Luke rides Brompton to work

The first time I saw a folding bike I though it looked like something you see at the circus with a clown wobbling around on it.

After puncturing my racing bike twice on the way into work I was asked if I wanted to ride a Brompton home. I said yes but wasn’t expecting great things from a folding bike with 16” wheels

My total ride distance was 10 miles to the train. Normally it would take me 24-28 minutes on my lightweight race bike.

It was a dark, wet winter evening and I pumped up the tyres to the max 120 psi pulled the saddle up to the max position, worked out how to unfold it, and set off. The bike was very comfortable compared to what I am used to; riding over ruts and curbs wasn’t a problem. I was riding a Brompton which only had 2 gears but these 2 were perfect to get up hills with a bit of hard work and to get good speed on the flats and downhill.

The bike was surprisingly fast it felt like keeping up a 20mph average wasn’t a problem, which was a huge surprise. I managed the ten miles in 29 minutes and 48 seconds. On the route I overtook 2 racing bikes and several other fixed frame bikes with no one getting passed me despite a decent effort from a disgruntled road biker.

Best of all was being able to fold the bike up and store it in the overhead luggage rack on the train, no more worrying about security or lack of storage space. You can keep it in sight the whole time; you could even take it to the toilet with you if you wanted!

I think that 15 miles in 1 go is the furthest I would like to cycle the Brompton, however the user friendliness and fun out way the slight lack of speed.

Avanti Giro Racer-Brompton folding bike comparison

My Racer		Borrowed Brompton
Pro’s	Cons	Pro’s	cons
Very fast	Expensive to maintain	Surprisingly stable	Bit tricky to steer at high speeds 30+
Looks good	Expensive to buy	Fast enough	Up-right riding position
Very light	Uncomfortable/painful	Very stiff
Very stiff	Hard to transport	Easy to weave through traffic
		Fun to ride
		Fits on the train