My set up may have been complicated also due to the fact i'm running narrower 11 speed KMC chains.

 

[u_i]

Interesting you had issues with the H&H chain tensioners. I fitted them to our S6L-X's. I used them with the H&H CNC machined jockey wheels and also the replacement H&H pusher (the bit that presses against the sides of the rearmost jockey wheel to move the chain over). Setting it up required quite precise adjustments of the limit grub screws but I seem to have got it running smoothly on both bikes. My set up may have been complicated also due to the fact i'm running narrower 11 speed KMC chains.

I used the H&H tensioner both with original Brompton jockey wheels and some aftermarket ones - the attraction was that you could use it without any specialized wheels. Besides that tensioner I tried out on my M6R several pushers and different jockey wheel sets. The experience was consistently horrible. The setup might have worked at the beginning and then all went bad. The worst was a Vietnam travel, where I was dropping chain about every 100 meters. Then I learned to take along the original Brompton parts. To the only things that stayed on the bike in the rear drivetrain belong Bikegang-inspired 3 cogs replacing 2. These are from a 10-speed cassette and are going along with a 10-speed chain. Even that I would not recommend to everyone, as the tuning range for shift cable is very narrow for the shifting to work properly. On the shift cable side further stayed a dogleg from AliExpress, that I had to modify a bit, though.

 

[berlinonaut]

I have quite some respect for Bikegang. They commonly use widely available parts and adapt them for Brompton and Birdy and maybe other folders. Sometimes I do not even use directly what they provided, just use their ideas for my own adaptation.

To the only things that stayed on the bike in the rear drivetrain belong Bikegang-inspired 3 cogs replacing 2. These are from a 10-speed cassette and are going along with a 10-speed chain.

To be fair: The solution was invented by someone else and build by a bunch of people (including myself) years before bikegang started to sell it. So they probably got inspired by others themselves and decided it may be worth selling a kit for people who are not willing or able to tinker too much but rather pay a little more. I think the initial inventor (to my knowledge he's called Duncan McGregor) may even have published it in this very forum first - it was literally ages ago. I have a pdf made by him in my archive documenting the mod which dates from September 2014 and it has version number 1.3... At that time the document was stored in and shared via evernote by him - looong time ago. I got inspired by his post and doc and adapted it to my needs (he had it on the two speed, I converted my 6-speed to 9-speed using slightly different ways). His mod was later also featured in the long gone wiki of the brompton-talk-mailing list.

PS: The pdf is still available here: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/4bae9f26-2252-4be9-8229-314d0a13c754/3118242aa4dcc174f4c493cf5828165e/res/133a58c6-bd38-46f2-8a6a-ec61dcdaafe7/2 to 3 Speed.pdf