Is Brompton Bike Hire for real? Has anyone, especially visitors to the UK, had experience with it?

Seven of us will visit near Reading, UK for a week, and plan to rent bikes. I notice there there is a dock at the Reading RR station as well as one at Didcot, not to far to the west. The price appears unbeatable. We also plan to visit various areas by train; but the train companies' bike policies seem to make that difficult: e.g., must reserved by 4:00 PM the day before, only two per train, etc. But folders, as with Amtrak, go as carry on luggage.