I am about to take my new Brompton C-type to my LBS for it's first 100 miles check-up as instructed by my Owner's Book. I am experiencing very little problems with it-actually far less than my Dahon Boardwalk had at it's first check-up a couple of years ago. The spokes are still tight, the chainring and cranks are fine, and the pedals and brakes are dependable. The only thing to be done is an adjustment to the gears plus swapping another far better metal traditional handlebar shifter in place of that stock plastic one-along with a lube job.

The only absolutely intolerable thing wrong I am experincing-and I know that some people are laughing out there about it-is my inability to reach my brake levers comfortably. The reach between the saddle and the handlebars are fine. My elbow are slightly bent with no strain to reach the handbars. Even so,I find that I have to rotate my hands far forward while holding on the grips in order to reach the brake levers. I must wear my cycling gloves for any long-farther than a few blocks-trips since my hands feel very stiff and crampy. The levers feel fine otherwise. I have a Phillips 3 speed with the same brake levers and never had the same problem (very comfortable). I rode many other bikes with similar brake levers and never had problems like that with them either. Is there some way that the bike shop could adjust them so my hand does not rotate so far forward? I have small hands-women's size medium. Is that the problem or something else?

Sounds like maybe the brake levers need to be rotated upwards around the handlebar...?

On any normal bike that's a 2-second job with a screwdriver. I just test-rode a couple bromptons this weekend but I didn't pay that much attention to how the brake levers were attached so I can't remember if it's that simple.

To adjust the position of the brake levers, you have to loosen the bolt which is located in the brake lever itself - dumb, I know.

What to do: pull the brake like you normally do. When the cable extends, you can see into the brake hood and should see a 4mm(?) hex head. Stick an allen key up there, and turn left to loosen. Rotate your brake levers, and then tighten. Your cable will be pulled all the while you are doing this. If there is a better way of adjusting the levers, I haven't found one.

Adjusting the brake levers on a Brompton is a PITA if there is much tension on the brake cable! Just did it last night. It can be so freaking frustating as you have to wiggle a little allen wrench in past the brake cable. BUT you can't do that without screwing up the cable until you loosen it. However if you loosen it then the cable end fitting falls out of the little ferrule in the lever itself which is a right major pain in the a$$ to sometimes get back in. A little 5 minute job turned into an hour of cursing Brompton last night all because the freaking allen bolts on the INSIDE!!!

The problem with feeding the cable back into the lever is there isn't much clearance to get it in there because you can't open up the brake lever enough to make it easy. I am not a clueless idiot either when it comes to mechanical things (paid my way through engineering school as a mechanic). I finally took the entire lever off the bike, feed the cable back in and held the cable gingerly and with tension to get it all back together. Take any tension off and it all falls apart again. So now my levers are back on but not really cinched down so I can rotate them without undue pressure to where I want them. I can guarantee that these levers will be tossed soon and I'll put on better cables, levers and brakes! Worst part of the bike!!!!

yesh...the brakes and levers are craptacular....but they work and fit in the
suitcase when folded. I have kept my brommie 3spd stock except for handgrips and
am unusually happy with it

(being a curmudgeon and being happy with something is new to me,
brommie showed me the light)

I am going to try a new approuch to my Brommi. I noticed that I have a bad habit born out of necessary living in a crowded urban area with poor drivers. I always drape my fingers around my brake levers . Perhaps if I learn to just hold on the grips and only reach for the levers when I actually brake (and allow for the extra braking time with all the poor brakes I grew up with), I might not need to adjust right away and save for really good brakes in the near future. Just a thought since my hands don't ache when I just use the grips without reaching for the brakes all the time. I did not realize that the brakes are such a major thing to work on these bikes!

FF- it doesn't help that the Brommie has such rotten brakes. You must really squeeze them hard to work which of courses increases hand fatigue while simultaneously reducing control. It is easy enough to swap out and buy better levers. I am in the process of doing that while at the same time upgrading the cables and housings. Hopefully this will help improve the feel and effectiveness of the brakes. I am going with dog-leg style levers that will be easier to grasp and hopefully have a little more leverage.

You can get a conversion kit to convert a cable brake to hydraulic, I Know Vitelli in Switzerland, do the converter (I have one on order for my Long-john) here is the complete kit

I use the shimano flat bar levers on my Brompton, here:

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/Default.aspx...2542&UberCat=0

They are certainly better than the originals and they also have adjustable reach. Though, with the poor quality of the brake calipers you cannot adjust them too close to the bars or you don't get enough leverage to get the brakes to bite!

Andy

The twin pivot brommie brakes are much better, as are the alloy rim braking surfaces - unfortunately, I think these are both left off the basic model C.

I agree they are better but not that much better. The non C models I saw had the twin pivot standard up front and optional on the rear. I upgraded cable, housing, levers and better pads on my C today and it is much better than the M and P I tried.

Thank you Wavshrdr, Chop!, edzo, Simple Simon, spambait11, Eggplant Jeff, and Easy Racer for the upgrade list that I will discuss with my bicycle mechanic to upgrade my Brommi's brakes. I am so glad I opted for the C-Type now instead of the more fancier versions of the Brompton. I rather spend on things that are important in the bike's performance rather than "looks." While I am very lucky to live in such a mild climate (Southern California), and when I was young, learned to use such crummy brakes like coaster and caliper ones (remember V, hydraulic, and other modern brakes available even on department store bikes today did not exist in the 1960's and 1970's when I first rode bikes). Even so, the C-type is the perfect model to introduce one to such a high end, versatile little folder could do even in the real world in an less than perfect enviroment-or even components. In most parts of the world that these bikes find themselves-cold, wet and miserable-they still serve their owners nicely, even intended-just-for-fair-weather-C-types.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Hi.
Use a 3 mm allen key to loosen the grips, and turn them into a more comfortable position. Be aware that this might interfere with the folding, and that the cables might be too short.
If you prefers a position that makes the folding impossible, leave the grips a little loose, so you can turn them by hand before folding, and back afterwards.

Sometime you can turn the lever without undoing anything. But do check the new position with folding and unfolding the bike. If you are going to upgrade the C-type Brompton with Brompton Dual Pivet Brakes. Make sure you also order the Rubber hoods. They are good to Prevent water from going into the cables system.