Folding Bikes - Modified Brompton with Shimano Alfine hub

I've finally saved up and had my Brompton modified to the kind of spec I always wanted. I went to Fudge Cycles in Kensal Rise London Please pm me if you want details of the bike shop or you can Google it). The owner Andrew has a real can-do attitude and is a major UK Dahon dealer who started stocking Bromptons recently. He even has the Go cycle which ones doesn't often see in both its electric and normal forms! After some discussion Andrew was up for the mods and ended up doing a superb job. I guess Andrew can be added along with Steve Parry (UK) and Julianna Neuss (Germany) as serious Brompton modder now! The Alfine works a dream on the Brompton. Details as follows:
1) An 8 speed Shimano Alfine hub. I love the silent and smooth shifting of this hub and it can achieve a very nice range with the right chainset. The range on my Brompton is now 28"-101" which is pretty respectable. Pound for pound the Alfine hub is as good as it gets.

2) A front Son dynamo hub to power the rear light and a new Lumotec IQ Fly Senso front light which has great luminosity and uses an life-long LED emitter rather than a bulb.. I'm really pleased with the power of the Son hub and the Lumotec light has a great beam for a dynamo driven light at night. Both front and rear lights have built in capacitors and standing lights when stationary.

3) Added new Shimano brake levers and Koolstop brake pads.The brakes on the newer Bromptons are better but there was always room for improvement to make them a little more responsive.

4) I intend to add a Titanium seatpost to complement the raw lacquer more but it also has the small bonus of taking around 1kg off the total weight of the bike. The mods added only a marginal amount of weight. My aim was a highly specced Brompton rather than a featherweight one. I'm happy to carry 11-12kg for shot bursts and the bike rolls very nicely on the Eazy wheels anyway!

Above the Alfine grip shifter adapted to my Ergon grip on the right-hand side.



The adapted alfine hub. As usual the rear triangle was stretched to allow this mod.



The front Son Dynamo hub which is specially made for smaller wheeled folding bikes such as the Brompton and it's incredibly efficient.



The Lumotec IQ Fly which is far superior to the standard front Dynamo light Brompton supply. Highly recommended!



The revised chainset.

And finally below the bike folds perfectly as ever and I'm still allowed in premises such as pubs for a nice refreshment!

Nice lookin bike! Thanks for posting such nice pictures. It looks really nice with the hub. I would love to do that set up. Please keep us updated on how it performs!

I guess Andrew can be added along with Steve Parry (UK) and Julianna Neuss (Germany) as serious Brompton modder now!

Don't forget about Ben at Kinetics in Glasgow, also does a IGH Brompton:

http://www.kinetics-online.co.uk/html/8-speed.shtml

P.S. Lovely bike, Mulleady!

wow, nice bike. can i ask - do you experiance any drag or resistance with either of the hubs? also how do your vbrake levers fair with the caliper brakes. i have a pair laying around that i want to use but was told that it would be a bad idea to mix vbrake levers with caliper brakes.

Very nice! If it's not too rude a question, how much did it cost? I'm happy with my old 6-speed, but of course, I wouldn't mind one lower and one higher gear, which it sounds like you have - and with the added bonus of only having one shifter to worry about.

hey mulleady.. How much wider did the rear triangle need to be? It's a really nice mod. ARE YOU LISTENING BROMPTON? LOSE THE BAKELITE SHIFTERS AND BIZZARE 3/2=6 SHIFTING SYSTEM.

Rant over. But really - they should be rolling these directly out of the factory, with v-brakes and aberhallo stem adapters. And doing 'cool' urban ones with black rims and kojak tyres.

Silly conservative engineers! :)

Great job, Mulleady! You've got a premium folder there.

I totally agree with LP's comment also. Brompton should be offering this type of choice.

Answers to a few questions:

1) I've encountered little resistance from using front and rear hubs. There is probably a tiny amount but it's barely perceptible and well compensated for by the smoother transmission and superior gearing range.

2) If I isolate the various mods, I'd say the Alfine hub mod was around £500 in total including labour and materials. It's a lot but worth every penny long-term. I believe the Alfine hub provides more 'bang for buck' than say a Rohloff

3) I'd have to check what the rear spacing was widened to. I do know the Alfine threads were also ground down slightly.

