As you can imagine, being Brompton specialists we see a lot of the London brands bikes through our workshop, either for full overhauls, servicing or upgrades.
The first Brompton in the gallery below was quite an old one which had originally had a Sturmey 5 speed hub. The bike was probably around 15 years old and a bit neglected. Consequently as a result of this neglect the rear frame had rusted through. On most bikes this would be the end really. Try and get the rear swing arm of a full suspension 15 years down the line and you’d probably have no chance but with Brompton it was no problem. New rear frames are kept in stock at Brompton HQ and we fitted it and got the bike back on the road.
I find that Bromptons are either very well cared for or used as work horses and the next bike in the gallery was definitely the latter. The cables were completely dry and the axle in the back wheel was loose, which had a knock on effect of making the gears slip. Fortunately all it needed was some new cables, some new rear hub bearings for the Sturmey 5 speed and a bit of TLC. This customer also upgraded to the much improved 2014 spec brake levers.
The last Brompton in our gallery looked ok and quite well maintained from the outside. The customer was complaining that the gears we’re slipping all the time, so the only option was to strip the Sturmey 3 speed. Once we stripped it, the problem was obvious, as you can see from the photos. Stripping Sturmey hubs is not for the faint hearted, they are a bit like a Swiss watch.
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