Buying My 2nd Brompton

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BUYING MY 2ND BROMPTON

(Disclaimer - all prices mentioned are approximate prices and rounded up. For more accurate pricing please contact the relevant people. This blog is not a review, it's more on my adventure in purchasing my 2nd Brompton)

After more than four years and three bicycles, cycling is now much in by blood; very well en-trained into my life.

And now I am getting my fourth bicycle, another Brompton.

Of all my bikes, this will be by far the most important bicycle that I would be buying -

AND IT'S NOT EVEN FOR MYSELF!!

See, I am getting this bike for my better half; so it is a purchase that will be a milestone and watershed in my cycling adventures. Now I can look forward to sharing my fun and sweat with my missus. And I do hope that she will enjoy the adventures to come as much as I had enjoyed mine.

It been almost four years since I got my first Brompton (... see blog), and after having so many AhPek cycling adventures all over the world, I have been wanting to get another Brompton for my better half for quite some time now. But Dang! Even second hand ones are hard to come by these days - the moment someone posted a pre-loved one for sale it's snapped up before one can say "Presto!"

Oh.... by the way "pre-loved" seems to be the in-thing of describing second-hand things. But I just wonder if it's loved, why get rid of it.... Okay, okay... I digress... probably out of frustration of not getting on of those "pre-loved" ones.

AND when there was a sale of new ones down in Singapore, down-south friends quickly prompted me! There was a Pre-2017 Clearance sale. Any 6R model was going for S$2,120 which worked out to MYR6,400 for a 2015/2016 model. (For the uninitiated a 6R model means one of six-speed with a rear Rack).

It seemed like a good deal. The pre-loved ones on the market were easily two years old or even more, and their lover-owners were asking for MYR5,500 to MYR5,600. So for an extra MYR800 I would be getting a brand new Brompton of the latest model!

On top of that, my Singapore friends were most helpful; with one going to the shop to buy on my behalf, and another bringing it all the way up to Kuala Lumpur for me. Many thanks to the both of you!

Goofy (my first Brompton) was a P6R, i.e. a six-speed one with a P-Bar handle and with a rear rack. Now let's see what differences there are for the new bike:

Lé Mon, our new Brompton comes slightly different. Firstly it's a lime-green colour with a M-handle bar. We will probably get a X-bar extension for this handle later on.

Next, is a 44-T front chain ring. This is a smaller chain ring with 44 Teeth as opposed to the normal 50-T, which means it will be easier to ride up slopes.

Here's a combo look of Lé Mon's 44-T against Goofy's 50-T front chain ring. Some difference there; Goofy's bigger chain ring means harder to climb the slopes but it can go faster on the flats.

Cool black brake levers with Brompton folding icons.

I was surprise to see it coming with Brompton Ezy wheels, and not the standard rack rolling wheels. But I will probably change these to the ABEC Ezy wheels (... see ABEC blog).

The bungee cords were installed the usual way, i.e. on top of rack. I did a slight change and put it below the rack so that when folded there is less chance of scrapping the cords when rolling the bike.

The suspension block that came with it was the FIRM type instead of the usual MEDIUM. This is better, especially on bumpy or gravel roads.

Will probably maintain this Brompton suspension block for the time being. If the performance is okay then we will not change it for a Kamoya Jenny suspension, as shown on Goofy on the right (... see Kamoya Jenny suspension blog).