I ordered one yesterday; should have it next week:

Stock photo, front quartering view

Brompton's Page on it: https://us.brompton.com/p/1598/c-line-explore-12-speed

I'll use this thread to document my experiences, to share (incoming and outgoing) experiences, and compare it to other folders with which I've had experience. I see lots of comparisons between this bike and other Bromptons, but not a lot vs. other folders, except that Bromptons are generally all about the fold and fall short elsewhere.

Purchase:
I bought it through us.Brompton.com. I thought about REI, as I'd get a 10% kickback, but they only had the 6-speed available, and not even the color I wanted.
Brompton had a promotion at the time of purchase to include "red touch points", which is Bromptish for hinge clamps, seatpost QR, rear frame clip and roller wheels. Free shipping and a bunch of accessories that don't seem to be availabe at REI.
In addition to the free Touch Points, I added a few things to the order:

• Brompton Toolkit, which fits in the main tube ahead of the hinge {LINK}
• Pump w/brackets, which fits in the rear triangle {LINK}
• Advance rear rack and roller kit {LINK}
• Pair of Brompton-specific bungees. Yeah, I know that's bougie, but if they're the perfect size & configuration... {LINK}

I forgot to get tubes and another patch kit; I'll look for those at Amazon.

I figured this will replace the Schwinn Loop in The Midwest Fleet. I'll give that away or sell it cheap. Or maybe leave it at my mother-in-law's house...

I'm not sure about the enormous mud flap on the front fender; might look for something more trim. I won't ride it in the rain as much as Londoners do.

I was thinking of the G Line, but decided that the C Line would be a better compliment to the ZiZZO Forté I have and like so well:

• More Compact fold and 16" wheels vs. bigger fold and 20" wheels
• Thin, high pressure tires vs. wider, medium pressure tires
• etc.

I guess I should have it next week; as it shipped today.

Got the bike yesterday, it was damaged in transit somewhere. Something got smashed into the left rack wheel and flared the frame out where it is anchored, and there are also a couple scratches in the paint.

I reached out to Brompton through their contact form today. They said they'd get back to me within 3 business days. A few hours later, they got back to me and offered me a new bike and to have FedEx pick up the damaged one. I'm working on the details of that now. Good after-sale support so far! They could've blamed the shipper and put me through the ringer...


Looks like someone ripped the box by pulling out on the carrying hole. It's the wrong angle for something to have caused the damage to the roller wheel...



Looks like the roller wheel took a hard hit at the bottom at some point, flaring open the tube into which it's press-fit:



...and bubbling the paint.



This protective piece fell off, it's a known issue with the adhesive for it. I'm told an upgrade of double-stick tape or RTV-ing it on can help.



Superficial scratches in the top tube below the 'C'.



More scratches on the left chain stay, down to the steel


I don't know where that damage occurred, but they could do a better job packing the bikes for shipment; providing guarding and bits of foam and so forth. Brompton used environmentally-conscious packing. Not much plastic and no foam. But cardboard blocks could've been used, zip-tied on in strategic places. I've had several heavy eBikes delivered with much better packing.

1st impressions from the 4 miles of riding I managed to get in:
+ I like the 12-speed arrangement. Middle gear in the 3-speed hub is the efficient 1:1 and the 4-speed derailleur has decent range there. I could probably do 80% of my riding just in that middle hub gear without losses. The low gear will be needed for climbing, and the lowest gear could be a bit lower. I'll plan to go to a smaller chainring in the future.
+ The ride is not bad at all. The shock bumper on the rear helps a lot, and the flex in the frame, seatpost and handle post all help. It rides about as well as my 20x1.95" folder. It rides better than my road bike. (Trek Domane w/70c x 32mm tires) About as well as my gravel bike with 70c x 40 mm tires)
+ The derailleur shifting is impressively fast, and indexing was proper right out of the box.
+ The OEM seat is pretty good; a dished shape where it should be. I'm not sure I'll upgrade this.
+ Good after-sale support, so far
+ Brakes are good
+ Shifters are good
+ Bell is good
- The seat post is barely long enough. It's at full extension and I don't quite have enough leg extension. (31" inseam) I ordered size M. I could move the seat back on its rails a bit, and still be OK, posture-wise.
- Poor packing job
- Poor choice of adhesive for protective plate
- Something should be included to keep the clamps aligned while spinning the wing bolt fasteners down. It's a cheap & easy fix; not something that should need aftermarket purchases.
+/- I feel like a kickstand should be included on any kind of city bike, though it does have "kickstand mode".


First commute; too bad he's going back. :-(

Yours is the first one I've seen with any serious damage. The new 3pc box design actually works really well.

