After playing around with the Brompton I realized that I have a potentially ideal way for rolling the bike while folded, which looks something like as pictured, tilting the bike on the back two roller wheels of the rear rack and treating it like a suitcase. Ignore the bad drawing skills.
I enjoy this solution because it’s trivially easy to tilt/rotate directions compared to resting it on all 4 wheels. The weight distribution feels good and it doesn’t feel too heavy either to push or pull.
The only problem is it’s not very horizontally stable because the wheels on the rack aren’t that far apart. So it’s pretty easy for the bike to tip over with bumps etc.
This is a long shot but are there any wheel extenders that work on the rear rack, but not on the rear triangle? I suppose this way of wheeling around the brompton could work with an extender on the rear triangle, but I’ve heard they can cause warping and damage to the frame if attacked there.
Let me know if anyone has experience messing around with this rolling style
by terrysaurus-rex
6 Comments
Also just a disclaimer! This method only works if you have a strap for the wheel to the frame while the seatpost is up. Most probably already know this but just needed to remind before anyone tried it at home
This would put all the weight on an even weaker part. I don’t see the point
I think if you file down the wheel wells flat on the normal regular wheel extender it will fit at the bottom of the rack. I remember. someone putting double wheel extenders on and i believe that what they did. If i find, i will link.
There’s a 3d print of something called seat mid stop bumper which will let you push the seat post partially down and lock the Brompton in folded shape. This is similar to how the p-line with its’ mk6 rear triangle does it. This mid stop bumper/stopper lets you retrofit mk4 rear triangles on the c-line and a-line to do a similar trick.
If you have a 3d printer
[https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/brompton-seatpost-mid-stop-block](https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/brompton-seatpost-mid-stop-block)
If you rather just buy it. This dude has some other useful 3d prints for sale. For example small triangle bag made of tpu, Tool tray or a trapezoid suspension block. There are other people who 3d print similar stuff but he’s a reasonable compromise between price and delivery time. This was for Taiwan (Him) to USA (me).
[https://youtu.be/9mNpzG_Z7sc?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/9mNpzG_Z7sc?feature=shared)
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Overall your concept feels like to me, the GoRack in luggage mode or the Sidewinder (discontinued) third party racks except they’re on the long side instead of the narrow side. The narrow orientation has the advantage of going up aisles of a train or plane easier. It is however fairly unstable which is believe is why luggage in general if only two wheels would orient on the long side. Note the gorack has shopping cart mode which is on the narrow side the extended wheel is the normal spot not the rack end as your concept .
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GoRack in luggage mode
[https://youtu.be/6PFDHInejn0?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/6PFDHInejn0?feature=shared)
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GoRack in shopping cart mode
[https://youtu.be/uNYpbQRBla8?list=TLGGvh0_RfvCpS8xNTEyMjAyMw](https://youtu.be/uNYpbQRBla8?list=TLGGvh0_RfvCpS8xNTEyMjAyMw)
Haven you tried to push your bike using the handlebars? Push the saddle almost down and leave handlebars up.
With this you can do the same thing as on your drawing, just flipped, but your don‘t need a rack and if you still lack stability – you can get a wheel-extender
Edit: Oh and the bike is locked in place
I like your drawing
Before going down the ‘inverted’ roll (for lack of a better term), have you thought about upgrading the roller wheels and then just pushing with the handlebars? I just upgraded my rollers and it’s a dramatic difference from the OEM wheels. Huge upgrade over stock.