Originally Posted by
berlinonaut
That's one of those common beliefs. In fact, when comparing an early MK2-Brompton from the late 80ies with a current one in detail you'll recognize that in fact there are only a small handful of things hat have NOT changed. The only two that I am aware of are the standard steel seat post - and the rear hinge. Every other part HAS changed, at least once, many more than once. Maybe I overlooked some constants but it can't be many. Considering that I assume that the design is considered to be not that bad and - as often - many of the people critzicing it do not fully understand how the thing works in terms of loads etc, (no affront intended), they just see a relatively small bolt and judge "bad design". Which is not how engineering works.
Let’s just say it is a “badly” designed component/design...which Im not. There are always engineering compromises of some sort that have to be made in product design- especially machines. And more so for products which are pardigm changers. Show me a car, motorcycle, bicycle, even cell-phones/electronics which dont have some kind of Achille’s heel design-wise, it does t exist (take the iPhone for instance....non user replacable battery) The unique fold of the Brompton required someery unique solutions, which are well proven to work but cannot be taken for granted or treated as if they weren’t unique in the attention/maintenance they require in order to perform their design function throughout the entire service life of the whole.