Watch me take the Brompton M line in to the mountains attempting to tackle one of South Wales most established routes The Gap in the Breacon Beacons.
This is the first time I’ve cycled off road and what a learning curve it was. If you have any good ideas where you want me to take it next let me know in the comments.
CAN WE DO IT??
Location:
Gap Parking Talybont Bike Hut. LD3 7YQ
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Thanks for watching…
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:25 LETS DO THIS
2:33 First reflection
4:10 Always ascending
4:29 Second reflection
6:19 The Seat Post
6:42 Third reflection
7:54 Yeah it’s tough
10:17 Fourth reflection
11:00 Rocky descents
12:18 Fifth reflection
13:04 Cleat rage
13:52 On the Record
16:00 Breaking Point
17:00 The descent
17:44 Never made easy
18:20 Defeated
19:27 Conclusion
15 Comments
No one around, or as i call it, living the dream 🙂
You should have camped too, All Terrain Brompton Camping, a tittle that would definitely get people's attention 👍
❤ u did it. Awesome. 🎉
Great effort on the brompty, that looks like fat bike territory, as del-boy says, he who dares wins, well done, 👏👏.
P.s New manager has started off with a win, may it long continue..
This was great to see. I think you did really well considering your lack of off road experience. Just imagine trying it all again on a standard Brompton.
That looked tuff…so next time perhaps get a suspension seat post, it should fit the telescopic seat post and get rid of the clips…on that kind of terrain I’d say they are a hindrance.
What next a BMX race track on the 20”?
Denmark is flat. Our tallest point for long was considered to be, "Ejer Baunehøj", till they lately found out a nearby field actually was a little taller, but still hardly 200 m. But we also have a rocky outpost in the Baltic, named Bornholm, with some steep and evil serpentine roads. And I brought my 6 speed for this, till then not really knowing for what use I had the (too) low gears! But trying to climb one I found out, and I had to walk on top of that! Also with some "cattle prevention" tubes crossing the road at intervals, to be walked over.
But going down again from a former, now unused Lighthouse, I honestly had my doubts if my brakes could manage breaking totally down from high speeds, many times, to be able to fully stop in front of the named tubes? But my Brompton-brakes never let me down and I managed to stop securely each time! Eventually I would like a hydraulic disc brake in front, as it is possible with a new titanium fork from China. I have changed parts and bolts on my brakes to titanium since then, but I doubt I will do more than that? 😄 Finn. Denmark
AND , ye didn't fall off
The tire have really good performance, if there are not punctures.
This kind of rocky terrain is very challenging even for a hardtail.
People could only travel around 20KM/DAY on this kind of terrain.
That the Brompton mod performs really well
interesting.. here in S Korea, these days, tri-fold bikes are getting popularity. easy to bringing.. usage of metro or buses. They can go almost everywhere without cars. Here in Korea, there are a lot of mountains, where we can bring that. super interesting.
Excellent work, the tough bit deserved the sharper swear words. I was running on empty once and I feel you. Beautiful area anyways. Great to see your project working so well.
While you were struggeling with traction … couldn‘t you put your water sack onto a front carrier? So you have more weight over the front wheels and less one your shoulder 🙂
You need SPD pedals for any sort of off road venture that requires clicking in and out and walking bits. If a road cleat totally fails you are truly up the creek without a paddle . Yeah that sort of ride is deff a two bottle job with pockets stuffed full of bonk rations . Kudos for going in big time on your first off road session. Think the bike will prob be more suited to gravel trails . Forestry roads and less rocky trails basically . Wheels and tyre size are everything in the mountains ..
The rocky sections are where you are at a disadvantage with the 20 inch mini-velo wheels. You don't have the momentum of the larger diameter wheels to carry the wheels over the rough stuff easily.
On the uphills you are at less of a disadvantage but you need to sit down to keep the weight over the rear wheel as you have found, so you need to keep spinning all the time. Try a larger cassette on the back or add a front chain ring. Worst case you can stop and you can manually lift the chain from the large ring to the inner ring on the front crank. I did that till I worked out a front derailleur setup on my bike. [EDIT: I did not see the video where it describes that the rear is an internally geared Alfina hub, so a larger cassette is not an option.]
I built a folding bike with 20 inch 2.0 tires for riding gravel. It has a fun, lively ride but you need to concentrate a lot on picking your lines on the down hill sections.
Riding gravel and MTB trails is always going to be slower, think at least 1.5 time more time depending on the shape you are in.
Seat suspension and wider handlebars? I can see some room for improvement on the bike. The water bottles like the other comments said. Good job.
I’ll be due to do the gap in may for an organised bike pack ride! Great to see what is in store for me. However I think my language may be stronger than sugar puffs 😂😂