Handlebars

As I mentioned before, I now have some fairly comfortable bar ends on my Brompton, but they were unfortunately set at a less than ideal angle, to keep them (barely) clear of the ground when the bike was folded.

Looking at the variables open to me it seemed like the simplest and cheapest to try was a new set of handlebars. Whilst it seems that you can spend upwards of £100 on handlebars(!) for this experiment I went with a rather more modest set at a grand cost of £11.81 including shipping from Amazon.

The most important thing to look for when buying new handlebars for a Brompton is to ensure that they are 25.4mm (1 inch) in diameter at the clamping point. Some mountain bike handlebars are rather wider. The set that I got are shaped so that the grips are about 3cm above the clamp. I hoped that this would help to stop the riding position from being too severe and also provide some clearance for my luggage (a T bag).

Fitting the new bars was fairly straightforward it was just a case of:
- Removing everything from the old handlebars, noting the routing of the cables. (Also note that if you still have the original Brompton grips you almost certainly won't be able to get them off without ruining them so you'll need something to replace them with).
- in my case undoing the handle bar brace on one side.
- loosening the handlebar clamp.
- sliding out the old bars and sliding in the new ones.
- reversing the other steps above, remembering to route the cables correctly.

The new handlebars went in fairly easily as they only bulge out at the clamping point (the grip ends are at the normal 22.2mm diameter) which meant that the curves in the bar went through the clamp without much trouble.

With everything fitted I found that I could easily position the bar ends at the angle I wanted and keep them clear of the ground when the bike was folded.

However, there are a couple of other clearances you need to worry about when changing the handlebars:
- The clearance between the brake levers and any luggage you may have
- The clearance between the cables to the rear of the bike and the front cog

With these handlebars the brake levers are a little close to my T-bag for my liking, I wouldn't be able to pack it too full. The brake and gear cables, whilst closer to the front cog, seem to be OK.

In use the first thing I noticed was that the riding position felt very strange compared to before. My arms felt quite widely spread, the steering felt a bit less lively, and my knees were getting rather close to my stomach when peddling.

The first two of these changes are down to the fact that the new handlebars are rather wider than the standard m-type handlebars and I got used them fairly quickly. The third change was down to the new handlebars obviously being much lower. I've never owned a proper racing bike but looking at picture it seems that they often have their handlebars down below the height of the saddle so it may just be my overly large stomach getting in the way! (Or it may be that having a longer distance between the saddle and handlebars on a full size bike counteracts this issue somewhat).

After a couple of rides I also noticed that the saddle feels rather less comfortable than before, I'm not sure whether this is down to the change in riding position or just the fact that I haven't ridden a bike for a few months. I may try tipping the saddle forwards a little to see if that's any more comfortable.

Overall I'd say that these handlebars are a qualified success. They allow me a good bar end position but are a bit uncomfortable at the moment - I'd not go on a long ride without a few trial runs first to see if I could get comfortable in the new position.

Given my findings I think I'll try to find another set of handlebars with a bit more rise in them to see whether I can get a better compromise between bar ends and overall comfort.

Brompton Ergon GR2 grips and bar ends

Sometime ago I mentioned that I was going to try some longer bar-ends on my Brompton. The main reason for the change was that I'd cut my first set of Ergon grips to match the original brake levers and then promptly changed the brake levers for different ones.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to try some slightly longer bar-ends as the first ones I tried were a little short. This time around I went for the latest Ergon GR2 grips (the older 2010 version are a little shorter and seem to be made of metal). I thought that if the new ones were too long to fold I'd still be able to use the new grips with the old bar-ends. That turned out to be wrong as the two grips use completely different systems for attaching the bar-ends to the grips as you can see below (note that the GR2 grip on the right is upside down in this picture).

 
Fortunately, the new bar-ends turned out to fold just fine.

The other change I made was to go for the smaller size grips. I found some information on the internet, supposedly from Ergon, that said that the only difference between the grip sizes was the circumference of the grip. Comparing the two grips above you can see that actually the pad area is also a little bit smaller on the smaller grips (although I guess the difference could be down to the different models, but that seems unlikely).

As before I went for the normal length grips knowing that I'd have to cut them down a little. As you can see below, with the new brake levers the grips are only slightly too long.

Unfortunately, due to the length of the bar-ends they need to be pretty much horizontal when unfolded so that they stay off the ground when the bike is folded, and even then one still gets a little scratched. I would prefer to be able to angle them slightly upwards for riding.

