The Brompton has been around for over 20 years since its first production run in the 1980's. Brompton's founder and inventor Andrew Ritchie was inspired by the British pedigree in working with smaller wheeled bikes such as the Moulton from the 1960's, and in the 1970's observing the folding mechanism of the Bickerton bicycle. From this was born the vision of a small wheeled compact folding bike which has gradually come of age with the renaissance of cycling around the world. Today, few would argue that the Brompton is the definitive folding bicycle in terms of its small footprint and compact folding size, 565mm high x 545mm long x 270mm wide (22.2" x 21.5" x 10.6" according to the Brompton website.
Pre-production Brompton 1981
The Brompton above was the final prototype before its first production run 27 years ago. Note how Andrew Ritchie first planned to introduce a front rack carrying system. This was later refined to a much cleverer and neater front luggage bracket system which is an optional extra. [click to continue…]
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