berlinonaut

You call it fanboyism, I call it sense of quality. If I were to do a long travel with a bike in my luggage for me it'd be important to have a bike that simply works. As I would prefer to focus on the travel an not on bike-problems. And I am willing to pay for better quality. For the simple reason that I rather risk paying a little bit too much for something that works than saving money on something that maybe will not serve my needs and therefore ending up with a total loss. What bike to choose is therefor a question of individual judgement.

With the history of that clones and knowing what I know after years of usage about the (sometimes hidden) quality of the Brompton, to big parts resulting from attention to detail, I would not have that trust in a clone to simply work sufficiently for me. People that just look on the shape may not recognize the differences and may than be disappointed (as was the guy buying a flamingo in Singapur) as they expect the clones to deliver 90% of what a Brompton delivers in terms of quality for a fraction of the price. Which they probably don't. Your mileage may vary as your criteria for a bike may be different, your requirements towards quality may be lower or the risk that you are willing to take is higher. Fair enough.

Simply neglecting the existence of differences between the Brompton and the clones would simply be ignorant and ignorance rarely has proven to be a good strategy.