I finally upgraded to whar I consider to be the finest hub in the world in terms of 'bang per buck'. I also had a small riser bar put in to give a slightly more upright ride and handlebars with greater real estate to accommodate the trigger shift mechanism and a few other things in the future. I love the core Brompton frame and wheels but I was never a fan of some of their handlebar options.

The picture below was taken riding it home 16 miles along the Grand Union Canal trail from near Paddington to where I live in West London. It was a beautiful day to collect my bike as well :-)

Here is the rear Alfine 11 mod:

Handlebars mod:

New Taiwanese pedals which I'm a huge fan of. They can be sourced on www.ebay.co.uk. I use this brand on my other folders as they are so light, possess excellent grip and are a nice design with great colour options. (SARS Pedals, no connection that Asian epidemic of yesteryear lol!)

Had the pleasure to ride, at the time I didnt know what I was riding, very special bike. Pity about the handlebar.. cant you get something to match the beautiful lacquer paint?

Juan

You rode the Alfine 8 phase, that's history now lol! I think the black handlebars contrast nicely with the raw lacquer and blend nicely with the Brooks saddle & other black fittings. Sometimes you can end up over-matching in a color scheme & make something look bland.

Fair enough. Whats the new weight with the Alfine 11?

Juan

Or how much weight this conversion adds on top of the stock 6sp? I am considering getting a 8 or 11 speed IGH conversion but am not sure if I want to take the extra weight hit.

We have a Brompton S 6sp with springy brooks and a stock Nova. The Nova feels significantly lighters. When I weighed the two, the difference was only 3LB which caused me to realize that every pound counts even if it is only 5-10% of the bike's weight.

The Nova feels significantly lighter then my Dahon Speed D7 as well. I think any weight above 20 lbs starts to really add up.

OK that whets my appetite.. on to the entree .. How To's

got some upside down pictures to see the way it goes in the frame,
and perhaps changes done seen from left side ?

Missing the rear portion modification details, and the hub to rim lacing,
and all that stuff..

how did you get the wide hub in a narrow rear dropout spacing. ?

and how did they lace up? the hub that is not 28 spoke to a rim that at least from Brompton that is.
or did they use a Sun CR18 32 hole rim?

so maybe some upside down detail shots will be useful for the 'across the pond folks'
to get similar modifications done..
got a Mk2 bike for sale , touring , rack M bar, black.
It's not selling well as a humble 3 speed, though asking less than Half
of what a new one goes for.
so maybe subjecting it to that sort of torture will be mechanically, interesting.

that got a 15T cog on the hub? Ive already found a 16t won't fit ..
it hits the end of the rear frame portion's tubes.

The bike wasn't specced to be a weight weenie and the gain in ride quality far outweighs it being slightly heavier. We are talking very negligible weight gains here. I roll the bike most of the time anyway. I'm very pleased with the ride and gains in gearing range & speed.

I'll take some pics upside down for you. I'm more of a concept person and tell the LBS who do the mods what I want and can they do it? I can tell you they widen the OLD by stretching the rear triangle a few mm without any compromise to the frame or the fold.

Now that looks like just the set up I've been after! I've just had my gearing reduced to stock from the 8% increase as I could rarely get into enough traffic-free areas to get my head down. Plus the step change in cadence between 4, 5 and 6th gears was massive.

Can I ask about the cost? I too have a RL

Mulleady, thanks for your post& photos - it's a lovely bike.
I'm looking to buy a similar bike (for sale second hand here in Australia), and wondered what's your experience of the gear shifting? This local bike seems to be problematic - has yours worked ok? Any issues / observations worth sharing now that you've had yours a while..??
Thanks

why this hub for London. Its essentially flat there.

This is all about love of cycling. No different than people owning 2 or more bicycles. I would love that hub and will buy it one day when it drops in price.

The Alfine 11 may well be the best gear change in the world, it's so quick and smooth you would hardly know it's happened.

FTFY

The people at Rohloff might disagree!

Juan

yea but you go there to make the money, to afford the bike
and the RT train ticket to Yorkshire ..
to take pictures of the countryside you ride around in.
then go back to your job as a bankster's apprentice.. in the City..

Hi

Have been looking at doing something similar as I am looking to create an ultimate folder
brompton with some titanium parts or steve parry upgrades as a frame but to add an alfine to that combined with a Gates carbon drive and I think you have something truly awesome.

has anyone thought about belt drive with the brommies.

max
( strida, birdy and kirk as current steed )

The fold & the need to maintain tension on the belt would almost certainly preclude the use of belt drive, see the recent postings on the Brirdy Green, which was available for a short while with belt drive.

Hi Understand about the tension requirement, however tensioners are available already for chain drive and so the principle should work for belts.

also the birdy has suspension and is therefore a ltttle different as iirc on the brompton from the geometry the pressure when one is riding should hold the tension into the belt ?

Just thought it would add to the weight clenliness and agility of the package....

I've never looked into belt drives, I've assumed it wouldn't be possible as you'd need teeth on both sides of the belt, but actually I don't suppose this is the case as one of the tensioner jockey wheels could be swapped for a toothless pulley wheel.

Hi the teeth are only one sided you can see an example here
https://carbondrivesystems.com/

biggest issue on many brikes is having to break the rear triangle to get the belt through, as with a chain the links are removable.

Is a belt flexible enough to bend around 12/13T jockey wheels? Or would a tensioner need to use larger diameter jockey/pulley wheels?