[Music] hello everyone welcome back this video had intended to be a 4-year review of my bromton bicycle but my camera died on me when I was out and about filming this so I had to do it on my mobile phone so apologies if the um standard of the filming isn't quite up to scratch but I hope the key messages still get across so this is might be aimed at people were sitting on the fence not quite sure if they want to get a bromton and also just out of interest for those of you who were seasoned Brompton owners so I hope you will get something out of it and hope you enjoy it thanks for watching so here she is this is the bromton in its folded up form and this is what most people really like about the bronton is the form factor I'm not sure if you can see the scale here uh but it folds up uh into almost thirds a third of the length uh most folding bikes still fold into half so this gives a huge Advantage for the bronton one of the things that strike you straightway is how clever it is if you see you can see the handlebars folded on the outside the pedals fold at the back here up and all the dirty stuff that's all the gear mechanism is on the inside so when you're carrying it along you don't get your legs dirty you're not rubbing greasy oil parts up and down your leg so it's such a clever design and I don't think that's been bettered uh to this day uh you might also notice as well it just just looks fantastic that engineering uh you can tell there's a lot of thought that's gone into that and that's why people really like it it's for the form factor and when it's this size uh it can go anywhere it can really go into the van I've got the van here the camper van a car a small car it can fit in uh I keep this at home just in my Corridor uh inside the front door because it takes up no space so I've got a couple of upgrades so you can see I've got a nice Brook saddle there I'll do a separate review about that and how it's worked with a Brompton uh the stock saddle that comes with a bromton had mixed reviews but I actually quite liked it and also I've just got a small upgraded carry handle here the bromton this is a standard steel uh Brompton they're not light they they do weigh a bit uh so um that does help cut it around if you get taking it on the tube or in a enclosed space it just makes it a bit easier to carry so that's been useful I'm with many other people who are a fan of Brom s on this form factor it's fantastic and if you're on a crowded train or on a tube it doesn't get in the way or a bus and uh in your car or at home you can just tuck it away and just one more Point here I'll move around is the Aesthetics I really like the Aesthetics when you compare it to some other makes of folding bikes uh the quality really stands out in my opinion wa [Music] so before any of you comment below I know the chain set is dirty uh I use this every day it's not a showpiece and I've just been on a Four Mile cycle with it as well but I do clean and lubricate it whenever I get the chance so I think I'll start from the front so the wheels as everyone knows on the bromton are small um and because of that uh there are some issues with it uh Chief amongst them is that uh they run at a very high pressure so uh so I think the recommended is about 110 PSI uh and but because of that and they're small you do feel bumps so if you go over potholes you will feel it much more than you would in on a normal bike that being said uh it's more comfortable than uh you would expect and I've never had a problem this bike came with schw tires I've never had a problem with a puncher I don't think I've actually had a puncher in four years on this bike the other thing you'll notice is these uh mud guards they're made of plastic material theyve stood up well with the mud guard very efficient so it really does work well in wet weather one of the great things about the bike is this mounting bracket uh because of the way it's fixed directly onto the frame it doesn't move when The Handlebar moves so it stays static so this can take a range of bromton bags that are very expensive but very good quality so I've got the bromton tea bag which I use on this and it's it's great I've done a sep for a review on that so the other thing coming up uh as I've mentioned before is this long stem and there's no way getting around this because the stem's so long it is flexible so if you're a Speed Demon and you really like going for it uh and you really cycle hard you will find that that will Flex uh there's no way around it having said that for most Riders uh riding at normal speeds you won't notice the flex you can see that's the hinge that uh it uh The Handlebar folds so moving around the grips I've spoken about these before these have worn down now I don't know whether you can see these but they've pretty gone and that's four years of uh use compared to the rest of the bike they're functional so uh they're not particularly good quality they could have done a better job with these I think there are various aftermarket add-ons that you can get uh in terms of the handlebars uh be happy to hear which ones you're using below because I'm looking to upgrade these uh you can also see the dent attention to detail on these brake uh levers here they're metal and you can see the bromton logo it's those attention to details that really make it stand out it uh sort of Screams quality and workmanship uh I've got the mbar type and mine is a six gear version they are plastic these mechanisms it's a high quality plastic but some would argue it would be better with a more robust metal mechanism but I haven't had any problems so what we've got moving down is on this Frame the supporting frame here is you've got the first uh uh folding part which this unscrews it folds back this way and what's interesting about the folding mechanism I've said before is the bike really folds into a third length rather than the hard length so this is a single support frame we've got here when I first got this I was worried that the flex would be too much there is more Flex than a normal bik you can't get away from that but it's not as much as you would think and in some instances is actually an advantage because the the ride is so harsh from the wheels this acts to smooth some of the bumps out so surprising that flexibility can work in your favor got this end part which again this whole section falls back underneath the bike um and there's a small pump in there again