Brompton owners

I have the 3-speed with +8% gearing.

middle gear is not always comfortable around town, top gear is awesome downhill as it's superfast but too big for anything else really, lowest gear is pretty much redundant as it's too spinny.

if i went for a new one it'd be 2 speed I think.

Middle gear is not comfortable because?

Personally I'm always happy to have a granny gear available, even if it rarely sees use.

I went for +8% as the gear inches matched my fixed (~69) but on the small wheels it's a real slog. it's not terrible but in a headwind or if you're knackered it's a chore to keep the momentum up. tougher on the knees/thighs too. as a result I use it slightly less than I could.

my commute is 11 miles each way though which is at the upper limit for how far I like to ride it.

the standard 3-speed gearing might be slightly better but the low gear would be so unbelievably spinny I imagine.

I have a S2L with standard gearing. the normal gear is perfect for pootling around town at a fair whack but on a good straight or down a hill you will top out fairly quickly. The granny gear is super spinny but I rarely ever use it. Two speed seems perfect for riding in town.

Granny gear is perfect for powering off at the lights, find it really useful as seems to take more energy to spin up those tiny wheels than a normal bike.

After watching the first episode of W1A I'm pretty much decided on a Brompton for cycle2work. I'll have to decide what to do with my Dawes Kingpin though.

I had until the last monday a 6 gears... but I ended up using most of the time just one gear... I would go for a single speed!

And finally, is black just* too *boring?!

I went for +8% as the gear inches matched my fixed (~69) but on the small wheels it's a real slog. it's not terrible but in a headwind or if you're knackered it's a chore to keep the momentum up. tougher on the knees/thighs too. as a result I use it slightly less than I could.

my commute is 11 miles each way though which is at the upper limit for how far I like to ride it.

or you could htfu

spinny gears for crazy hills

They look great in white.

They look dirty in white

You say that like it's a bad thing

it's all horses for courses - that's why there's so many gearing options.

I regret having white 'collar & cuffs' - they get filthy. Wish I could have stumped up for raw.

I get the appeal but I don't like the raw lacquer at all. The frames aren't so neatly put together that their build deserves showing off, and the grey-brown/bronze/gold colours clash with the clean anodised aluminium, dark grey kit and chrome. Just looks wrong to me.

What I really want is the yellow.

british racing green

Loving this thing!

All these colours and you chose that one?!

:-D

Nodder yellow, love it.

I hope I'm not too late on the 2 speed versus 3 speed discussion.

I had a Brompton M type with 3 speed sturmey archer since 2008. I don't know the +% on this...

When my frame cracked, I was stuck as I had to go to Paris with the bike so Dropout kindly lent me his Brompton, which was a S-type 2 speed. I was used for years to the 3 speed weight and found the difference quite significant when carrying the bike train stations. I still have the same bike now, and because it's a very old model I couldn't convert it to a 2 speed (rear triangle does not have the appropriate brazings for it) but I would love to have the 2 speed version ideally. I don't about the reliability of it though, and if it's as bombproof as the Sturmey hub system though...

They look great in white.

They look dirty in white

You say that like it's a bad thing

I went for white for the new frame, after I saw Charco's one. I don't think they look particularly dirty, but forks and rear triangle are black though, so maybe that's why. I'm not a big fan of all white (frame + forks + rear), or any full colour ones in general, feels like something not right when it's not neutral (black or Ti), allowing the main frame to be an accent colour... Just a personal view obvs...

At the Brompton ride in september, one Brompton was orange with Ti forks and rear, one of my favorite combos ever...

We should do that ride again this summer. It was ace.

Can all Brompton approved retailers order in a bespoke brompton for C2W or only the 'red logo' shops?

does anyone know where can i get the velocity rims on 28 holes ? Thanks I am looking to feather down my brompton