Here's why Bromptons are the best folding bikes! 

Why not a monowheel?

Lol

Me too 😅

so you want a unicycle

Yeah, they're massively overpriced at this point in their product lifecycle. I understand such pricing when a product is a very new innovation as the manufacturing process is still growing in capacity, but Brompton have been pumping out these tri-fold models for (almost) 50 years since Andrew Ritchie invented the design in 1975. You can bet your bottom dollar that most of the models cost less than $800 USD in parts and labour these days, even with the production still being in-house at Greenford, West London. Yet they have the cheek to charge well over $2,000 USD for their simplest models, and up to $6,000 USD for their titanium frame model. Being a person who works a LOT with titamium, I absolutely KNOW that the bike has less than $500 USD worth of titanium in it's construction. Their componentry is also sub-standard as well, even though a LOT of it is proprietary and cannot be replaced with generic high quality parts. Brompton are basically the Apple of the folding bike world. They have a customer base of cashed-up middle-class city-dwelling men who choose to spend secondhand car money on a bicycle made up of a few hundred bucks worth of parts and labour.

@@Funkteon Brompton, the Aston Martin of foldable bikes

there are clones of brompton bikes, and they cost much less.

@@SIGNALacquired Any notable brands?

European patent in this case - EP0026800 filed on 3 October 1979, granted on 30 May 1984 and expiring on 2 October 1999.

I happen to have two Zizzo bikes and they didn’t cost me over $500 each

@@evanstonbalce9588 I paid $150 for mine. Worth every penny

It's doing great! I rode it all through the winter last year and it's in fine shape again this year. Definitely any bike you ride in the winter is going to face more wear, which is why some people have beater bikes in the winter. But I find the brompton to be such a nice winter bike being that it's so low to the ground.

That’s so amazing! Would you be able to share what type of preparation or maintenance on the brompton before/ after or throughout the winter? I.e. weather proofing, cleaning, frequency of cleaning etc?

That’s ridiculous

Yea right

​@@Derek_AntonioHe's right

@@radagastbrown9001 ok you can stick to your opinions

Bike Friday's r more of a disassemble bike than a folding bike.

Agree, high quality doesn’t have to be expensive

@@evanstonbalce9588 they're not even that high quality anymore.

@@necromax13How do you know? Do you own one of these bikes?

@@evanstonbalce9588 after the pandemic their build quality took a hit according to brompton nerds. They used to be the gold standard, they're now a boutique brand that refuses to build on their legacy.

if you go slow, yeah. if you ride for sport, you will easily notice how bigger wheels are noticeably faster.

@@Brandon-xp1ob I have a Tern with 26" wheels for longer rides and it is smoother, but I really miss the small fold when I take it on the light rail. At home it gets in the way because it doesn't fit in the place I had planned to store it. A 20 inch wheel model might have been a better choice.

There is an option to have a "high" type handlebar that offers a much more upright position for Bromptons.

Schwalbe winter tyres, 14". They're studded, super stable on the ice!

Brompton offers 3 different seatposts, standard, extended, and telescopic. All the seatposts accommodate a huge range in height though; I'm 5' 10" and I use a standard seatpost, which can accommodate someone as short as 4' 7". They also offer 3 handlebar types, including a "high" handlebar option for taller riders. I like the mid-riser handlebar, but in this video you can see the straight handlebar.

@@cardependencyindex thanks for answering

Couldn't say! But you know, there is always the option of buying a used one. I've seen some great deals on ebay, and I've met at least one person who successfully bought one on ebay for an excellent price. The great thing about these bikes is they're one size fits all (unless you're super tall, in which case you may have to replace the seatpost).

You can get a Chinese one with upgraded disc brakes for half the price. Used Bromptons are still super expensive over the years I've been looking.

Not quite! 2bikes4adventure has an excellent few videos about this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F98oQ7Xo5mI.html

@@cardependencyindex translation, "theoretically yes, practically no." Good video.

It depends how smooth the ground is.

@@Eduardo_Espinoza what I got from the video that they linked before is, there's only so many gears they pack into the cassette. So, there's limits. Although, if you wanted to treat it as a theoretical problem, the gearing would be equivalent.

Ya, u wud have to put a fat tire in the rear & put a bigger chainring, maybe even tiny cranks, but than again without front suspension & with small wheels it could be a recipe for disaster. Unlike the similar Birdy platform. On my stock Dahon 20", I could keep up & nudge out for a bit against my friend's 2nd hand stock governed motorized 4 stroke beach cruiser, i don't remember his gearing, this was maybe a decade ago by now. @@salad_gold_rancher

It's not an electric bike. It costs around ~$1800 USD.

such as?

Toronto sells them locally, I got mine from Curbside Cycle in Toronto! However they are also sold at Dumoulin in Montreal and BikeBike in Calgary. Curbside has a price match policy so if you find a lower price elsewhere bring it to them!

@@cardependencyindex okay thank you so much!!

and why would you do that?

Yeah it must be nice paying for benzin, oil and other parts that you need to change from time to time

How many wet blankets can you buy for that price?

Or you can even buy a used car for the same cost.

@@KeVIn-pm7pu don't get me wrong this is an amazing piece of engineering. but that price point is simply unacceptable for a bicycle outside a select few European countries.

True! But it's a lot cheaper than even just 1 year of car ownership.

You can get an A line, which are cheaper, but I believe they are worth it. They are so well designed and engineered and hold their value. It's my favorite bike in the stable.

@@ryancherry1017 Absolutely! These bikes are known for keeping forever. I've seen several Bromptons that are over 10 years old that are practically indistinguishable from new ones.

@@cardependencyindex Mine! 10 years and counting. The price was also an issue for me at the time but I can say that it's a bicycle that you can use a large part of the year, totally replaced the car on short trips and in city rides (in my case, all that takes less than 10 kmts/5 milles) and that it is beautiful, comfortable to use everyday. And it's a bicycle that you can carry with you that minimizes the risk of robbery (I get a folding bicycle after two bicycles were stolen in the center of my city). The first folding bike that I get wasn't a Brompton (It was a Tern Link-D8, also a very good bike), but Brompton is different (don't want to say better). Still have the Tern, but the Brompton is the one that I use.

​@@cardependencyindexreally depends on how you use it. If you use it almost everyday like me, Brompton's reliability and easily maintenance definitely worth its price. While a leisure user you have plenty of other bike choice

they ugly too 🤣

If you're coming off a unicycle maybe

A kid shouted "ILLUMINATI BIKE" at me riding mine

Lol, a little melodramatic, don't you think? It should go without saying, but this is like, my opinion, y'know. And yours is yours. But perhaps you're a completely objective, bias-free robot. It should also go without saying that Bromptons have advantages and disadvantages when compared with other folding bikes. It's true that they're heavy (the C-line, anyway); I even state this plainly in the video. I think it's an honest review.

Ya, I know this isn't paid promotional content, but this felt like an Ad. This is also valuable information from a former(?) Brompton rider & feels a lil more genuine.