Brompton owners

2grams heavier though, and add that to the extra money you will still have in your pocket and that ends up being a pretty heavy ding donger

cheapest available £5.49 incl postage from hong kong

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RockBros-Cycle-Bicycle-Bike-Handlebar-Bell-Ring-Cycle-Horn-Retro-Bell-Loudly-/291792716521?var=&hash=item43f03382e9:m:mvKIczwSmtSF-e6J9LO9KzQ

Ed! What's wrong with my brake pads.

Oh no, it's rare to see those old block on Brompton on account of customers already getting them serviced with modern cartridge pads, bit like how rare it is to see a car without power steering nowadays.

Fit them with modern cartridge pads and it should feel nice and snappy.

Rode the Brompton to work today and I'm considering chopping further the bars. I'm concerned about the greater leverage over the stem assembly and main frame with wider bars. I had chopped the last risers I used to the same O/A width than original Brompton bars. Wider bars today felt like they could ultimately amplify/accelerate steel fatigue, especially at hinges. I'm 95kg...

Any thoughts / precedents on this?

Reckon you'll be fine, as long the bar diameter is correct for the Brompton's stem.

You'd have a hard time trying to destroy the Brompton.

I still have the older brake pads on my second hand brompton I got over two years ago.
It's got a sturmey 5 speed hub so pre-2000?
I haven't done much as I got it for Uni, I did have to buy the rear frame clip assembly to keep it from folding when carrying it.
It definitely needs some upgrades but parts are expensive and I kinda like it original however I'm pretty I need to get the hub serviced, I'm pretty sure it's never had its hub serviced in 16+ years and the rims are pretty worn. It's going to be expensive :(

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That look like an OG Brompton, you even got the original single pivot brakes, brake levers are too high on it.

It look older than 2000, think 1995-98, probably a T5.

Edit: yup, look like a T5 base on this example;

It's going to be expensive :(

It is, but still cheaper than a new Brompton.

Most expensive service I've perform on a Brompton is a shy over £500, another option you have is to convert it into a singlespeed, which will be cheaper and lighter.

Its something they test at the factory. Hence why they didn't just put M bars on an S stem and call it the H type (although in the end that is sort of what they did). But they put that setup through a bunch of stress tests to see if it could handle the different loading.

Its probably fine but if you'll not miss it I'd chop them.

I've raised my bars a tad but with a stem raiser, rather than riser bars. Bit like this: http://www.thorusa.com/images/dahon/technical/aberhallo2.jpg (the black bit).

Took the photo the weekend after buying it. I put on a new saddle, brought some easy wheels and the rear frame clip (the brake lever angles changed since then).
Since then I've only ever cleaned/lubed it, serviced front hub, replaced suspension.
But now that I've finished uni and back home, I got the tools/time to do more.

Your biggest concern is the hinge, which need to be replaced regularly (wear and tear).

most bike shop should do this for £30-45 labour not inc. the hinge kit.

Harder than you think, you need to drill out the bolt without damaging the rear triangle, and removed the copper bush, which varies on the customers, some take 10 minutes to removed, some took over an hour just for a single one due to extensive wear.

Don't think you ALWAYS have to drill out the bolts, Bromptons from careful owners would not always be as rusty as on your picture. I know I was lucky when I did it, but bolts on my 1992 Brompton came off, after, as explain in tutorials, I'd heated up the assembly to loosen the thread locker.
Brushes may be trickier though, but again, previous pages are full of recommendations and links on this...

Ben at Kinetics, who does A LOT of rear triangle swaps says that 99% of the time an impact driver does the job. Maybe you doing something wrong Ed?

Its probably fine but if you'll not miss it I'd chop them.

Will do, was fine before at Brompton width, will be fine again this time... Shame I'm going to lose the silver and gold bling bits on the bars... Will then definitely HAVE to invest in top of the range bell to make up for it!

Maybe you doing something wrong Ed?

We don't have access to an impact driver at work, drilling is the easy part, I use a smaller drill than the one Brompton provide then use the Brompton one to finish it off (quicker with less risk), the hard part is removing the bushes.

Don't think you ALWAYS have to drill out the bolts.

The Brompton kit come with a drill, if you're lucky you can removed one of the bolt meaning only one bolt to drill, however most of the time both bolt are siezed.

I kept the allen keys from a previous repair to try and removed the bolt (while holding the other one with an old Brompton allen keys).

Saw something clever this morning on my commute... Standard Ortlieb pannier on standard Brompton frame.

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Brompton-pannier-adapter/

A worshop with no impact driver? Really? Wow. I suppose if the customer is willing to pay an hours labour for 2 minutes work with an impact driver (which can be bought for a tenner iirc) then why not.

They don't pay extra for prolonged labour, just the quoted one.

Nothing I can do, I'm not allow to bring my Drexel even.

Beside, drilling it out take 10 minutes.

Cause there's nothing holding the spindle when you removed the first bolt.

On what appear to be a new frames, plus the bolt aren't typical sizes (tiny bit bigger than a 4mm)

Plus, I rather do it the way Brompton taught us, cause if something go wrong, I'm (and the company) are liable.

instructables.com/id/Brompton­-pannier-adapter/

Cool stuff, thanks!

bit late to the bell talk, but I have this and it's very nice! http://www.lionbellworks.co.uk/

Quality sound. Well done.