Follow Susanna Thornton, an expert Brompton tourer on her latest journey along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way and Causeway Coast. Very inspiring ride where weather challenges are always met with a smile and a recognition of how lucky one is to be riding a Brompton folding bike along these beautiful roads.
A Brompton folding bike can be the perfect tool to tour the magnificent island of Bali Indonesia.
An interesting account of Mike Fabian's 2 days ride over the Austrian Alps on a Brompton folding bike. Climbing over 2000 metres passes on what was the last chance before the winter closure on two stages of over 100 km is no mean feat and those Großlockner pictures say it must have all been so much worth it!
Watch this video where Takuya Debun shares some of his experience and thoughts behind the kind of setup he uses when touring on a Brompton folder.
This latest tour was 1,750 kilometres following the northern Mediterranean Coast starting from Barcelona and moving through France into Italy. The route followed, for the most part, Eurovelo 8 also referred to as 'the Mediterranean Way'. Once in Italy, this route moves inland but I followed the coast into the Italian region of Liguria before moving towards Lake Garda.
For those planning a tour with a folding bike I think a large front bag is a no brainer. Sitting on the front block of the frame it is the perfect way to carry luggage without affecting the bike handling. The Borough Roll Top bag with its 28L capacity is just that, a perfect bag for touring on a folder.
A Brompton folder combined with a train ticket can make it really easy to explore the best parts while skipping what is less interesting or places one has already seen. In this ride along the South Devon coast Andy makes the best of the ease with which our favourite folder can be easily transported.
A beautifully filmed short movie on a two days ride on a Brompton following the Penedès route in Catalonia. For a total of 153 km and 2100 metres total climbed and using a light back packing style on a Brompton.
Follow a brilliant tutorial on how to pack gear on a Brompton for travel. Susanna Thornton shares her experience after years of experience touring with our favourite folding bike.
Another very informative video by the guys at 2Bikes4Adventure. Very few bike multitools are compatible with Brompton bicycles, and here they review 3 of them plus a few additions to tools you may already own. A must watch for every Brompton enthusiast. Head to their Youtube channel and don't forget to subscribe!
No matter how much we all love these little bikes they are not perfect. If there is one issue that disappoints most Brompton owners is their shifting system. Although Sturmey Archer is a solid and reliable gearing system, it is let down on a Brompton by poor shifters and plastic components that at times can get jammed and prevent from changing gears. When gears options are already limited with a maximum 6 gears available as standard, any malfunction in the ability to shift is quite limiting.
Follow Martin tracks on his first tour on a Brompton. Quite impressive to be able to cover 1500 kilometres on a loop that started and ended in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.
139 km ride on the Round Island Route of Singapore of course on a Brompton Folding Bike!
Head over to Everyday Cycling Youtube video for a detailed comparison between riding a standard Brompton and a Brompton electric. The test was carried out following the same road and comparing the different speeds on exactly the same grades and same route. A microphone was also installed on the motor of the electric Brompton to give a further immersive nature to the video!
Another interesting video by the guys at 2Bikes4Adventure. Here they show how with a little creativity it is possible to find an alternative front bag to the one sold by Brompton which as good as they are can be rather expensive.
In this video I discuss what in my opinion are the best tires for touring on a Brompton and show you in details what you will need to do to replace them and adjust your hub gears.
Not a common event on the strong little wheels of a Brompton but if you do have to fix a broken spoke on the road or while touring it might be useful to have a look at how this is done. Good advice from an amateur mechanic and Brompton rider.
We all agree that punctures are bad for cyclists. They stop your ride, delay you and get your hands dirty. For the latter, I always recommend an easy fix. Simply, never leave home without some DIY or even vinyl gloves. They are small and light enough to fit with your spare tubes in a tiny saddle bag and you will thank me later.
But what about the rest? All the huffing and puffing, the 'why all this happens to me?' Or the fact that punctures tend to happen at the worst of times and as you lean down for a repair, it will likely begin to rain?
