I bought my Brompton S model in 2013, and have generally been happy with it. The bike has been half way around the world, is used for daily commutes, and does the link in my yearly France/UK trips. However, I've always recognised it isn't the most comfortable for longer trips, but have always put that down to being what it is, a small-wheeled folding bike. Then came the Neo, a Brompton copy, which, as I completed a 120km trip with ease, made me wonder. The differences between the two are higher seat post, higher and adjustable handlebars, brakes in normal VTT position. So, having scanned the web and found this useful
, I ordered the riser from China, and took advantage of a UK trip to buy all the other parts.
My Brompton is the 6 gear model and has the dynamo lighting. Brompton advise being very careful the cable routing is correct, otherwise there may be problems with the fold. You can download the documents covering cable changes from their site, which I did, but would also advise taking photos before you start.
Step 1: raising the seat
Brompton make an extended stem, so I bought one. Fitting was, as you'd expect, a piece of cake: drop the old one out, put the new one in. Also wondered about that pentaclip as I swapped things over - do you really need that level of adjustment? I'll leave it for the time being, but have experienced re-assembling one after I changed a saddle, and wonder if the complexity is worth the gain.
I did my return trip across London then Paris with the extended stem. Far better in terms of leg length and power, but, as you'd expect handlebar height was definitely too low.
Downside: The Brompton no longer fits in the bicycle bag unless the saddle is removed. Not a deal breaker, but bagging it at St Pancras just as the train is being called adds very much to the fumbles!
For steps 2 and 3, I attached the brake levers to the handlebars, but you must route the inner cable through them, there's no way you can do it after.
Step 2: Changing the brake cables
You need to replace front and rear with H type pre 2017 cables.
The front is easy, as the outer cable comes in two parts, the top of which is the only one you really need to use if your existing cable is in good condition. I opted to leave the bottom part as is, mostly because the dynamo wires are attached with ties to it.
The rear is a little more complex as it must be routed with the rear light cable, the derailleur cable and the hub gear cable, but essentially, if you've replaced a brake cable before, it is no different. The bent to insert the cable outer into the bottom part of the brake is steep, but there's not much you can do about it. Any other routing takes the cable far too close to the rear wheel.
Step 2: Changing the gear cables
Again, you need H type pre 2017 cables. You also need to remove the rear wheel, so I refreshed my memory by looking at the
.
The Derailleur gear cable is the tricky one. Although it is covered by the Technical docs, it wasn't immediately clear to me what was holding the cable in place
TBC...