Hi Sesame and Littlepixel I hope you are both keeping well! :-)

Don't forget about Ben at Kinetics in Glasgow, also does a IGH Brompton:

http://www.kinetics-online.co.uk/html/8-speed.shtml

P.S. Lovely bike, Mulleady!

Thanks Ben.

I think the Alfine hub provides better performance than the SA 8 speed. I used to get a lot of slipping in 6th gear. Perhaps that has improved in recent SA hubs?

Hi Mulleady,

It is great to see that you are still enjoying the Brompton :thumb:
Bike looks good in that Raw Lacquer finish...... but I’m biased:)
Bromptons are just such a great design for train travel, I don’t know why I didn’t just buy one in the first place ;)

fantastic bike. please keep us inform about the gears in practice.
Hope they keep working well and that the Brompton guys will read this, maybe they might... but I think they don't!

Thanks Ben.

I think the Alfine hub provides better performance than the SA 8 speed. I used to get a lot of slipping in 6th gear. Perhaps that has improved in recent SA hubs?

I dunno. Never used one. Kinetics is right around the corner from where I live, and your post reminded me of the conversions that he does. Just thought I would post it here for the benefit of others. (I've got no affiliation with him, other than living nearby and popping in to say hi from time to time.)

It can't be a proper bike. It drinks lager.




(Sell me your DownTube, Mulleady. )

S.

It can't be a proper bike. It drinks lager.




(Sell me your DownTube, Mulleady. )

S.

The return of Snafu21, my god, what will it be next, the crew of the Marie Celeste returning their library books. Hope you're well happy down in darkest Hants.

The return of Snafu21, my god, what will it be next, the crew of the Marie Celeste returning their library books. Hope you're well happy down in darkest Hants.

Thank you. I was ill, but unfortunately, I got better by accident.

Mulleady's scoot looks funny without no paint. It's like a cat without fur. Hmmm.

I like the Deore (Dior?) brake levers. I got them on my HH7, and the thing stops like, er, a thing with Deore brake levers.

That Brommy just needs some knobbly tires and a coating of cow-pats, and he can come bicycling with me again.

Sue

1) An 8 speed Shimano Alfine hub. I love the silent and smooth shifting of this hub and it can achieve a very nice range with the right chainset. The range on my Brompton is now 28"-101" which is pretty respectable. Pound for pound the Alfine hub is as good as it gets.

Very nice upgrade on the standard gears. Widening the rear-frame usually means that the clearance of the tyres becomes smaller. I thought that Julianna who does the mod to nexus 8 warned that you can't use a schwalbe Marathons anymore because of the 1mm clearance. How much clearance do you have on the rear frame?



4) I intend to add a Titanium seatpost to complement the raw lacquer more but it also has the small bonus of taking around 1kg off the total weight of the bike.

1 kg of weight savings for just changing the seatpost to titanium would be nice. But I read somewhere in a Brompton catalogue that the bonus is only a 74 grams drop in weight.:)

Luca

how does widening the rear dropouts reduce tyre clearance? Surely the opposite is true?

I've plenty of clearance not an issue :-)

It can't be a proper bike. It drinks lager.




(Sell me your DownTube, Mulleady. )

S.

hahaha I train my bikes well Snafu. I forgot to mention the Brompton was also modded to lubricate itself with a variety of beers but it doesn't like shorts ::thumb:

I'd sell you my modified DT if I could steal it back off my friend who I sold it to. I met him last year when my male border collie befriended his female collie. Sadly my fellow had been castrated but they still play with each other :lol:

Don't you have a nice Dahon Jack anyway or have the cowpats dissolved it by now?

how does widening the rear dropouts reduce tyre clearance? Surely the opposite is true?

I meant the clearance between the tyre and the tube that connects the left and right part of the rear end, not the clearance between the rims and the rear end. Can't describe it any better.

That clearance is very tight, just a few milimeters. I hope the pic comes through... (I snapped it from an Ebayer and edited, so if it's yours and you want me to remove it, just PM me!:))


Luca