Hi All,
I finally got round to documenting my cockpit mods and am very very happy with the finished result. I added a white riser bar to the existing M bar steering post, new levers, a Sturmey Archer shifter and new foam grips.
The change in handlebar height just feels right. I am only 5'7" so if you are really tall, I could understand you might have an issue with a mid-riser bar but for me it is perfect.
(Products bought @ July 2011 prices)
Deity Villain 2 white mid riser bar £30 – 315g (before cutting off the ends)
Xposure pair of white levers £12 – 167g
3 Speed Sturmey Archer SLS30-T Thumbshifter - £16 – 77g (but SJS delivery +£5!!
)
Brompton grey foam grips - £5
The bar is strong, won’t flex and is light. No need to spend a fortune, you are going to cut the ends off anyway! My Xposure levers work better than the originals, they are light, cheap and they match the bar colour. The Sturmey Archer metal thumb shifter is amazing, crisp, clean changes. I had worried about this component a lot but ultimately listened to the good advice from the members of this forum, thanks guys. I also opted to put a new pair of Brompton foam grips back on... I like them, (plus they weigh ‘nothing’).
I learnt some valuable lessons applying my mods and thought I would share my experience. For those with more experience – go easy on me if I have done something stupid!
1. Stripping the old bar
I removed all the old components and just slid the bar out, no dramas here, pretty easy.
But note, when you dismantle the Brompton plastic gear shifter BE CAREFUL, there is a TINY spring in there so when opening it up, make a point of taking the spring out and storing it safely, do not leave it in place or... BOING, no more spring! I lost mine.
As the cables (both brakes and gear cable) have nipples on the end of them, I unclamped the ‘un-nippled’ end and unthreaded the old components. I did of course have to cut off the cable end crimps… no great loss there.
I noted that when unthreading from the callipers there is a small plastic cable sleeve as well as the larger rubber cable cover; I made sure to store them carefully so that I could find them later when reassembling!
I reused the original cables and sleeves without modification. The height change of the handlebar is not enough to ‘need’ new cable lengths but you might think about shortening your cable sleeves by a small amount.
2. Fitting a raised bar takes a little effort
To fit a raised bar in the welded Brompton clamp you have to 'stretch' the clamp open so the bar can slide in past its bends. I am only too aware that this comes with a risk. At worst you might crack the weld of the clamp! However, I consider this a minor risk considering the general quality of the Brompton build. This is the ‘hardest’ part of the mod.
Before we start, I cut down my new riser bar so that it was exactly the same width as the original. In hindsight it could do to be a little bit smaller but then Brompton steering can be a little dicey so maybe it’s better to have the additional leverage!
I took the clamp bolt completely out of the handlebar clamp. I took a similar size, but longer bolt and screwed it into the 'wrong' side of the clamp. This meant that as I screwed it into the wrong side of the clamp I could use it to push the other side of the clamp to open the clamp (I put a piece of metal against the other face of the clamp so I did not scratch it).
I then tried to slide my new bar through the clamp, got impatient, tried to force it, dinged it
!!
I learnt that you cannot push it. It will either go without effort or it won’t. I turned the bolt to open the clamp up a little bit more and eventually the bar slid in easily.
Ok so with the bar in place I needed to close the clamp. Undoing the long screw and taking it out revealed that the clamp had not fully returned to its' original position. So... I then squeezed it shut as much as I could using soft clamp jaws and then used the original clamp bolt to pull the clamp together (don't forget the washer).
Bar fitted. I was a few pints of sweat and a whole page of expletives lighter… but it’s easy when you know how and you can follow the above!
3. Connecting it all up
So I then rethreaded the cables back through, hooked up my brake levers, new SA shifter and bolted it all on to the handlebar.
When I put the components on the new bar, I just nipped them up a bit because I realised I was going to need to play around with their placement so I could adjust them for my preferred riding position and to ensure the fold is not impacted. This was easy but did take some trial and error. I started with the angle of the bar so that it would fold without hitting the wheel and then everything else was easy. I then put new Brompton grey foam grips on with some hair spray, job done.
