Brompton owners

I want to keep the freehub tho :(
I’m certain I’ve seen hope evo 2’s set up as 3 speed somewhere, I was just hoping someone else had too.

What's going on with your seatpost?
Looks like something smeared all over it!

Security paste
Or possibly just wear from grit. Cheap Ti post.

Customer came in with a broken Brooks Swallow Titanium, snapped tension bolt at the neck, told him to get it sorted by Brooks.

Apparently there's a £60 charge and it was replaced with a standard steel bolt!

What the ?!?!?!

Photo was taken with permission of owner.

Please discuss (disgust?)...

Edit: Swallow not Swift as pointed out by Nick!

1 Attachment

That’s very shit.

Indeed! Shocked beyond words...

Apparently there's a £60 charge and it was replaced with a standard steel bolt!

Brooks list the replacement part as BMP185 and state that: "This zinc plated Tension Pin Assembly is turned by an allen key and is used on the following TITANIUM models:- - Team Professional Titanium - B17 Titanium - Swift Titanium":
https://www.brooksengland.com/en_uk/tension-pin-nut-assembly-60-mm-bmp-185.html
(Only the Swallow titanium saddle actually uses a titanium tension bolt).

It is not clear from the photograph but if the replacement tension pin does not use an allen key for adjustment, then the technician has fitted the incorrect part (perhaps as a fudge, because BMP185 is listed as out of stock on their website). In which case I would get back in touch with Brooks and request a correct replacement.

You star! Yes it was indeed a Swallow not a Swift! I'll let the customer know.

You star! Yes it was indeed a Swallow not a Swift! I'll let the customer know

That is good to hear. Hopefully, Brooks will sort this out now. FYI, the correct tensioner pin and nut for the Swallow Titanium saddle is part number BYB 338.

Someone got a free Brompton because CycleSurgery/Halfords couldn't organise basic repairs

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jun/10/its-hard-to-find-a-fix-for-my-faulty-folding-bicycle

Have you got much stock at the moment. Was hoping to drop by next week if you're opening?

Evans/Halfords/cyclesurgery are Generally shit.

Not open to the public, just shipping bikes out!

Low stock, under 20, Brompton won’t supply.

I dunno, a free Brompton's pretty good.

Brompton should be paying the price, and applying pressure to such chain shops... unbox, saddle on, straight to customer; no check, no pdi, No set up

Yes but no- Brompton should work straight out of a box, needing no assembly -it's their own crappy QA surely?

OK, will give the shop a call in the morning. Thanks.

No bike from Factory is ready to ride, they all should be, but they are not.

Bikes in stock Shown online. Email ryan@sjscycles.com and I’ll send the list of bikes on order / due dates

Still offering all custom work

When I worked I Halfords it was remarkably common for people to be given brand new replacement bikes after anything from a week to a couple years.

We had a lot of left hand crank failures (not torqued properly from the factory and lots of staff wouldn’t bother popping the dust covers and checking the bolts during pdi) and a new bike was the de facto fix for this because replacement cranks were difficult to source, probably wouldn’t match (= further customer complaints) and were relatively costly.

Management generally were totally spineless so very often say to give customer a new bike rather than deal with them, even when we would explain that things were wear n tear or crash damage not jra.

Very happy with this Ti S Brompton that I bought from this very forum..

I've had an M before but prefer this bar setup by 100000%. Feels very fast and zippy.

Had one of the muckiest chains ever, which eventually cleaned up nicely :)

Does it wheelie? Yes. A little bit.

I've just had the missus's 5/6 year old Brompton 3speed serviced at our LBS.
With a fair few things replaced (as they advised) it came to £220...bit shocked but then I do most of maintenance to my own bikes.
Obviously expected to pay full retail for things but do some of these sound right?
(hard to find prices online)
Rear Bushing supply and fit = £30
Rear Hinge Bush&spin kit = £22.50
Brompton Fender disc x8 = £18.99

Happy to put business their way but obviously don't want to be ripped off

A fender disc is £6 RRP. Typo?

(It’s the metal thing on the front fork if you don’t have mudguards. Not really a service item, but maybe it was bent/missing? And you should only have one of them!)

I dunno what you mean by fender disc but the rest sounds spot on.
Going rate is is £50 for the rear hinge and £25 for the mainframe/stem

Yup, rear hinge replacement is in line with what we charge.

They could not do the rear hinge and save you the money. The bike would then at some point fall apart when your missus was riding it, but hey.

It's essential maintenance. The Brompton is a great piece of engineering but folding bikes have fundamental weaknesses and that's a biggie.