Greenford in west London is not the finest neighbourhood in the city. For several stops on the suburban train there, containers and graffiti have been the main splashes of colour when looking out of the window. And what happens in this large, grey factory building next to the railway line could be edited into a gritty hip-hop or metal video. Suggestion for the band name: "The Brompton Welders". Burly guys in long, heavy coats and black hoodies. Fireproof gauntlet gloves, scarves over their faces, opaque glasses. Whitish green flames pop and hiss.
Soldering to success
But what these men do follows a precise choreography: with perfectly controlled speed, they rotate the heavy steel fixtures in front of them on three axes. These holders are almost chest-high, a kind of freely rotating vice on columns. And time and again, the acetylene flame passes over the frame tubes clamped there, causing them to glow, joining them with even seams. The work of the frame solderers that we observe here is an essential part of the secret of the success of Brompton, the largest remaining bicycle manufacturer in England. For while the once larger competition looked to the mass market, developed interchangeable products and more or less disappeared in the global price war, the former tinkerer's workshop secured its place in a market niche with almost bizarre-looking bikes.
Brompton is booming
At Brompton, they build bikes that cost thousands of euros, roll on tiny 16-inch wheels and only have a four-speed derailleur in the highest configuration, while the rest of the cycling world is already discussing the transition from a twelve-speed sprocket to 13 gears. Almost everything else on a Brompton, from the rims to the brakes, the pedals and the saddle, also looks somewhat timeless and is only compatible with this luxury folding bike. To say that the unconventional concept of the London-based company is a success would be an understatement. Brompton is booming. The figures prove it. By the end of 2022, the brand claims to have reached the one million mark: one million Brompton bikes have been produced in around 45 years, half of them in the last five years.
100,000 Brompton bikes last year
In 2002, a few dozen employees built 6,000 bikes; by 2019, this figure had risen to 50,000. Last year, however, 100,000 Bromptons were produced by over 800 employees - a growth curve as steep as a ski jump being skied from below. Andrew Ritchie laid the foundation for this. You have to imagine him as a stubborn inventor. In the mid-1970s, the qualified engineer and computer scientist was familiar with the folding bikes from British manufacturer Bickerton and was certain that there was a better way. Ritchie, who was not working in the bicycle business at the time, borrowed money from friends and gradually built a whole series of prototypes. He allegedly worked in his own bedroom. From there, he looked out over a church called the "Brompton Oratory" - the root of the brand name.
Ritchie's ideas were obviously quite innovative, as he was granted several patents for his folding bike design. And after five years of tinkering, they were very, very mature: to the uninitiated, a current Brompton looks amazingly similar to the first production bikes from the early 1980s. Even though 50 to 60 details of the frame have changed since then, the look with the curved centre tube and the folding principle have remained unchanged. Ritchie's frame design still forms the foundation of the entire Brompton model range today.
Unique components
Would Andrew Ritchie take offence at being called a nerd? It is obvious that his bike is the work of a perfectionist technician and not that of a conventional bike brand. Practically every component is brand-specific. While the first bikes were still improvised from conventional materials, Ritchie gradually subordinated all the drive parts to his idea. Even if very few components are manufactured by Brompton itself, they still bear the logo, or they don't fit on any other standard bike anyway. The reason for this is the inventor's way of thinking: his design was intended to represent the best possible compromise between weight, size and folding properties - and not the best possible folding bike made from standard market ingredients.
Wheels with 16 instead of 20 inches or archaic-looking shifting components are the most obvious consequences of this approach. "Whenever there was enough money, we ordered new parts to our exact specifications," says Will Butler-Adams, who took over the role of Managing Director from the founder in 2008. "So we have long-term relationships with our suppliers. This is another reason why the supply problems caused by the pandemic have affected us less than others."
20 seconds per assembly step
Brompton had also rented warehouses in the neighbourhood and stocked up on materials as a precaution against Brexit. The frames, which are soldered 50 metres further forward in the hall and powder-coated on the other side of the aisle, are clamped in assembly stands on rollers. Each assembly step takes 20 seconds, whether it's a handlebar or a gear cable, then the fitters simply push the clamped body shell on to the neighbour on the right. After a total of 40 minutes, a new Brompton is placed in a surprisingly small shipping box with a "Made in London" label.
For Butler-Adams, who joined Brompton 20 years ago as a technician, such a bike is not just any old product. He likes to put it in a wider context. "We're heading towards a climate emergency, and people are wondering whether they should develop flying cars for congested cities? What a load of rubbish!" he rants. "Cars are technically brilliant products, but our bike is the right tool for cities." The apparent Brompton density in the City of London and its subways speaks in favour of his thesis - a phenomenon for which he cites his own counts: "For a bike like ours to be successful in a region, it needs a certain presence. There is a kind of threshold value above which it almost runs itself. In London, we've already had 20 to 25 per cent Bromptons on the road during counts!"
The Brompton folding bike
Brompton produces four folding bike model series and two pedelec models. The simplest model costs 1100 euros, the motorless, seven-kilo titanium model 5000 euros. All models are based on the same basic frame construction with three hinges: The main frame is folded just behind the head tube, the steering column can be folded to the side and the rear triangle, which is sprung with a rubber buffer, rotates forwards around the swingarm pivot point. The inserted seat post locks the resulting package, so to speak, which is carried on the saddle or pushed on small rollers. The main differences between the model series are the gearing, the option of customising the configuration and the material (the price increases with the proportion of titanium). In all previous MYBIKE tests, the folding mechanism and above all the pack size set the best mark.
Relocation planned
The product as a project, the folding bike as medicine for global problems - Will Butler-Adams is a thoughtful and entertaining ambassador for his brand. Brompton credibly addresses the issue of "sustainability", which everyone talks about but few really take to heart, with durable bikes that can be repaired over many years without constant model changes. Only insiders can tell the difference between a five or ten year old model and a current model. If so, then Brompton is expanding the line. With a pedelec or, as recently, a 5000 euro titanium version. The principle always remains the same: 16-inch wheels and an upwardly curved centre tube. A forward-swinging rear triangle, a hinge in the centre tube, the retracted seat post and a folding handlebar mast reduce the size of the bike to a package.
Cosmopolitan sceptics might now comment that the company is a "one trick pony" that limits itself to a single, central product design. Butler-Adams once again smiles a little mischievously: "Why a new bike? Only when we feel we can no longer improve this bike will we start something new." Brompton's relocation plans show just how sure he is of himself: a new factory is planned. Outside London, with good rail connections and costing over 100 million euros. Its production capacity: 200,000 Bromptons per year - twice as many as at present.
Brompton in figures
- Foundation: 1978 (patent granted)
- LocationLondon Greenford
- Owner: Privately owned, independent company
- Employeesapprox. 800
- Production (2022): approx. 100,000 bicycles
- Turnover (2021): 76 million Brit. Pounds
Home visits - MYBIKE reports
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