Some upgrades to Bob the Brompton

This photo was taken on NCN Route 45, at Chiseldon, south of Swindon. Husband had dropped me off near there, on his way to go paragliding, and I then cycled home, about 23 miles, visiting Go Outdoors on the eastern edge of Swindon on the way. It's actually quite fun negotiating Swindon, as it has an excellent network of cycle paths. I took the bike in the shop with me, pushing it round by the handlebars.

Upgrade Number 1 -

Litepro Easy Wheels: I had always felt that the bike wasn't all that easy to push when folded. I had the standard rollers, on the rear rack, that came with the bike, but then came across a lot of chatter about Brompton "Eazy" wheels, which have bearings in, and are slightly bigger than the rollers. As well as the genuine Brompton ones, there are of course various other cheaper options. Someone on Facebook had recommended the ones I bought. They cost £25.98 on Ebay. They make for a much better roll of the bike when folded. You can see them in a photo below.

Upgrade Number 2 -

Brooks B67 saddle: Although the Brompton saddle was surprisingly comfortable, it wasn't as comfortable as my two Brooks B67s. I have one on my new Stanforth, and the other is on my old Trek, which I really only use for shopping now. It seemed a bit of a waste not making more use of it, so I transferred it to the Brompton. It took me a while to work out the whole Brompton "pentaclip" thing, but once I'd done that I realized actually what a clever device it is. Once it's on the saddle it's really easy to put it on the bike and adjust it. 

Brooks B67, with cut out (I did this)

Upgrade Number 3 -

Ergon GP3 grips: Earlier in the year I had decided to put some bar ends on the Brompton. I had realized that a lot of people put Ergon grips/bar ends on, but I had also seen these cheaper ones in a video, couldn't decide which would be best, and so sent off for both.  Not having used Ergon grips, and being slightly uncertain as to whether I'd like them or not, and also because they would need cutting to fit, I decided to go with the cheaper ones, but I kept the Ergons. The cheaper ones were fine, and it was better with them than without them. However, my Stanforth bike came with Ergon GP5 cork grips and I have found that I really like them, so decided to ask Husband to put the spare ones (GP3s) on the Brompton. I believe you can do it without cutting them - depends on whether you want to move your brakes/gear levers - but we did cut them.

In the photo you can see that the grips clear the floor (you could adjust them for greater clearance if you wanted) and you can also see the Litepro wheels -

Grips and Litepro wheels

So this ride home from Chiseldon was the first real test of the change of saddle and grips. As soon as I got on it I realized what a game changer both upgrades were! I loved having my favourite model of saddle on, and that extra area under my hands given by the Ergon grips somehow made me feel more stable. I can honestly say that I felt as if I were riding a more "normal" bike! 

The Litepro wheels were much better than the rollers, too, when pushing the bike round Go Outdoors. Actually that reminds me of something I learnt recently about the bike - part of the reason why I had had trouble pushing it when folded was that I had the seat post pushed right down so that it touched the floor, so I had to lift it slightly, by the saddle, when pushing it. I realized that if I raised the seat post just a little, it would then clear the ground, but still be in front of the stop disk, which it needs to be to stop the bike unfolding . I'm learning stuff about this bike all the time!

Upgrade Number 4 -

This is more of a hack than an upgrade really. On that same ride my Brompton Borough Roll Top bag would have been unnecessarily big, so I had taken a small rucksack. I have also got this excellent rear bag, with little drop down panniers (thank you, Elder Son!) but knowing I would be going into a shop I wanted a bag I could easily take on and off the bike and carry -

So my small rucksack went on the rear rack, strapped down carefully to avoid any of the straps getting caught up in the wheels. However, it was a pain in the neck having to take it on and off the bike whenever I wanted something out of it, especially my map (I like my proper paper maps), so having recently come across adapters for turning any bag into one that fits on the Brompton carrier block, I decided to try this. I bought a cheap rucksack (£13.99, half price, looked for something in charity shops first but couldn't find anything) and one of the adapters - this is a flattish one. It was £10.99. I have to admit it was a fiddle fixing it on! I had to first cut away material on the back and also padding, and insert a stiffener of plastic (saved from old panniers...) into an internal pocket. The cutting away of material was necessary as the bolts they supply with the adapter were not thick enough to go through all the layers of  material. If I were doing it again I would get some longer bolts. I was going to give up and leave out the stiffener (though you really do need it to stop the bag flopping everywhere) but Husband was determined that he would get the bolts through, and he did! 

Front pocket which fits my maps nicely

Adapter plate in position, cord is to loop over the handlebars to give extra stability

Velcro so I can fix the straps out of the way

Straps out of the way

Bag on bike 

I'm looking forward to trying out this bag on my next trip.

And just for interest (and partly for my swimming/blogging/cycling friend Brenda) here is a photo of the old diving platform at Coate Water, Swindon, where I stopped for coffee (read here about its history and restoration) It's no longer in use as the water isn't safe to swim in, they say. But they recently restored it at a cost of £100,000, since when it has got covered in bird muck again! What a waste of money!