Brompton Brakes from Paul!

Hi, Shamy from Blue Lug Kamiuma here.

Here are my recent works
– Welding a Brompton Carrier Block on a Bike Friday pakit
– Fixing a dent on the Crust Bikes Romanceur
– Modifying a Nitto Brompton rack.

I know, these are random, but I find these small welding work is very important.

Here’s the pakiT that I added the Brompton Carrier Block.

This makes it possible for the Bike Friday to put bags for Bromptons and gives the bike more loading capacity in general. I’ve already done this on Clint’s (our staff, not VO Clint) V.O. Neutrino.

Fixing the dent.

This was a tough one…
Fixing a single dent is not a problem, but when there is a dent, there is a bulge somewhere else, almost every time. I would have to fix all those areas while keeping the rigidity of the frame. And it comes with the process of evening everything out when we move on to the repainting process.

Nitto sells rear racks for Bromptons.

A customer tried to put the rack on a Brompton that has the Paul brakes for Bromptons, but it made it nearly impossible to install the rack with the brakes, so I needed to improvise. This made it possible to put this rack onto the bike with the Paul brakes nicely. It also made the risk of scratching the Paul brakes when folding disappear.

I would like to introduce these Paul brakes for Brompton. Brompton brakes are unique, where the cables goes under the brake calipers itself. There were no other brakes that work like this, until Paul made these beautiful and functional brakes.

*PAUL* racer medium side pull brake for Brompton

Of course there are color options. The design is based from the Racer Medium Brakes. The difference is that the triangular part where the mount is located, in other words, where the bearing is.

The roller with bearings are located in the triangle, which makes the inner cable to go over the roller to make the unique routing possible for Bromptons. Of course they work like a charm, but their iconic playing card logo is just too stylish.

The stopping power is the same as all Paul brakes. They are great. Soft pull, but stops incredibly well. And, they look beautiful, so satisfaction is guaranteed.

The current Bromptons need a bit of extra work to install, so hit us up if you are having trouble.

Let’s do a good ol’ bike check on the recent Brompton that I installed these Paul brakes.

*BROMPTON* P-line urban complete bike

Bromptons are folding bikes. These are made to be folded and carried around, so the folding process is tool-less and easy. It’s up to the owners how to use the bike, but the easy folding mechanism makes it easy to travel with the bike using public transportation.

There are some Brompton specific components, so modifying these bikes can be tough, but these bikes have the easiest folding mechanism in all folding bikes, in my opnion.

The Brompton has a few different models. In Japan, we have “C”,  “P” and “T” line as for now. All models have their own unique feature, but that would take too long to explain here, so I’m not gonna write it.

I did everything I could think of for this modification.

*NITTO* b809 cross riser bar is slightly wider and has more rise compared to the stock handlebar. The distance between the handlebar and the ground when folded matters and each handlebars have different limitations so you must be careful when swapping the handlebars on a Brompton.

Polish *PAUL* canti lever short reach. The polish finish on a CNC machined component just hits different. I wonder if polish finished Paul parts would become something that we regret not buying…

This is the highlight of this build in my opinion.

I’ve installed the *PAUL* racer medium side pull brake for Brompton for front and rear. This makes the bike look even better. Who doesn’t like Paul components?

*SON NABENDYNAMO* easy wheels is one of the most classic custom parts for a Brompton. They have better bearings than the stock rollers, so you can carry the bike smoother with these Easy Wheels.

*BERTHOUD* soulor leather saddle from France. I’ve been using this model for over a decade, but they break in quick and they don’t have cushioning, so you can use these saddles for a long time.

That’s all I wanted to share. Bromptons are not easy to customize compared to a normal full sized bike, but installing small parts like this is pretty fun. It’s fun to think about a modification that will not affect negatively to the folding mechanism.

I know that was a lot of information, but I would like to introduce one more brake caliper for Brompton that recently came out.

*CANE CREEK* eebrake set assembly brompton

These are sold as a pair, front and rear. I’ve worked on and used Cane Creek ee Brakes before. They are super light weight, but they are also rigid and works great. They’re also easy to maintain. I couldn’t really find a bad thing about these brakes.

They look exactly the same with the calipers for full sized brakes. The arms are slightly different to work on Bromptons.

I hope this inspires woking on an upgrade for your Bromptons!

 

Shamy