I do prefer these longer GR2 bar-ends to the shorter GC2 ones; the extra length makes a difference and helps you to get a decent grip. The rubbery patches on the bar-ends also make them feel a bit more comfortable and less slippy. Whilst overall they are not quite as good to use as the normal bar-ends on my full size bike, they are still pretty good. For anyone looking to get some bar-ends I'd definitely recommend these over the shorter GC2s.

Not so superior after all?

I've now had my detachable pedals detach themselves twice. The first time was immediately after I'd been demonstrating how the pedals worked to some friends so I put it down to user error re-attaching them. However, the second time occurred after a few weeks of riding without detaching the pedals.

Both times the pedal came off as I stopped once whilst I was still moving and once just after I'd got off the bike. As I said before I never had trouble with the pedals on my Dahon, and coupled with when they came off I think it may be the twisting to get out of my Power Grips that does it.

Of course that shouldn't be enough as you have to twist the collar as well as push it in, but close inspection reveals that the twisting spring only pushes the collar a few millimetres away from the crucial point, you can twist it a full 90 degrees away manually though. Any rubbing between the shoe and the collar during forward pedalling should actually help to secure the pedals, so I guess that I must have back-pedalled and then twisted my foot out to cause the pedal to detach.

At the very least I'm to have to be a bit more careful from now on. I am even considering sending the pedals back and getting some non "superior" ones that will be a bit more of a hassle to take off, but won't come off by accident (due to the plastic locking ring). I'll wait and see what my new commute is like and how often I'll need to take the pedal off.

Brompton Stickers and Paint

As I mentioned in my rather long and rambling initial thoughts, the orange paint on my Brompton doesn't seem to be very hard wearing. Looking over the bike recently I noticed that the front brake cable had already managed to rub through the paint on the fork and was getting close to doing the same on the main frame tube.

Coupled with the paint chips I reported on initially I decided it was time to get some touch up paint and see what it could do. So I bought some matt Brompton paint from SJS cycles. As the cable rubbing was only going to get worse with time I also bought some protective stickers at the same time (I found it surprisingly hard to find bicycle stickers that weren't either branded or reflective).

Before painting I cleaned the chipped and worn areas with a little white spirits. Applying the paint was fairly easy, there is a small brush in the lid (like a nail varnish brush). The only thing to be careful is to wipe the excess paint off the brush before starting.

The paint dries fairly quickly, and, once dried, is a fairly good colour match (at least on my frame) but not identical. You can see the colour difference here, along with the fact that it's doing a better (but not perfect) job of standing up to the pressure on the inside of the joint.

Once the paint was dry I applied protective stickers wherever there were signs of rubbing. As some areas only had light marks so I didn't re-paint them but still stickered them. The main areas were where the cables touch the frame and forks and where the front wheel hooks over the rear triangle when folding.

With my new brake levers there were also signs of wear where the cables rub on the other side of the front fork when the handlebars are folded. Finally I stuck one sticker under the chain to protect the frame from all the grease that comes off there.

I'm fairly pleased with the results. The stickers are fairly thick and so should provide good protection - as long as they stay put. So far one has slipped out of position but I do at least have plenty of spares in the original pack.

Brompton Power Grips

In my previous post on pedals I mentioned that I also bought some Power Grips to go with them. I use
SPD shoes and pedals on my full size bike and I really like the way they secure my feet on the pedals. So I wanted something similar for my Brompton but without the need to wear special shoes. Before moving on to SPDs I had used toe clips which worked reasonably well so I started searching for toe clips suitable use on a Brompton. Whilst searching I ran across a few people that were recommending Power Grips as a superior alternative so I decided to give them a go.



The first thing you notice about Power Grips is the price, they're not exactly cheap for what they are at around £22, plus another £8 for reflectors if you want to be legal in the UK after dark. However, as far as I'm aware they're a fairly new idea and it seems reasonable to reward innovation.

Fitting them to my pedals was pretty straightforward just requiring a 3mm allan key and an 8mm spanner (you'll need a philips head screw driver too if you're not fitting reflectors). If you are fitting reflectors read both sets of instructions before starting as the reflectors replace a good proportion of the original fixings. You'll just have to undo your handiwork if you fit the grips first and then look at the reflectors.