this pump others have noticed that it it might feel a bit cheap compared to the rest of the bike it's plastic but again it does the job and it's a nice touch to have it there at all these are the Rolling Wheels where where the bike is folded up I'm not a particular fan of these they're a bit they're one of the things that could be upgraded and they're aftermarket wheel so again if you've got any comments put them down because I'm looking to upgrade those uh the brakes on the front and back a caliper brakes they're functional they're pretty good so even in wet weather I've never really had a problem with these and again that is the back wheel uh with um you've got your uh spray protector there that does a good job and this is just uh uh protects the uh guard when it's folded up it's an extra wheel which I'll show you in a bit long seat post going up and it really is a long seat post and again when I first had this I was worried that there would be a lot of flex in this but bizarrely it actually hasn't been a problem so going back a bit what we also have is this folding pedal it just folds up nicely out the way so it doesn't catch you it is actually smaller than the other pedal and uh my foot has slipped off a couple of times you get used to it but it's just to say that it it is a bit shorter than the pedal on the uh opposing side thing this is the catch that you release when you release this catch uh the um back wheel mechanism falls into place when you lift it up so that's just tucked here people have noticed they're not the cheapest bikes uh but you know these are built to last and the way I look at it is if you're going to invest in one of these bromton uh if you look after it properly it could be yours for life so if you take that perspective then uh you know it's not as expensive as it might first seem I think I got this one for 1,300 at the time uh they've probably gone up a bit since then other little nice touch as you can see is the logos can you I don't know if that's coming through properly uh but you can see all these little nice touches they all add up so the final thing I want to talk about uh is the ride quality what's it like riding a bronton so this is where we can get into sticky territory because some people have really strong opinions about bronton some people think they're brilliant best thing since sliced bread and some people don't like the ride quality so I can I can only speak from my personal opinion or my experience is that when you swap or to riding a bromton from a regular bike you will notice a big difference they're very different riding experiences if you come from riding a regular bike you might have tens of gear you might have tens of Gears to play with so it's easier to find your Cadence with a bromton this particular model has got six gears there's a three gear version you've only got a more limited choice and because of that it takes time to adjust uh your Cadence or your preferred gear ratio to that and it might be a bit more difficult so you might see people doing this Brompton sway where they're trying a bit harder than they usually would uh with a normal bike the other thing is uh compared to a regular bike the Brompton is slower there's no doubt about it for equal effort the bromton is slower so so I don't think it's ever made for speed demons if you're expecting to get on this and whiz down the road as fast as your regular bike you'll probably be a little bit disappointed just the ergonomics of it uh the wheel size the frame uh is not so rigid you're very upright position it's just slower it's not built for Speed so this is probably where people will say oh I can go really fast on my bronton of course you can if you pedal hard you can go really fast on this thing but with equal effort it's not as fast as a regular bike doggy you're interrupting but that being said you can ride really fast on a bronton and they're more comfortable and they're faster than you might think they actually are the gear ratios are quite uh uh nicely spread you can actually accelerate really quickly uh if you particularly if you're in the cities you're in the traffic you can accelerate away on these bronts really quick and because of the seating position it's so high and you're upright you can really see over traffic pretty well uh and bizarrely because the the shape of the bike is so long the center of gravity is quite low so you're really stable on the bike and you've got also got a really uh good turning Circle in comparison to other bikes uh and that's noticeable so you're very maneuverable so if you see a pothole you can move around it pretty quickly but overall in my opinion the bike performs better than it should uh it's really comfortable to ride it is slower than a regular bike so many advantages particularly in a city environment or a commuting environment if you've got a small amount of storage space you can just fold this up tuck it under to your office um bench and uh and you're fine but the other thing that I did notice is as you get used to the bromton you start using it or I did for longer and longer distances to the extent that I've gone on cycle tours on this thing now and I've really enjoyed it I've got some other videos about cycle touring uh on this I did one last year I think uh so overall uh this bike is greater than the sum of its parts you can take it anywhere it is comfortable it might be a bit slower than a regular bike but apart from that you can pretty do most things that you can on a regular bike and if I could choose just one bike of all the bikes I've got I would actually choose my bromton at the moment that might change but for the moment um that's the case in summary you've probably guessed that I really like the bromton uh it's definitely the most versatile bike I've got a take anywhere bike uh with its limitations if you can get over those I think they're a real investment and because the build quality is so good my opinion is if you look after it properly you know it will last a lifetime uh so although they cost a lot in comparison to some other bikes they've got longevity built into them so I hope some of you found that of uh interest uh if you've got any questions do put them in the at the comments below and I'll try and answer them do watch out for the next bomic video and hit the Subscribe button if you do like these so that you can keep up to date with any new ones that come along so until next time for