The new Brompton looks lovely and I've followed some of the snippets of info that has been released along the way about the prototype model. Personally I wouldn't want the Alfine hub gears I would rather have the gearing arrangement of the original Brompton which is more bomb proof I think. The Alfine hub has probably helped push it to £2.5k for the conventional bike. Personally I would preferred simpler more reliable gearing and perhaps a £1500 price thereabouts. However in reality I have no interest in spending that much on a bike or ebike. You can make the case with the original Brompton that it is almost impossible to steal as you can take it with you wherever you go even sticking it in the supermarket trolley as you go around but this one seems to be a little too big for that I feel.
I certainly wish Brompton huge success with it though even though like most people I am priced out of considering it. I would not want to take the hit in money if stolen. Contrast it with the recent Argos ebike for £245 which again is a steel folding ebike with 20" wheels. Yes its a rubbish fold on that but still a comparable product of sorts. Two extremes of the same sort of product. Is the Brompton worth 12x the Argos ebike, to me it isn't but I'm sure to others it is. I realise the Argos ebike was a short term offer and now out of stock but still I feel it can be compared. One thing that is clearly superior about the Argos ebike is it has a height adjustable stem so can quickly adapt to a wide range of different height riders where as the Brompton you have to choose your fixed stem right at the beginning for you. Personally though if I spent £3.5k on it then I probably wouldn't be letting anyone else ride it anyway.
I love the nice thick tyres of the Brompton, could the Argos ebike take those? I think they are 20" x 2.1". The other huge benefit of the Argos ebike is easy and cheap availability of parts including the drivetrain and brakes. 7 speed chains are only £2.50 on Amazon (I realise the Argos ebike is 6 speed but can still use 7 speed chains). The electric Brompton in comparison has a 8 Speed Alfine hub combined with a hub motor in one unit, this sounds awfully expensive to replace for the electric version. It's expensive enough for the normal Alfine 8 hub. It feels like the non-electric version with a front hub motor conversion would be a better option in many ways. The electric Brompton front hub motors do fail on the original Brompton. Feels like hub gears and a hub motor combination is going to be a lot of hot/cold cycles and reasons to fail. The Alfine 8 speed hub is nowhere near as reliable as the Shimano Nexus 3 speed and you wouldn't expect it to be as its mechanically much more complex.
I guess its like any premium ebike you expect to pay premium servicing and repair costs as well. I wouldn't be surprised if a replacement hub motor/alfine unit was close to a £1k with fitting but I guess in the context of a £3.5k ebike that isn't terrible.
The original conventional Brompton is a fantastic bicycle and still a fantastic purchase. This feels to me like it could be a great option with different gearing. I remember seeing the Dahon version of the Brompton with a harsh aluminium frame, no weight savings but the option for more complex hub gearing and I thought at the time what an absolutely garbage product of little worth and sadly Brompton has moved slightly towards that with the Alfine gearing in my opinion which has compromised the durability and long lifespan of the product and upped the repair costs considerably.
www.atob.org.uk
