MY FIRST RIDE ON A BROMPTON BICYCLE

I am delighted to share this news with the loyal readers of this blog and the public at large that a new Brompton folding bicycle has come to my house. It’s the standard steel black model, and technically termed as ‘M6L’ – where M stands for the handlebar, 6 is the gear speed and L is for the mudguards.

As you already know Brompton is the world’s best folding bicycle manufactured by Brompton Bicycles UK, the bike is handmade with love and passion and stands true to the test of time.

The folding bicycle and accessories are the core product of the company and has remained consistent in performance and durability and being sold globally.

The compact design of Brompton has principally remained the same since the original patent filed by Andrew Ritchie in 1979. Off-course, the company does make small improvisations on a continual basis to refine the product quality and rider experience.

Founder Andrew Ritchie with a folded Brompton bicycle. Photo credit: wikipedia.

Brompton is the largest bicycle manufacturer by volume in Britain – roughly producing over 50,000 bicycles annually. The brand has set an ambition to sell 100000 bicycles in 2022 and it’s new range of folding bikes will now be available in a revamped versions of A Line, C Line and Electric C Line. You can read more about it here.

Like every consumer, I too did my pre-purchase research and spoke to a few Brompton owners in my network to get their feedback. Brompton is a premium bike and does command the attention to detail. Of all the research material I found on the internet, this particular video on youtube channel ‘Everyday Cycling’ is pretty straightforward and covers a wide range of insights.

My first ride on a Brompton:

The last 24 months have not been good for the world in terms of health, economy and set-backs. Including me and my family, as we suffered a severe bout of Covid-19 in the peak of 2nd wave in India.

Since then, it has been a rough road to recovery for all of us and we still feel the after-effects even though we are now vacinatted.

My last long ride was in March 2021 before the 2nd lockdown was imposed in Mumbai and even after recovering from Covid-19, I couldn’t ride at all. In September, I started going for short occasional rides to understand my body and coping with it was tough. I took it easy and continued with my occasional outings on the saddle with a gradual increase in distance. And finally, I rode for 45kms today and visited the iconic landmarks of Mumbai city – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Gateway of India on a Brompton.

I am grateful to the almighty for giving me the strength to do this activity and even more grateful to my family and friends for being a constant support.

I’m now looking forward to do more such rides and wish you all a great winter season, best of health and urge you to start riding if you haven’t taken up cycling yet.

Finally, Pro Cycle and Sports India Pvt. Ltd is the Official distributor of Brompton Bicycles in India and you can visit their website here for more information.

Follow this blog on facebooktwitter or instagram

Author: Vijay Malhotra, Mumbai

6 thoughts on “MY FIRST RIDE ON A BROMPTON BICYCLE

  1. The brompton is a cool bike, exceptionally zippy on the flat and good up small hills. Big hills and I like to catch a bus with the bike 🙂 It has a nifty little suspension system. I take it on small rides quite a bit. Big rides, I like to take the bike that suits the track surface and the terrain.

I will appreciate your comments