I have had a Brompton from 2004 and three years ago had it converted to an Ebike by the Electric Transport Shop in york
It has only a very simple throttle control and folding the bike means detaching the motor battery and contol leads, which eventually will wear them out, though to be fair they are still OK after 10K plus miles and frequent folding.
The Up side is that it performs very well and has about a thirty mile range even in hilly terrain, here is a short blog post I made on it early on
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The bike is actually a little slower than the Viking Eco Stepper, topping out at 15MPH, and its a LOT noisier too,setting off on just throttle makes it growl and sound distressed, as does applying too much throttle at low speeds.
On the credit side I can't fault the hill climbing power, as it can handle any hill less than 25% (with some pedal assistance) and I have even managed the climb out of Robin Hood's Bay that has a short section of 25%, so in that sense I am well pleased with it.
Gale force winds don't bother it and me either, and my only concerns are for the noise level from the motor (though I was told at the free service that it was fine) and how many times I can unplug and re-connect the Motor, throttle and display before the connectors fail.
You have to do this of course every time to fold the Brompton and put it in the car boot
Still it has a years guarantee, so we shall see. Already I have covered over 600 miles and it seems to go very well.
Here it is on the entrance to the swing bridge in Whitby harbour
Our Caravanning site is at the top of a 5 mile hill out of Whitby that I would have had no chance of riding up without the conversion fitted!
There is a serious flaw with the Brompton in the Braking department, you must be extremely careful when descending major hills and the small wheels have a dangerous tendency to severe overheating to the point of tyre sidewall failure.
keep speed down on long downgrades, stop frequently and feel the tyre temperature with your hands, is the best thing t do
Here is an example of what can happen
Another view I always meant to take, and now have
The problem of course is you can't stop your car on the hill to take in this magnificent view down Lythe Bank onto Sandsend.
However, if you pedal up the hill on an EBike as this foolish old man who should have more sense did, you can coast back down the footpath from the village to St Oswalds Church at the top of the hill, and stop where you like to take a photo!
And the fun doesn't end there, you coast down the hill with brakes getting hotter and hotter and on the last bend at the steepest bit into the village, the footpath disappears into the bank, and just to add a bit of interest, the front brake cable clamping nut chose this precise moment to lose some of it's grip, so the brake lever just about reached the handlebar before having any effect, so I had to to choose either dropping about a foot onto a busy road, with only partially operating brakes on a steep hill, or turning up onto the grassy bank in the hope of gravity stopping me.
As it happens it did and I slid gracefully and slowly down onto the yard of the old Railway Station.
The tyres were alost too hot to touch!
After adjustment the brake was fully restored and I coasted down to the bottom of the hill safely.
Obviously when repairing a puncture I cant have tightened the nut enough,
And I recalled the wise words of my father as he so often said to me
"Nothing is Foolproof to the Talented Fool"
One of these days my tombstone will read "It was the way he wanted to go!"
Remember if you haven't grown up by the time you are 70, you don't have to.
And here is the view that made it worthwhile.
Having said all that it is great fun and I wouldn't be without it and the EBike conversion.
And it has done nearly 10,000 miles since I wrote the above on the same battery
