Brompton Folding Bike Bushcraft conversion.

[moocher]

Enjoyable thread,I have a mission folding bike,cannot remember the number of gears.but the tyres are cracked,I am thinking of renewing them with tyres that have a big tread,to help with tracks etc,I notice some pre school kids bike tyres look suitable ,so should be plenty to choose from.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

By takedown I mean "comes to pieces" - to be reassembled day of the jackal style when needed. (ie. without the need for tools).

Ah, that makes sense.

Great write up Julia.

Not a Brompton fan myself, but to be honest i'm not a fan of fold away bikes either.
For commuting i can see where they would be a good solution.

For commuting they are fantastic. I commute to work at the Brewery on mine, and I used to commute on it in the Netherlands. By cycling rather than using the bus to the station, the bike paid for itself very fast.

For touring though the odd time i've used public transport with a bike i've never really had a problem, here in Greece you can load bikes onto the last subway car (if it's not full), done a couple of train trips over the years and again had no problem with a full sized bike.

I had all manor of problems on the return from a cycle tour of Ireland. Got to Crewe, where there was a rail replacement bus, and they wouldn't take my bike, had a train ride that took 12 hours, and the rail company eventually put me and the bike in a taxi home. Was not fun.

I do agree with MrCharly, i found them extremely uncomfortable for longer (50km+) rides.
Part of the problem is the wheel size means you get a fair bit of kick from bumps in the road or potholes, a larger wheel like say 700c doesn't have such a pronounced "kick"

Not noticed that, even cycling in Belgium. The default suspension block that came with the bike was a bit soft, and the bike would wallow a little. The original fix for this was a jubilee clip, but since then Brompton have bought out firmer suspension blocks, which alleviate this.

Around say 20km you can feel it but it doesn't make much of a difference to comfort, if you start hitting 50km and over i really start to curse the bike then.

The other problem i had was that i just couldn't get a comfortable position with the handlebars, tried every possible adjustment but just couldn't get a good compromise between control and comfort.

I think this may be a question of body geometry. How tall are you? If you are taller than my 1.7m, you may want to look at the H version, it provides a better geometry for the taller rider.

As a comparison i used to do over 200 miles a week training, with a long ride thrown in on Sundays usually around 100 miles, so my body was used to the effects of cycling.
30 miles on a Brompton though pretty much had me done for.

I am not at that level of riding, I currently do maybe 20-30 miles a week, tho I do want to increase that.

Saying that, people do ride Bromptons for longer distances, we even had a guy do our local 10 mile time trial on one complete with tri-bars, so no doubt they're capable, i think you really NEED to make use of the folding feature of the bikes to make them worthwhile though, something which i don't.

There are some absolute nutters out there that have done some crazy things on Bromptons. There was a Woman who did the Dunwich Dynamo a few years ago on a Penny Farthing, with a group of Bromptons as out riders...

I am sure I read somewhere that they do a London to Paris Brompton ride.

I have a Dahon Espresso, this is like a mountain bike that folds in half. it is fitted with a rear rack. The only thing with mine-an earlier model- is that I need an allen key to fold the handlebars in so it fits in its bag.
Its aluminium and weighs in at 14 kilos.It has 21 gears.

I can see a Kent folding bike camping meet happening.

I like the idea of a Kent folding bike camping trip happening. London - Paris is one I've seen people do on a Brompton, ditto Paris Brest Paris, which is a horrible ride for the cobbles.

Enjoyable thread,I have a mission folding bike,cannot remember the number of gears.but the tyres are cracked,I am thinking of renewing them with tyres that have a big tread,to help with tracks etc,I notice some pre school kids bike tyres look suitable ,so should be plenty to choose from.

If you want new tyres, seriously consider the Schwalbe Marathon Plus, good traction, very very puncture resistant, and IMHO, worth their weight in gold.

Julia

 

[cbr6fs]

I had all manor of problems on the return from a cycle tour of Ireland. Got to Crewe, where there was a rail replacement bus, and they wouldn't take my bike, had a train ride that took 12 hours, and the rail company eventually put me and the bike in a taxi home. Was not fun.

I can imagine, what an absolute nightmare, especially when you just want to get back home.
Did they pay for the taxi?

I think this may be a question of body geometry. How tall are you? If you are taller than my 1.7m, you may want to look at the H version, it provides a better geometry for the taller rider.

I'm 5"8" so not tall by any means, also pretty average in leg/arm length.

Used to ride into work when i first moved to Athens, it was a 10 mile ride through the center of downtown Athens, which was fun, especially riding right past the Acropolis every morning and evening.
But other than that i've not done much road riding since moving here.

Now with the knackered arm, roads bikes are out of the question (dropped bars makes brake levers and shifters tough to modify).
To be honest though even if both arms worked or o fitted straight bars, i still wouldn't venture out onto Greek roads anymore, oddly enough downtown is safer as the traffic flows a LOT slower and drivers tend to be aware of mopeds and bikes, out on the more open and scenic roads it's a major major risk.

So apart from the odd road section to jump between or get onto trails all my riding is done off-road, so a brommy wouldn't be much use to me.

I am not at that level of riding, I currently do maybe 20-30 miles a week, tho I do want to increase that.

Me neither anymore

There are some absolute nutters out there that have done some crazy things on Bromptons. There was a Woman who did the Dunwich Dynamo a few years ago on a Penny Farthing, with a group of Bromptons as out riders...

Used to be a mountain biking festival at the Malverns back in the early 90's, one guy in the tent next to us had a penny farthing, what a absolute nightmare to ride
I had more *injuries riding that thing than i did on the cross country and downhill course

*Alcohol may have been involved

 

[moocher]

Thankyou Julia, I will find some

 

[Quixoticgeek]

I can imagine, what an absolute nightmare, especially when you just want to get back home.
Did they pay for the taxi?

They did, thankfully, it was quite a large bill. One of the plus sides of the national rail conditions of carriage.

So apart from the odd road section to jump between or get onto trails all my riding is done off-road, so a brommy wouldn't be much use to me.

I offroad on my Brompton all the time. Sure it might not be the most perfect off road bike compared to a big mountain bike, but I've not had any major issues with it. At least, none that wouldn't also be issues for a normal bike.

Julia