I find that on a Brompton this is further complicated by the way the rear wheel is fixed to the bike and due to the hub gear. And, yes, in case you are wondering, a tyre puncture usually happens to rear wheel.
Recently there are on the market airless tyres like Tannus, which are filled tyres without inner tubes and promise to fix this for good. The reality is that I personally find them not as comfortable to ride. I find they have more drag while riding and they are not as stable when cornering which I couldn't get adjusted to.
Over the years I have found that three main habits greatly help in preventing punctures. When I started touring with my Brompton fully loaded with luggage I would average a puncture every 500 kilometres or so. Since using these 3 principles I am happy to say that such a poor result is a thing of the past and I have ridden my bike over a 1000 kilometres of gravel and 3000 kilometres of tarmac on a fully loaded bike without a single puncture! Some of them will be of course things that you already do and know but following all of them made a huge difference to me.
1) Tyre Wear:
I use what are considered some of the best quality tyres for touring: Marathon Schwalbe Standard as well as Plus. No matter the brand what is key is to keep an eye on how worn is the tread. When this is thin with lots of cuts in the rubber it is a good idea to replace it with a new one. If you are touring and would like to save yourself a little money when touring, use that worn rear tyre as a spare tyre that can be used as a replacement in an emergency.
2) Air Pressure:
Investing money into a good portable pump was worth every penny for me. While touring, I used to rely on the Brompton standard pump that comes fixed to the bike. Before starting the tour I would go to a bike shop to get the wheel pumped up to a good pressure but after a few days riding this would inevitably decrease. Topping up air pressure with the Brompton pump is not really possible. It is a pump that is designed for nothing more than getting you home if you need to fix a puncture but it won't be able to bring the pressure up to an ideal 80 to 85 PSI. Now I use a portable Lezyne pump with a gauge which allows me without too much an effort to bring the pressure up to a level that would normally require a floor pump. Using it to top up some air every couple of days or so, ensures that I keep my pressure up to an ideal level especially on that rear wheel which supports most of the weight and pressure.
3) Tyre Check
Before you start your ride each day or at the end of it, get into the habit of slowly spinning one wheel at a time, inspecting whether anything got stuck to their tread. Sharp objects don't always give you a flat tyre there and then; what can also happen is that they slowly pierce into the rubber the more you ride. If they are not sharp enough to puncture your inner tube they might still cause small cuts on the tyre surface which then is more likely to pick up further debris. Making it a regular habit will also make you more aware of how much the tyre is worn in the first place which brings us back to the first point.
In mid September, I was still in Sweden. The nights were getting chilly, and a new Covid wave was breaking out across Europe. I needed to go back to the UK, and I wanted to cycle it. I wanted to try the route along the North Sea coast, which looked as if it would be very different from the inland route I'd taken on the way out. But what with one thing and another, I was hesitating, delaying setting off. Suddenly, however, I realised that a lot of campsites would close at the end of the month. So, if I was going to ride it, I had to go pretty much immediately. The weather forecast was bad - tons of rain - but I packed up the bike, and late one Friday night, I set off. It did feel a bit mad to leave our cosy sitting room and ride alone to the docks in the dark and the wet. But I was pretty sure that, come what may, I’d enjoy myself. Anyway, here's what happened! Hope you enjoy the film!
Watch this video explaining in great details how Brompton gears compare to regular bikes and touring bikes when it comes to range. Pam and Gilbert, thanks to their experience in touring with Bromptons, offer and expert advice as to which gearing system is best if you consider touring with a Brompton.
I have always hoped one day to be able to cycle from the UK, my adopted country, to my hometown in the Italian Alps. I was finally able to do it and complete a ride that vaguely followed Eurovelo 15 down the Rhine before a diversion into Bavaria, Austria and finally Italy. All in all 2500km of easy and flat terrain and cycleways for the most part of the trip.
