The Brompton Mean Machine

Tuesday, 10 April, 2007

Being a commuter I have a mission to find the best way to get in to work. In fact, being a GIS lecturer seems to involve a mandatory long commute. I live about 60 miles away from Kingston and am the closest of the GIS group. And for all of us this means traversing across London where we all converge on Waterloo for a speedy South West Trains trip to Surbiton. So one of the key elements of the journal is getting across London. This aspect of the journey, in particular, encouraged me to get a folding bike and, specifically, a Brompton.

The Brompton is the grand-daddy of modern folders and produced by a “traditional” small engineering company. The quality of the product is excellent and, importantly, it quickly folds and unfolds. Not only that, but when folded it has the smallest volume of all standard production folding bikes. Important when on the train. And on that note, all rail companies in the UK accept folding bikes in the rush hour.

In terms of riding, it takes a little while to get used to the small wheels and consequently tight turning circle. However it is very manouvorable, important in heavy traffic. I’ve since added the extended seatpost (as I’m 5’11”), mini-bar ends and clipless pedals which increase the speed of the bike. So all in all an indispensable part of the commute that probable saves about 30 minutes in commute time!!

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