Cycling a Brompton in Winter ❄️

7 Top Tips for enjoying cycling your Brompton through the late autumn and winter. These tips are mainly totally to any other bike too 🙂

Details:
Bike 🚲: @bromptonbicycle P6R
Tyres 🛞 : @SchwalbeBikeTires Marathon Plus
Front Light: From @INFINI2005
Rear Light: Knog Cobber @KnogOfficial

We are Velo Works, a small independent bike business. We undertake servicing and repost but also specialise in hand built wheels, vintage bike restorations and an online store. You can find out more here:
https://www.veloworkshop.co.uk/

This YouTube channel is run by Sarah and Paul and is everything we love about cycling including bike tours, workshop videos, rides, Bromptons, vintage bikes and much more.

Hi I’m Paul from Valex and I love riding my bikes and my bromton all year round I’m going to give you now some tips on how to stay safe on your bike in Winter and Autumn and stuff to think about so you enjoy the experience of cying in the

Winter more cuz it is brilliant so why cycle in Winter well I’ve been a lifelong cyclist and so is my aera and I just don’t want to give the bike up I don’t want it for me I don’t want it to be a seasonal thing I’m not

Really into kind of Turbo trainers or putting the bike on a turbo trainer especially the bromton I think it would look uh slightly silly on a turbo trainer so for me cycling in autumn and winter has always been a part of my cycling experience when I was younger so

My 20s to 30s are always mountain bikes and always be in the forests in the winter and I loved in the autumn especially how the mood of the forest would change and the smells would be different and I guess that now now I’m a bit older and I don’t do as much

Mountain biking that has moved over into my road and touring cycling adventures and I would recommend it for any for anyone I don’t think that as humans you know we have to be indoors all the time we can suffer a little bit you know the

Cycling I do I’m not going to be in any danger as long as I look after myself so why not I’ve had some epic rise recently where my friend’s beard iced up and when we went to a cafe it all melted I had another one where we went over the Seven

Bridge on an aax and people were having to get off their bike but it’s little bits like that that you survive and you remember and kind of leave a lasting imprint on your memory so I 100% recommend cycling in the winter especially on the Brompton to come join

Me and I’ll teach you a little bit about what I do in Winter to stay safe so one tip is make sure your bike is in good condition I’m lucky I’m a mechanic but mine and Sarah’s bikes never go out on a ride unless they are 100% you call

It me being a little bit anal but I do believe that we get a better experience riding the bike and there’s also less issues for us so one thing that can happen not on Brompton but on bikes with disc brakes is people go out without checking their brake pads the brake pads

Go down to the metal the metal goes onto the discs and it causes you quite an expensive bill so it’s always worth before the winter getting your bike serviced if it has heavy use through the winter you might want to tune up in the middle of that so a full service would

Be like stripping the bike down greasing all the components like the headset and making sure everything’s lovely so if water gets in Parts aren’t going to be as affected by it a tuneup then is just gears and brakes with bromton if the gears and brakes are set up well they do

Last a long time this bike here doesn’t really actually need much of a gear service so if I was going to use this heavy in the winter I may think about having a full service for the summer so as well as keeping up with a service schedule of your bike depending on how

Much you ride and what conditions you ride in really important to keep your bike any bike especially a Brompton clean we have a video about how to clean a Brompton as a general rule cleaning a bike after every ride might not be practical today I’m probably not going

To get as much muck on it uh as needed for it to have a full wash but I would the general rule that I go for is when my bike start to look a bit filthy I give them a wash it definitely prolongs the life of all the components and just

Looks after the bike itself specifically to the bromton they are steel frames you don’t want loads of water sat in the bike but we cover all of this in our video so give this a watch so one of the biggest tips that I can give is keeping

On top of your tires making sure they’re pumped up enough I do see some people especially riding bromton going really low on their PSI on their tires I had a friend I went away with he will remain nameless and he had about 20 and I forced him to go to a garage to

Pump them up because basically for the main reason that it would caus him more effort but also I couldn’t take we were cycle touring on orgy I couldn’t take a few days looking at 20 psi on the bromton tire so certainly I like to pump