The standard fittings look solid and are entirely metal, however when fitting the reflectors it looks like metal bolts are held in place by the plastic of the reflector. So far I've not had any trouble, but this system at least looks a bit less strong than the normal fittings so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

The main downside with Power Grips is that take a bit of setting up to match your shoes, and you then can't use them properly with any other shoes (unless they happen to have the same external circumference) without readjusting them. You can of course still ride in other shoes, they just won't be gripped as well. This isn't a  problem for me as I almost always wear the same shoes but could be an issue for some.

Some people have also not liked the fact that you have apply a twisting force to tighten the grips as it has hurt their knees. So far this hasn't been a problem for me - perhaps because I have quite grippy soles on my shoes. This means that once I've twisted them in they tend to stay put on their own.

I've been using the Power Grips for a few weeks now and I am happy with them. They hold my feet better than toe clips without straps, and don't require the constant faffing of toe clips with straps. They are also a bit easier to get your foot out of in an emergency. I had an episode early on when I was still getting used to having my feet strapped in to my Brompton. I did the usual thing of stopping before remembering to get my foot out of the strap but still managed to get my foot out in time to catch myself. I'm fairly sure that with proper toe clips I wouldn't have been quick enough.

Given the choice I still prefer my SPD shoes though, so if I ever went on a really long ride I'd look into getting some removable SPD pedals and just replace my current pedals for that trip.

Brompton Pedals

The Brompton folding pedal is very cleverly designed but the plastic section in the middle doesn't seem to be strong enough to cope with hard pedaling and creaks a bit when put under stress. Usually flipping the pedal the other way up works (probably because it transfers the stresses to the metal sections of the pedal) but not always for some reason.

So, I decided I wanted something a bit sturdier and something that would also allow me to attach toe clips later on. Whilst you can find people online that have attached toeclips and similar things to their Brompton pedals they all seem to involve drilling extra holes, and I'd still have the pedal creaking to contend with.

My Dahon had removable MKS pedals, and as it turns out MKS seem to be the main player when it comes to detachable pedals. Some googling later I was suitably inspired by this post describing not just a nice set of MKS pedals but also how to fit Power Grips to those pedals (my Power Grips will have to wait for a separate post).

One thing I wasn't keen on with the Dahon's pedals was the little plastic clips that you were supposed to use to lock the pedals in place. They were fiddly to remove and I managed to lose one of them. Personally I never had a problem cycling without the locking ring, but it still niggled (you can find stories of people accidentally detaching their pedals whilst cycling). So I was particularly happy with the added bonus of the MKS Esprit EZY Superior pedals. Namely the "superior" attachment system that does away with the plastic locking ring in favour of requiring the locking collar to be rotated as well as pushed.

Removing the existing pedals isn't exactly straightforward. The righthand one can be removed easily enough with a normal 15mm pedal spanner. However the folding pedal needs a 24mm box spanner to get it off.

Once removed the Brompton cranks show an interesting asymmetry. The righthand crank has the usual indentation for a pedal washer (not fitted with the Brompton pedal, but shown below with both MKS washers fitted).

However the lefthand crank is completely smooth.

The folding pedal instead has a very large washer.

It seems that the indentation in the righthand crank is little narrow for the MKS pedal so the pedal started to bite into the crank before the washer took the load. So, I ended up using both MKS supplied washers on the righthand pedal. On the lefthand pedal I used a single pedal washer I ordered from eBay.

The new pedals are much sturdier, although a bit less convenient to fold. Personally it's a trade-off I'm more than happy with.

Brompton brake levers

As I mentioned in my initial thoughts the biggest disappointment with my Brompton is the performance of the brakes. The cable oilers I fitted helped to some degree but I decided to try some different brake levers too.

I bought a pair of Shimano R550 levers in black. At £15 for a pair they are only about £5 more expensive than a replacement pair of Brompton levers but they are much more solidly made (and no doubt a bit heavier for it too). There are other levers around, but the important thing to check is that they are suitable for calliper brakes rather than V brakes.

These levers are much narrower where they attach to the handlebar than the Brompton levers. This means that if you use Ergon grips they need to be cut much less than with the standard lever (although they do need to be cut all the way around).

At first I found the levers a bit hard to use, but I realised that this was because I'd positioned them similarly to the old levers and they were facing almost straight down making them hard to reach. I adjusted the handlebars back to about vertical (when unfolded) which allowed me to position the levers at close to 45 degrees and still fold the bike. In this position they are much more usable and importantly feel much more positive than the original levers.