One Bike to Do It All: Brompton Goes Off-Road With the G-Line
There are many folding bicycles, but none so genre-defining as the classic Brompton. Conceived by the engineer Andrew Ritchie in a west-London bedroom in the mid-1970s, the original prototype hoped to offer a new way to move through the urban landscape: you could cycle when you wanted, or chuck the bike in a cab when you didn’t. The resulting three-fold design has been mimicked, but never bettered.
For years, Ritchie worked on a made-to-order basis, struggling to convince the mainstream
market that there was demand for a bicycle that was perhaps more convenient than it was efficient. But half a century later, Bromptons are commonplace on roads and luggage racks across the country, and the company makes almost 100,000 bikes a year at its London factory. There are super-lightweight Bromptons, 12-speed “explorer” Bromptons and even electric Bromptons. Every corporate office has at least one “Brompton guy” (look for the smug fella in the hi-vis jacket), and there is an annual Brompton World Championship race.
G Line
Until now, Brompton offered a wholly urban experience, with little 16-inch wheels on the bikes and a core audience of commuter-belt dads. The new G-Line is its attempt to broaden both the appeal and geographical range of the folding concept with a bigger bike designed for rougher terrain. Essentially, it is a mountain bike you can fit in a suitcase.
“It’s the most capable Brompton yet, with the ability to deliver on all sorts of surfaces [and] the feel of a full-size bike,” says Will Carleysmith, chief design and engineering officer at Brompton. The company’s CEO Will Butler-Adams offers a more Tolkienian take, describing it as the “one bike to do it all”.
G Line: 8 Speed
The familiar office-clock-sized wheels have been boosted to 20 inches and equipped with chunkier, puncture-resistant Schwalbe tyres and hydraulic-disc brakes. The handlebars and pedals are wider to allow for better control on off-road terrain, and even the carbon saddle is designed to soften vibrations on rougher ground. The bike comes with a manual eight-speed gear system, or as a four-speed electric model, featuring a 250-watt motor with a range of 30km to 60km. Both can be accessorised with racks, lights and front-mounted bags for outback touring. You can even store a toolkit in the frame.
The G-Line is designed to appeal to people’s desire to “escape the city”, explains Butler-Adams, who says that it’s well-equipped for roads and pavements, too. It may just be the perfect go-anywhere, do-anything bike, and, now that it’s here, you have to wonder why it took 50 years to arrive.
Brompton G-Line, from £2,399; brompton.com
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