Them up to about 100 110 I’ve done that I love that me well I know some other people like them a bit lower make sure the Treads good as mentioned in other videos we use marathan plush while we Marathon plush tires and they’re really good all round tires mud guards I think

Are super important they stop Splash on the bike but also more importantly you and other Riders so in Winter some of my bikes are fitted with mud guards like the Brompton permanently has mud guards on some like my road bike have clip on ones but definitely look after your

Tires and treat yourself to some mug guards if you don’t have any what’s super important with winter cycling is lights so generally as a rule of fir on any of my bikes I have a light to see at the front and light to be seen so with the Brompton uh this bomton in

Particular I’m lucky enough I’ve got a dyn hum so I have light on the front that’s quite low down but it does show up the path in front of me and then on the back I have a standing light so the back light stays on at traffic lights

There’s enough power put through so it just stays on now the only thing is this system is really really good really comprehensive but for me it’s just a little bit too low people expect lights to be a bit further up so I back it up with a to be

Seen light on the back this one’s from Kong the Kong Cobra Cobra very Broan and then I’ve got a little one from infin lights on the front USB chargeable this one’s super simple it actually just plugs into the USB plug lasts for ages I can do a whole day especially with the

Back so if I’m doing an aax in the winter it’ll be on all day and there’s yeah loads of life left in them dynamos are great really H kind of a bit of an expense to go down the Dynamo route but if you’ve got a Dynamo and lights I

Never have to worry about not having lights on this bike they always work I’ve had the bike for like eight years and they always work so it’s great having a Dynamo system on this bike after market Dynamo systems can be a little bit of an investment definitely

Worth it and we do loads for customers the main benefit is you’ve always got lights so I know that this bike if these lights the battery runs out I know I have lights the beam from the front light is really quite good and you can get different standards of lights that

Give you different beams but you do I would always recommend backing up battery powered lights with the Brompton on my other bike I have a I don’t have a Dynamo on my road bike so I have a very good light from light and motion that

Lights up the road the only thing is I know it only lasts a certain amount of time so ideally I need to Nick SAS if I’m going out on a bigger ride so that kind of what they call like battery anxiety comes into play so dyn Dynamo

System is really good but you can get a good set of Lights these days for reasonable money but yeah lights lights lights well just this really I mean it’s a winter autumn day having coffee outside bit of cake you know we’ve been on a bit of an adventure we’re not

Suffering I love it I just love the feeling of it and for me if I have a really good winter cycling getting out on the bike regular that feeds into my next summer and I know a lot of people do turbo Trainers for that and that’s

Their own thing but for me it’s all about being outside and I love it so when we’re riding in the winter we really want to think about the different surfaces that we ride on so as a general general rule I tend not to go out in super icy conditions that was more so

When I lived in Scotland I would really not venture out in the ice just because it could be good where you’re you’re say you live but actually down a Country Lane or there’s a bit that’s not been gritted and that’s it you can come straight off if it is icy that’s a good

Time to go and go into the forest or go and do a little bit of mountain biking because generally the paths are quite good and it’s quite good fun in the colder icy and snower weather for the bromton we really want to think about the surfaces that we’re going to hit and

What speed we’re going to hit on them we’re obviously dealing with a much smaller wheel now here for example I used we’re in the center of Bristol and I used to set up a mobile Bike Shop here and every Wednesday when I came and set

Up on a rainy day there would be at least three people that would just hit the deck hit the deck hit the deck and at the time there was a marble surface and people if they stuck with the psychopath it was really poorly made they were fine but if they came off of

It just hit the deck and they just weren’t prepared for that they kind of shut off um and it wasn’t great to see really I mean they almost needed a sign or someone to say no watch out so we really want to think about that ideally

If we’re on a cycle path now the surface should be better but we want to be making sure we’re not going too fast looking out for leaves any hazards and really adapting our riding style it’s not just a case of one style fits every surface and learn about different

Surfaces but what we don’t want to be doing the Z don’t want to be coming off on the bike especially in the cold and just adaptions with the rear wheels you’ve got weight over the rear wheels making sure they don’t Spin and making sure that the front’s not going to hit a

