NEW CLASS: Brompton Puncture Repairs
🚀 Calling all Bromptonauts!
For those who are unfamiliar with London's most stolen bike, the folding Brompton bicycle has been around with us since 1979 (it’s as old as me!)
Nothing short of an engineering marvel, what you get in convenience, you'll compromise in rigidity and maintenance:
Rigidity: This bike is not laterally stiff, it is just compliant in all directions. Flexy AF. BUT - and this is a big butt - it is one of the most reliable and smallest folding bikes out there. I don't mean one of those rinky dinky clown bikes, but an actual useful and race-able (if you really want to) bike.
Ease of maintenance: There's a whole lotta cable routing going on! Add to that a hub gear, the
mouse trapchain tensioner, and small wheels, conducting a Brompton rear wheel puncture repair is like getting a Schwalbe Marathon Plus onto a 16" rim (read: it’s not easy).
That's where our new class comes in.
I was getting the occasional Bromptonian in our flagship Intro to Maintenance class. Usually we teach how to remove a rear wheel as when you know how to do that, then removing a front wheel is a piece of cake. However, hub gears throw a spanner into the works as they require additional attention with their removal, reattachment, and indexing. I began to tell Bromptonauts that they would have to work on their front wheel instead.
Then, last month, I got a request from two Bromptonites in one day. "That's it," I thought. "That is the sign from the cycling gods. I must create a Brompton specific class." And it was done.
We had our test class last week and the result was that it couldn't be taught as a regular Intro to Maintenance class, which would have covered puncture repair on a rear wheel (derailleur gears), cleaning, AND keeping tabs on your bike with the M-check. No, this class would be specifically Brompton Puncture Repairs: including hub gear indexing and how to deal with the mouse trap chain tensioner.
And so I present to you…
Brompton Puncture Repairs!
Bromptons are a different beast of a bike, and have different challenges when it comes to puncture repairs.
We will go over how to fix a Rear Wheel Puncture on a Brompton:
How to prevent and mitigate punctures in the first place
How to take off / put on a rear Brompton wheel
How to get a tight tyre onto a 16" Brompton wheel
How to deal with that incredibly springy chain tensioner mouse trap
How to disconnect, reconnect, and index your hub gear (if you have one)
The result?
You'll understand what tools you'll need and how to use them.
You'll know the names of the parts on your own bike, so when you go into a bike shop you can expand your vocabulary beyond "thingiemabob", "wotsit", and "doohickie".
You'll look forward to getting your next puncture - you'll know how to fix it yourself!
“The class was fun and very informative. It not only taught you the what to do, but also the why to do it, which helps understand the concepts behind how the bike works.”
~Bromptononymous Student
Thank you all for your kind words and well wishes from the last newsletter. Moving house was awful, but yesterday was the final day of cleaning and packing up the straggling bits (it was like a game of whack-a-mole - I pack something and boing a new thing to pack crops up). I have also submitted stool samples to my GP as I am still having digestive issues. We'll see what the results say. I hope I don't have a parasite.
Anyway, LBK2 has flooded, which is fun (it's a known leak from the neighbour upstairs). And Amie has broken her poor finger. There’s always something! 🙃
Silvi and I are going to be running a test drop-in session soon for the DIY workshop to see what we are missing. Unknown unknowns, that sort of thing. If you would like to be a guinea pig, sign up to our waiting list here.
And we will have another volunteer day to move all our second hand parts into the back of LBK1, plus a LOT of sorting of donated parts and accessories. If you would like to lend a hand, get first dibs on any parts, AND be paid in pizza, please sign up here.
I have been wanting to write a follow up newsletter regarding the transphobia around the Olympic boxing match, but it's still brewing inside my brain, and I am exhausted from moving with an unhappy digestive tract. In the meantime, you can read my first foray into connecting the dots here:
As ever,
has written compellingly about the moral panic:
This is obviously related to all the far right protests happening right now. Josh has written about that as well. If you're not subscribed to his newsletter, I highly recommend his work.
From another immigrant (like me!) point of view, here is
:
I will never forget the day in a shop when an old white man said to me pointing to the front page of The Sun: “those people need to go but we’ll let your kind stay.” and I was so stunned I couldn’t ask “…what do you mean ‘your kind’???” Racism catches you out sometimes.
Right now I am exhausted from everything, but all I have to say is this:
Beware the ways in which divisions are formed. Racism is a distraction. Divide and conquer is a tale as old as time.
The Big Ride for Palestine will be going forward tomorrow, despite all the far right violence. Wishing you all a wonderful and supportive ride. They still have some jerseys and t-shirts available. Beware that the shirts run small (I originally got a medium, but it fits like a small - I’m eyeing an XL now!
I have moved out of Hackney and into Waltham Forest - any hot tips are welcome!
I look forward to my creative brain and body returning (no pressure body! But it would be nice…) Here's to navigating life and appreciating being alive.
I leave you with Scene on Radio’s latest series on Capitalism. I love a good debunking.
Ride on,
Jenni x