Hi All,

Was hoping for advice from any Brompton users who know them well. I have S type bars on the one a recently was bought (lucky me). But I have a back issue and wanted to be a bit more upright so wanted to change to the M type bars. Is it the case that I will been to replace the stem to do so as the M bars wont fit my model?

Much appreciated

Yes as the M-Bars on an S-stem will hit the ground when folded. Stems are specific to the bars (except that M and H both use the same bars). You can exchange the S-bars with generic riser bars and gain height that way. The maximum rise for those bars would be 10cm, but only if you stay at the same width as the original bars. If you go wider you must stay lower. Trouble is that most riser bars use a big area for the rise, so if you cut them down to the width of the Brompton bars you'll end up with too little space (flat area) for grips, brake-levers and so on. There are however some bars that will work flawlessly. The other option is to use a riser like the "AberHallo" or alike with your S-bars.

Exchanging the stem and the bars to M (or any other model) is in most cases not a good idea as it is very expensive if you do not manage to get hold of used parts. Therefor in most cases it is cheaper to sell the bike and get one with the bars you want. If you have customized your bike already it may look different.

No need to change the stem, just a riser bar added to your S stem. I used a Tioga 60 which is a 60 mm bar. If you look at the photo you can see it is within mm's of the height of a M bar equipped bike. I did cut down the width and of course needed new cables and housing for the shifters and brakes. I have been very happy with modification.