As some of you might remember, I sold my VanMoof S3 ebike a little over a month ago and purchased a Brompton C-Line. All in all I’m loving the new bike, it’s a marvel of engineering. What I’m not all that thrilled about are the amount of restrictions there are on adjusting the bike to fit your riding preference.
About a week after I started riding the Brompton I decided to start fine-tuning the adjustment of it. I adjusted the tilt on the handlebars just a few millimeters closer so I didn’t have to reach as far for them.
Big mistake!
A few blocks into my first ride the gears stopped working and after a trip to a local Brompton dealer in Minneapolis I discovered that handlebar adjustment caused the gear cables to s-t-r-e-t-c-h when I folded the bike.
It’s All About The Fold
The bike mechanic at Perennial Cycle explained cardinal rule of the Brompton, in his words, “it’s all about the fold”. He said that the handlebars, or much of anything else for that matter (except for the seat), should never be adjusted for any reason.
What?
As someone who's ridden a bike for over four decades this seems absurd and really isn’t mentioned except for a few very vague statements buried fairly deeply in the bike's owner's manual. YouTube videos I've watched didn't mention it either.
The mechanic explained because the tolerances are so tight on this bike when it folds any adjustment can cause three other things to go out of whack.
Live and learn.
Now, you would think Brompton would make this crystal clear in the quick start guide but, anyway, the bike mechanic replaced the stretched gear cables. Fifty dollars later, my beloved Brommie was back on the road.
On my second ride after having it in the shop for repair the gears stopped working again. This time I discovered the lock nut (pictured above) wasn’t tightened against the barrel adjuster for the hub gears. It seems the mechanic forgot to lock it down after replacing the gear cables. So after a couple of rides it moved and the gears went out of adjustment yet again.
Now, thanks to working on my 1959 Raleigh I know all about hub bike gears so I smiled and thought, Ahh, finally a simple fix. The plan was to just recalibrate the gear adjustment and secure it down with the lock nut but, alas, it wasn't in the cards. The nut won’t budge even with the help of pliers and a shot of WD-40. It appears to be cross-threaded. So back to the bike shop we go today to see if they can fix it or if the entire part has to be replaced.
Hopefully the third time will be a charm and the steep learning curve for this bike is nearly expired. So far when the bike is working I really love it, it’s quick and nimble. When it’s not working I end up channeling my late-Father and launching a plethora of curse words, then finally taking a deep breath and surrendering into something resembling patience.
This little Brompton is definitely teaching me to have more of that, patience, and it's a valuable asset to have in this world after all. My new mantra from this point forward will be...it's all about the fold. There has to be a deeper metaphysical meaning in there somewhere, right?
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
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(Photos are original.)
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