Surface and suddenly twitch you out so go slow steady because that always wins the race clothing another really important one so dressing for conditions in Winter and Autumn can be a little bit difficult because of the varying temperature especially in this country so you can go out and get like really

Suited up and then you’re really hot which kind of just doesn’t help you cycle and can get you a bit more colder because you’re building up sweat but basically this is the layering systems I use on my feet I have socks obviously waterproof socks from seal skins and

Then over shoes from Shimano which I really like um they’re bit difficult to get on and off but they’re really good especially if it’s cold and they’re just that good layer of just keeping out any moisture on my top I wear a jersey and then um I think it’s a v Works Winter

Jersey from Presa who unfortunately aren’t around anymore I’ve been fortunate enough to get this top I found second hand from Gore they don’t make it anymore but it’s got Primal LOF in so that’s really good on a super cold ride or if I’m just going to be bimbling

About that’s a good one I always make sure I take a coat with me glove wise I’ve just been wearing thinner gloves today some kind of Autumn winter gloves these are like more full- on winter they’re from Pearl Zumi and they’ve got um primaloft in them as well so they

Were a good purchase coat and I just have another warm l here but basically the principle I do is I have enough to keep me warm on the bike and enough to keep me warm off the bike so as soon as I stop I’ve got my

Hat on um I’ve got another layer on I love this buff microphone’s just there I love this buff because it is a really good scarf if it’s super cold I use a thicker scarf and then I can put this on my head and it keeps my is warm and it

Fits nice and snugly over my hat so I guess whatever works for you again I’d like to say I haven’t gone out brought all this equipment overnight this is all stuff that I kind of brought over years and years and years and I just treat it

Well and you know it lasts I don’t know how long I’ve had this jacket five plus years maybe and it lasts this gillet is well old so yeah but look at getting some nice warm clothes and you’ll stay warm on the bike and one important thing

That I always wear is a hi is I know it’s a bit kind of Marite for people when I see cyclist wearing black with a light on the back in the middle of the day just like why why not be seen you know I have almost been taken off my

Bike a few times and someone said oh I couldn’t see you so and I didn’t have a high Vis on at the time so at least if I’ve got this on then I’ve got all bases covered and you’d be like well why didn’t you see me because I have this

And I do notice that drivers pedestrians they will clock you just that little bit sooner especially when I ride in the country and they’ll see you through a hedge or around a corner they do clock you so yeah very inexpensive piece of Kit and one I recommend so it’s really

Good to take with you all times of year but especially in Winter any tools or equipment you need to to keep your bike going um as much as you can the good thing about the bromton is if you’re in an urban setting if there’s a problem

You can just fold it jump on some public transport get a taxi to where you’re going but it’s always good to have some spares so on my bromton as mentioned before I have really good tires to minimize punctures but I do carry everything I need to change an inner

Tube that’s even on the back wheel um I have done done it before sometimes on a train lucky it happened before I got on the train so I did it on the train journey uh and I carry spares just in case I need to do anything called a bit

Of glass rips attire uh so that’s what I carry especially if I’m going into the country um so it’s worth learning what you need uh what you think you can actually use there’s no point taking a bunch of tools that you don’t know how to use and again making sure that the

Bike is serviced tires pumped and that should minimize any issues so I hope you’ve enjoyed the video with some little bits of insight into how I ride in the winter and Autumn on the bromton and how you can look after yourself again I can’t stress enough how much I

Love cycling this time of year even in horrible weather I just love being out on the bike and with cycling and any Outdoor Pursuits it’s a journey so we’ve got shared some tips with you but actually it’s about if you want to go and do it go and do it yourself don’t

Overthink it too much but make sure you stay safe and see if you can take some of these little tips and just adapt them into your s but it’s about going and finding your own path with these things and that’s what’s so nice about cycling

You know you make it your own so thanks for watching and please subscribe if you have any comments about anything or share any tips that we haven’t touched on please do so and we’ll see you in the next video thanks for watching