Originally Posted by
Purpleorchid
Cool! Good to know that as a newbie to the folding bike world, I made a good choice with my 2012 Brompton H6L raw lacquer purchase! I couldn't believe how easy the bike was to ride when I took it for a spin!
Another way of looking at it is you avoided some of the pitfalls that the lack of knowledge of folding bikes brings. I admit to my own avoidable "goofs" that I have done in the past with 2 of my
now former folding bikes. While they did contribute to my knowledge of these bikes, I could have saved much money and time worrying about the poor unreliable, unpredictable, and mostly hard to repair/replace latches of those 2 cheapie Chinese bikes I bought at first.
Originally Posted by
wandt
Thanks for the review. I'm hoping to be in the market for a new Brompton and just discovered how comfortable the higher bars can be. I had previously gravitated toward more "racey" type positions.
I myself being a "smaller person of stature" would have been guided to the flat
S Type handlebars. I don't care much for that riding position. One of the main reasons I chose the
M type was it's upright riding position it offered. My present other 2 bikes also have a harp shape handlebars similar to my
Brompton.
Yeah, comparing the latches on a Dahon or Tern to the twiddlely knob on the Brompton makes one realize just how "
1977" some of the Brompton's technology is.
Originally Posted by
chagzuki
The simplicity of the latches makes for a fail-safe design, almost nothing can go wrong, so I can see advantage of that. Though in winter gloves it can be hard to twiddle the twiddly bits with ease whereas a Dahon latch is fine with padded gloves on. However, I can't see any reason why Brompton hasn't already switched to a Kamoya/Brompification type enhancement of the design (except done properly with the central bulge), really, it eliminates what I think are really faults in the design, i.e. needing one hand to align the clamp plate which sometimes slips between frame hinge plates, rotates out of position etc., and the other hand to tighten the wingnut thingy. Making the clamp plate longer on one side and adding a spring eliminates those flaws and it would cost next to nothing to implement. I've modded the standard clamp plates slightly and added a circlip (instead of spring) to secure the plate, and the result is a much easier folding process, though the circlip can gradually slide out of position (a spring would be better if I could find one the right size).
One of the things that continues to attract me to the
Brompton is they keep the components/accessories that work and look for all around improvement of their product. If you liked the old
Bromptons of any age, you will continue to like their bikes and appreciate the new improvements they add over the years.
All three of my bikes (
Brompton included) uses a wingnut & bolt type of latch to keep the bike together. No weird latches that can't be replaced with ease at the local hardware store. It holds true in 1977 as well as today.