You have the standard length seatpost. How much more length do you need? If you only need like another inch,try the saddle in the upper position of the pentaclip(yours is in the lower). You can also slide it up the end of the post a bit. If that's not enough,you'll need an extended post. If they haven't sent you the new one yet,ask customer service for the longer post. I have a 33" inseam and with the saddle in the lower position and the pentaclip all the way down I can pull the seatpost all the way out and it fits me perfect.

Congratulations on your new bike. Hopefully the next one will come unscathed.

I'm doing the return process now. They want to do it that way, rather than exchange. After this rather inconvenient test ride, I have a chance to mull over whether I really want a Brompton.

While I'm going through that, I'll decide if I want to buy through Brompton online and risk shipping damage again, wait for REI to get the 12 speed C Lines, or check with the nearest Brompton dealer and see if I can pay Kenosha County, WI sales tax (5.5%) rather than Chicago's 10.25%. If so, I think I'll take a morning off of work, make the 50 miles voyage down there and get it in person. I have a feeling they'll say no, but it's worth a shot.

I spoke to the local Brompton dealer, Cosmic Bikes in Chicago by text, as they're closed today.

I asked them my tax question, and I'm afraid I have no good options. I can either:

• Buy it from them and pay the 10.25% tax. I won't do that on principle.
• Or I can order it, pay my local tax, but pay $100 in insured shipping. Doesn't seem reasonable.
• Or order again from Brompton and roll the dice that FedEx won't smash it up again.

Looks like the most attractive course is to either abstain, buy a different bike or wait for a used 12-speed to show up locally used.

What would you do?

There is no reason for FedEx to smash it again: Brompton ships a lot of bikes in the same packaging everywhere n the world and almost all bikes arrive without damages.

Its not because it happened once in a while that the next shipment to you will also be smashed.

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure it was FedEx who smashed it. It may have happened at the factory, as there are no indications on the box that are consistent with the damage to the rear triangle.

FedEx did not pay attention to the orientation instructions marked on the box and they don't seem to know how to lift a box by carrying cut-outs, but that major damage to the rear triangle happened elsewhere.

The box used to ship your Brompton is the standard box used by Brompton to ship all their bikes to customers and also to resellers.

If there were often such damaged bikes, Brompton would have modified it.

The chance to have your replacement Brompton also damaged is very low.

Yeah,your bike really was an outlier. I've seen plenty of new bikes damaged in shipment over the years,but few have been Bromptons. With the older boxes the hinge levers could get bent if they weren't screwed down all the way,but the new boxes keep the bike 'floating' in the middle. Also,that was def shipping damage,something like that wouldn't have left the factory. Bromptons are the only bikes I would be ok handing to a customer still in the box.

Well, I guess you would know, but I'm having a hard time imagining that damage happening in shipping from the box: The one side is torn open down from the handle, on the end. To bend the roller wheel down the way it was, it would have had to have been hit hard either from the side or the top, punching through the box, through multiple layers of cardboard.

Good luck with the new one.

I sure wish they would get away from that front radial spoking and go (back?) to cross spoking like the rear, which holds true better and is more durable. Dahon went radial for a while and went back to cross. One benefit of disc brakes, they are never radial spoked.

My location is also 10% sales tax, compensation for no income tax, very regressive, though at least no sales tax on grocery food, but restaurant food is taxed.

To my knowledge, Brompton only used radial lacing long time ago on the front wheel of the superlight front wheel with single wall rim?

The bike above shows radial spoking (no lacing, crossing). I've only seen front cross-spoking on very old Bromptons I think.

Maybe happened at the warehouse then. IDK. Def would not have left the factory like that.

Brompton had a Superlight front wheel that was 2x for a short time,all the others I've ever encountered have been radial,including the ebikes. Really not an issue,the small wheels are actually pretty tough.

FexEx picked up the bike yesterday. I hope they won't give it a good knock on the way back to New Jersey.

They're going to pick up the accessories tomorrow.

After some soul-searching, I decided to pivot and go for something else; keep your eyes peeled for a new thread.

Thinking about it... it helps that the very small rims should be especially rigid radially. On large wheels like 700c, at the bottom near the pavement, as the force of weight pushes the rim inward (elastically), the spoke right there wants to reduce in tension, and this is even worse with extra-short spokes that have less elasticity for the same gauge; With crossed spokes, the spoke pushing laterally on it helps to maintain tension, and thus tend to keep in true longer. Radial spoking also stresses the hub flanges more, although all hubs seem to be beefed up versus decades past, on the chance they get built up radial.

I think I may still get a Brompton one day, but it's not "urgent" any more. I'll likely wait for a nice one to show up used locally.

If my wife ever recovers from her hip issues and we end up air-traveling more often, maybe I'll sell half the current fleet and have two!