The Brompton is back all clean and shiny from its service at Compton Cycles. The cost for a service, clean-up and new cable was £78. I will go for a proper ride tomorrow to check the feel of the cable and gears. While I was at Comptons I was invited to check out the range of new colours of the new Bromptons. I saw a juicy red titanium one, but when I picked it up it didn’t feel any lighter to my steel frame bike. I had a look at the Brooks saddles and I will need about £100. But I will do more research on this. I carry my Brompton by the saddle quite a lot and I want something that will be strong enough.
Oh yes, the photo is of me taken today by M in my green wool beret by Kangol, purple rain coat by Marks and Spencer, black leather bucket bag by the Moroccan leather company, berry and red Spanish shoes by Art. I think a crazy colour combination gets you noticed by drivers and can in my opinion do a better job than a fluorescent tabard.
Many thanks to
‘That’s not my age’ for the link and introducing me to her fabulous blog which is the reason why I posted this photo.
Thank you M for the photo.
Comments
I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's bit like seeing Mrs Columbo, Norm's wife in Cheers or Maris in Frasier.
I think the titanium parts make it feel lighter, but the difference is more noticeable if you also go without the rack and if you have fewer gears. There's an online configurator in German with metric weights here. In English with weights in pounds here. A lot of fun if you enjoy such things, like I do :)
That was before she was sent to the Gamma Quadrant.
I totally concur with crazy colour combinations. I hate hi-viz. plus a guy in our office who is 6 foot and wearing high viz had his bike mashed up by a driver coming up behind who didn't see him. so no faith there then!
I always think white is really nice. and mad patterned rucksacks. If I bought my brompton again, I might go for red instead of black... or cream.. or pink...
with the titanium bikes, you need to keep an eye on all of the extra bits which add weight, having two gears instead of three etc, being away of the extra weight of dynamo lights. I don't even have a backrack, and I love the lightness as I run up stairs with it to catch trains.
I think that drivers are so used to seeing hi viz jackets that they stop registering that there is a person beneath them. Now a woman in purple with red heels on a bike is out of the ordinary.
I had never thought of being a fahsionista diva. I like the idea.
So what do you think - if you did it all again would you still get a black model?
Just about to cyclescheme one and am choosing between red, black and yellow ....
Great question and I decided to put the answer in a post. See above.