Brompton Accessories #6 - Brass Bells

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BROMPTON ACCESSORIES #6 - BRASS BELLS

(This blog is not a review, it's more on my foray in purchasing accessories for my 3rd Foldie - a Raw Lacquer Brompton P6R)

Recently a friend asked me to look for polished brass bells for the Brompton bicycle, seems like they are available from a Thai company in Bangkok. These bells come in polished brass and ...

... and unpolished brass. However, the production of the unpolished ones have been halted as their ring just does't sound right. My friend was not keen to get the polished ones, but I proceeded all the same and got two of the polished ones.

Another friend in Thailand, TH Tan, bought my goodies and sent it over by airmail parcel.
After a couple of weeks of impatient waiting, the parcel finally arrived.

Anxiously, I unwrapped the parcel box. Inside were the bells and also a Thai-made headlight for the Brompton (with a bracket for installing), but we will come to this headlight in another blog (... see Akslen Headlight blog).

TH Tan had carefully wrapped each of two bells in bubble wrap and put them into individual zip-lock plastic bags. These are precious items, almost like golden pieces.

Even more anxiously, I unwrapped the bubble wrap.
Inside was the bell, together with a brass-knob striker. There is also a chrome screw already attached. It looked a bit stained from storage - no problem there, I can always polish it OR leave it as is goes well with the rugged look of my Raw Lacquer Brompton.

Now comes the part of removing the original Brompton black bell.

This was simple, just using an Allen Key... and Presto! It's removed!
But do take note that there is a washer that is screwed on with the original bell, don't lose that, as without it the original bell don't ring at all.
The new brass bell has a protrusion at the bottom that takes care of this.
But then... Hey! There is no screw to remove the striker.

So, I went underneath and removed the bottom cover of the gear shifter. Oops... nothing there that holds the striker spring in place.
What should I do? I called up my friend Felix of the OX team (they being much more familiar with Bromptons then me) and asked for advice. Seem like the spring is just screwed on - "Tape up the spring for protection, and slowly use a pair of pliers to unscrew," Felix advised.

Taking a second look at the brass knob striker - well, it's just a knob; there is no thumb piece for flicking! One has to flick the knob itself. It seems a bit clumsy, so I decided to stick with the original black striker -  that has a thumb piece.

Here it is - the bell fixed with the original black striker.
How is the sound? It is sharp with a long resounding ping.

Another view - from the top of bell.

A full P-handle view of the installed bell.

Cringgg.... Crinnnnnnnnnng... watch out here I come!

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Brompton Accessories #2 :
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