Nope, people have travelled on normal Brommies and bene fine. I say go for it!
stasigoreng on
Do it. The only thing I’d be worried about is the availability of spare parts in the middle of nowhere.
Saikuringo on
Are the easy packing on the plane and hotel access the main reasons. Have you ridden for long periods on a Brompton before? For me the key decision point should be whether your comfortable on the bike or not.
Putting a regular bike in a box is about an hour long process and can be a little tricky for some airports getting to and from with a boxed bike. But generally I haven’t found it too difficult or time consuming in relation to a long tour.
On the hotel front, your bigger challenge is going to be finding hotels that can legally take foreigners. I could be wrong as I’ve only done regular travel through China, but if a hotel in a small city l will accept you with cash, they probably don’t have any issue with bringing a regular bike to the room. It’s the more fancier ones that you might have problems with allowing foreigners.
SLCTV88 on
I often travel in China with a 27.5 wheel bike and it’s never been a problem bringing it into a hotel room. Also I don’t always bring it in. China is super safe. I also travel by plane with it no problems so I personally wouldn’t go with the brompton.
PhillyFotan on
I used to own a folding bike with 20″ wheels. Liked it quite a lot for shorter rides and commutes. The 1 time I rode it ~35 miles, I did regret it. Or at least, the whole thing was much slower than I had expected, and I really noticed the dropoff in speed from the other bikes I had at the time. So… if you want to do it do it but definitely take your bike out for some long spins first.
juulu on
Do it and document it, please.
CJBill on
I’ve done a brief tour down the Gulf of Thailand (Pretchaburi to Surat Thani with some diversions) on a regular Brompton, easy enough. I’d definitely take a G Line to China to tour with (particularly as I’m eyeing up some G-Line tours myself at the moment; would the High Atlas be a bit too much I wonder)
reallybigbikeride on
I met a guy crossing the Pamir Highway on one
He was questioning his sanity just a few miles out of Dushanbe
9 Comments
Yes.
You should do it on a 16″ Brompton instead.
Nope, people have travelled on normal Brommies and bene fine. I say go for it!
Do it. The only thing I’d be worried about is the availability of spare parts in the middle of nowhere.
Are the easy packing on the plane and hotel access the main reasons. Have you ridden for long periods on a Brompton before? For me the key decision point should be whether your comfortable on the bike or not.
Putting a regular bike in a box is about an hour long process and can be a little tricky for some airports getting to and from with a boxed bike. But generally I haven’t found it too difficult or time consuming in relation to a long tour.
On the hotel front, your bigger challenge is going to be finding hotels that can legally take foreigners. I could be wrong as I’ve only done regular travel through China, but if a hotel in a small city l will accept you with cash, they probably don’t have any issue with bringing a regular bike to the room. It’s the more fancier ones that you might have problems with allowing foreigners.
I often travel in China with a 27.5 wheel bike and it’s never been a problem bringing it into a hotel room. Also I don’t always bring it in. China is super safe. I also travel by plane with it no problems so I personally wouldn’t go with the brompton.
I used to own a folding bike with 20″ wheels. Liked it quite a lot for shorter rides and commutes. The 1 time I rode it ~35 miles, I did regret it. Or at least, the whole thing was much slower than I had expected, and I really noticed the dropoff in speed from the other bikes I had at the time. So… if you want to do it do it but definitely take your bike out for some long spins first.
Do it and document it, please.
I’ve done a brief tour down the Gulf of Thailand (Pretchaburi to Surat Thani with some diversions) on a regular Brompton, easy enough. I’d definitely take a G Line to China to tour with (particularly as I’m eyeing up some G-Line tours myself at the moment; would the High Atlas be a bit too much I wonder)
I met a guy crossing the Pamir Highway on one
He was questioning his sanity just a few miles out of Dushanbe
I’d just come down from a three week traverse
He was just going up
“Does it get much worse than this?”
“It gets higher and rougher til you reach Osh”
Crestfallen, he spun away
I hope he made it