I modeled and welded up a Brompton luggage block out of ¼”/6.5mm stainless steel, with a U-bolt around the head tube to augment the OEM attachment hardware.

My goodness, what do you plan to carry up front? Are you making a special piece of luggage to fit in that block?

This project was heavily inspired by Eerder Metaal’s Full Metal Bracket, but is clunkier, more poorly designed, and likely has a far worse strength-to-weight ratio…but I suspect that makes it the second-strongest luggage block in existence. I could’ve just bought his version, but I rarely have the discretionary budget to afford one when he has them in stock, and I could totally make my own for cheaper…right?

First, I modeled the whole thing up in CAD, then had the parts laser cut out of unnecessarily thick material. The thickness was partially because I’d initially thought about doing it in aluminum, but am sufficiently out of practice at welding Al that I took the coward’s way out and went with steel instead.

Once the parts came, I TIG welded them up very, very badly, as is my wont. Then I spent a long time grinding them down to actually fit since the initial model did not fit the receivers on my bags really at all.

I am over the moon with my ugly, heavy, janky cargo block. I FREQUENTLY exceed the 10kg limit suggested for the OEM part, and this should be a lot stronger, due primarily to the U-bolt that goes around the head tube. It doubles the number of screw threads attaching the bracket to the bike and the two that are added have a substantially more advantageous torque moment to resist stripping. Despite the kludgy route to get there, the tolerances turned out great and there’s practically zero play in the connection.

And it was cheaper!…right?
Well, I had to order a second set of parts after the dimensions on the first were WAY out…and my shielding gas line was leaking like a sieve, so I had to buy a new torch…so I ultimately spent amost exactly what I would’ve on the superior product. Why am I like this.