My Brompton | Aussie on a Brompton

Minimalists

My Brompton 05/11/2025 Leave a comment

Minimal in weight & Spec.

Full Ti frame, 7speed, 7.4kg in the foreground with full steel frame, 2speed, 8.4kg at the rear

Hardly a stable stable

My Brompton 23/09/2025 Leave a comment

Things are always changing. Now living up the coast from Sydney (good fun buying, selling, moving, etc?)

Aside from “a little tinkering/tweaking” of the Bromptons since the last dim, distant post, the family has recently grown with the addition of Dan, an all-steel framed 2speed (just by using up frame bits from the parts bin).

A minimalist build – but NSW-legal – it’s for local pottering, with low weight & gearing (but still a workout on climbs?).

Stands & Tweaks

My Brompton, Trips, Tweaks 02/11/2023 Leave a comment

A bit more prep for the next trip: on-road maintenance with lightweight & small stands is very handy on our Tardis escapades.

A seatpost stand is very useful (& tweaked since my previous post, to reduce the packing size) but some maintenance work is best done when the bike is inverted – so more tinkering was needed.

Assembling the bits provides handlebar support for an inverted bike.

Not just for our Bromptons, the new stand expands to suit wiide-bar bikes.

It does the job!

Mobile Stand

My Brompton, Trips, Tweaks 26/10/2023 Comments: 2

Another Brompton stand knocked together (literally).

It’s been a few years since the first one got done & it’s worked out fine – although impractical to take on a trip away?

Now the latest stand is light & easily transportable.

Ingredients:

32mm OD PVC pipe (actual size to fit inside a Brompton seatpost – PVC sizing seems to be classed as 25mm in plumbing terms!?)
PVC Pipe – cut to lengths 5x100mm & 1x165mm

PVC pipe fittings to suit

Total cost: about $35

Finished weight: 430g

Taming QRs

My Brompton, Tweaks 13/10/2023 Leave a comment

Some QR pedals seem more prone to self-releasing than others – possibly due to the pedal platform shape? While my lightweight Aceoffix pedals have never budged, a TiParts Mini-Q pedal surprised me recently by falling off while I was stepping off. Did I fail to snap it on properly or did I nudge the release mech while pedaling?

Time to start using the yellow nylon retainer clip, even if my old style retainers are fiddly to remove? With newer retainers having a small protusion/handle, maybe I could match them?

Voila! A small cable tie around the clip (& the head of another tie as a grip handle) seems very workable?

However, tinkering is essential so I ordered a new types clip pack of 10, in case my modded clips proved fragile or ineffective. A comparison showed the new type to be made of a stiffer nylon, harder to insert (unless you aligned them with the “spanner flat” on the adapter) & quite hard to remove. No doubt some practice may help to develop “the knack” but for now my “hack” of the old type clip is great. I even tried doubling up the cable tie “heads” but the grip handle feel is similar.

As for storage of the clip when the pedal is removed, there a few options: insert the clip back on the QR adapter, slip it on the rear frame lower tube or on the pedal storage adapter (if you use one) – eg on the adapter stub near the lock ring or on the axle of the pedal?

Techo Revelations

My Brompton, Tweaks 05/10/2023 Leave a comment

Time provides new ideas. The current status here is three 5speed Brommies but from different starts.

BromTi has a Silverock 7speed wheel, running 5 cogs (11/13/16/20/24T) with varying spacers to match a Shimano XT shifter. (Works well; couldn’t get consistency with the XT with 6 or 7 cogs – & the chainline with 5 cogs isn’t so extreme?) Now with a Kinlin XR 18C wheel rim fitted (wheel initially came via eBay with Kinlin NBR 13C) & good spokes & nipples.

BB has a BrommiePlus custom build lightweight Hubsmith 2/3speed hub & fitted with a 5speed MiniMods UniBody cassette (11/13/17/21/25T).

Clarence has a Brompton 2speed wheel & a BrommiePlus 5speed freehub & fitted with a 3speed MiniMods UniBody cassette (11/14/17T) & additional cogs (21/26T).

The shifters for Clarence & BB are Sram GX 11speed.

I think the accurate machining of the UniBody cassettes is better for shifting than using separate Shimano 11/13T shouldered cogs (with seeming spacing inconsistencies?).

BromTi has a Thx4Ride parallelogram derailleur while the other two use similar H&H units.

So, there they are; all setup at different times with what seemed ideal (& available) then. At present, BB gets the favourite vote for simplicity & lightness – although for effectiveness, it’s a 3-way tie.

Lightish wheels with good gearing range & minimal hub drag.