New Brompton

So after about two years of research and careful consideration I decided to go ahead and buy a Brompton. Now, because of high demand, all those damn Brits have been buying them up and selling them on eBay at 50% markup.

50% markup PLUS shipping

I happened to check the REI website and saw they had M6L Black editions for sale. They were a bit pricey but they were really close to what I wanted so I ordered one and it arrived four days early - it was meant to be.

I've made a lot of upgrades and have quite a few more in mind.

On the first ride I had some back pain and it felt like the handle bars were too close to the saddle so I rotated them forward about 1.5" which really helped. I have a bag on order but Amazon is so backed up right now I'm having to use my Acorn trifold saddle bag and the handle bar bag from the Serotta until it arrives.

The folding platform pedal that comes with the bike wasn't going to cut it for me so I got some removable spd pedals from flatbike

The handle bar grips that come with the bike are no good for any kind of distance so I replaced them with Ergon gp3 grips which seem like a good compromise between comfort and size. I also mounted my Wahoo Elemnt and a Cygolite front light. I got the water bottle cage from my local bike store because Amazon took three weeks to ship the one I ordered. It has a rubber block and a big velcro strap and works well. I turn it to the side when the bike is folded.

I also replaced the awful saddle that came with it (this is to be expected) with a semi-broken-in Brooks B17. A huge improvement that will only get better.

Amber and I rode a flat 50 mile to The Crema today and although it's 5-10% more effort to ride than my Serotta, it did very well and I'm sure I can ride a 100k on it.

So what else can I upgrade? Well, once the bag is here I'm going to consider upgrading to a rack. Then I could add a rack bag and panniers.

Now I'd really like to add some clipon aerobars but there's no room on the M bar. However the stem from the H bars plus the straight S handle bars would be about the same height and would provide a lot more handle bar space.