My wife say's...

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EltonFrog

EltonFrog

Legendary Member
2 month update. I love it, over 300 miles ridden so far, a weekend tour, train trips, and several utility rides. Up until yesterday I hadn’t ridden any of my other bikes. It’s an excellent machine and has exceeded my expectations. It’s a basic C line no modifications. Yet.
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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
2 month update. I love it, over 300 miles ridden so far, a weekend tour, train trips, and several utility rides. Up until yesterday I hadn’t ridden any of my other bikes. It’s an excellent machine and has exceeded my expectations. It’s a basic C line no modifications. Yet.
View attachment 663190

Hang on. That picture looks familiar. (Goes and searches through photos ...) What are the chances?
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Taken in June last year.
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
I have one for a specific purpose: I had to drop the kids off in the car and then ride to work and I didn't have a roofrack in those days (and neither did I want one) so I got myself a Brompton. To say one will leave it in the car just in case, well, although a Brommie folds up much smaller than other folders, it's still quite big to leave in the car boot (even if you have a big car boot).
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I have one for a specific purpose: I had to drop the kids off in the car and then ride to work and I didn't have a roofrack in those days (and neither did I want one) so I got myself a Brompton. To say one will leave it in the car just in case, well, although a Brommie folds up much smaller than other folders, it's still quite big to leave in the car boot (even if you have a big car boot).

Mine never fitted easily in the "boot" (hatchback-behind-the-passenger-seat-bit) of my old Mercedes A class. It was a close thing but I never quite did it. And now I've downsized to a Hyundai i10 - no chance. If it travels by car I sometimes wrap it in a blanket and then secure it with a seatbelt on the passenger back seat. I'm not 100% sure that's entirely safe if I had an accident tho. Safer, but less comfortable for the front seat passenger is having the bike squashed behind the front passenger seat and on the floor of the rear passenger space.
 

FishFright

More wheels than sense
Mine never fitted easily in the "boot" (hatchback-behind-the-passenger-seat-bit) of my old Mercedes A class. It was a close thing but I never quite did it. And now I've downsized to a Hyundai i10 - no chance. If it travels by car I sometimes wrap it in a blanket and then secure it with a seatbelt on the passenger back seat. I'm not 100% sure that's entirely safe if I had an accident tho. Safer, but less comfortable for the front seat passenger is having the bike squashed behind the front passenger seat and on the floor of the rear passenger space.

Does the rear seat not fold much on either of those cars ? I've no idea I don't do cars.
 

Kell

Veteran
I have to say it’s surprising how much space a Brompton does take up.

We have a convertible Mini and it ‘just’ goes in the boot of that, but I have to remove the parcel shelf and couldn’t put the roof down.

We also have a Q5 and once it’s in the boot of that, there really isn’t much room for anything else. It won’t quite stand up as it fouls the parcel shelf, so has to lie down.

It would be one time where a bag would be useful as you could pack other stuff around it without getting it dirty.
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
I have to say it’s surprising how much space a Brompton does take up.
We have a convertible Mini and it ‘just’ goes in the boot of that, but I have to remove the parcel shelf and couldn’t put the roof down.
We also have a Q5 and once it’s in the boot of that, there really isn’t much room for anything else. It won’t quite stand up as it fouls the parcel shelf, so has to lie down.
Given that a folded Brommi easily fits in the boot of a Smart (more than one + extra luggage, to be precise): Isn't rather astonishing that car dimensions grew so massively over the last decades and despite their sometimes grotesque outside dimensions there's surprisingly little space inside? A convertible Mini is pretty useless in terms of boot space, that's a known. But a Q5 - honestly? What good is a car of that size if one single Brommi is able to fill it's boot? And what do you do if you dont own a Brommi but a folder with bigger folded dimensions or a non-folder?
 

Kell

Veteran
Given that a folded Brommi easily fits in the boot of a Smart (more than one + extra luggage, to be precise): Isn't rather astonishing that car dimensions grew so massively over the last decades and despite their sometimes grotesque outside dimensions there's surprisingly little space inside? A convertible Mini is pretty useless in terms of boot space, that's a known. But a Q5 - honestly? What good is a car of that size if one single Brommi is able to fill it's boot? And what do you do if you dont own a Brommi but a folder with bigger folded dimensions or a non-folder?

It's not that it 'fills' the boot, but because you can't stand it up without removing the parcel shelf, and you can't really put anything else on top of it if you want to keep it clean, it effectively takes up about half the boot.

Q5s, despite their size, have very poor boot space (IMO). Our previous A6 Avant was way better in that respect. I was also surprised that the Q5 is a wider car than the A6 (but shorter). I'm pretty sure we had the A6 when I had the Brompton, but I don't really remember a time when I had to put it in the back so can't compare it.
 
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berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
Q5s, despite their size, have very poor boot space (IMO).
Seems to be a common pattern today. A couple of years ago I rented a modern Mercedes A class through car sharing. Pretty massive outside dimensions, given that it is a compact car. On the inside I felt really cramped. I'm a slick person, but boy, there was not much space on the driver's seat. I don't even mention the boot. Many modern cars look to me as if they were taken from a disney comic, exaggerated in every dimension. Obvious with American pickup-trucks (thankfully there aren't many here in Berlin) but even retro cars like the Fiat 500 look strange when you see a elderly small looking person, barely visible inside a giant (compared to the original) Fiat 500x, the SUVed version of the blown up version of the original. Looks a little bit like Gulliver's travels, just that it's the cars that traveled and now look giant in comparison to the rest of the surounding.
 

berlinonaut

Veteran
Location
Berlin Germany
We could create an organisation that tests and certifies cars in terms of how well a Brompton fit's into the boot. We give red (doesn't fit) /yellow (does fit, but not upright or not very well)/green (does fit upright and safely w/o hassle) ratings and an additional "excellent" star if more than one fits. Obviously we charge big for the certification but in exchange car manufacturers receive a nicely shaped logo and can advertise that they are certified for Brompton use which will boost their sales to the sky. Which will then lead to all car manufacturers having a Brompton in mind when designing new cars and - even more important - more certifications and thus more money for us.
With the money we earn we can buy T-lines for everyone and later on an island of our own that we rename to Brompton island. It will be shaped in the form of a folded Bromton and have a test track around it. Who is in?
 
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