Introducing the Brompton!

Oh my, my new bike is a thing of beauty...

It can also look like this:

Cool, right?  It's a Brompton folding bicycle ... at home on streets and bike paths, as well as folded-up on trains, ferries, and Zipcars!  Perfect for exploring my corner of the world, and a good compliment for my road bike. I took it out on my first ride yesterday, and it's great.  Zippy, but with the comfortable feel of a larger wheeled bicycle.

You can have a look at the current Brompton catalog here.  I especially like the opening pages about their company philosophy. 

For those of you familiar with this storied little British bike, here's the build that I chose:

It's an H6L.  In Bromptonese shorthand that means I chose the H-style handlebars (slightly higher than the standard "M" model), 6 speeds (the maximum offered on a Brompton, and I chose the -12% reduced gearing to match the hills in my area), and the "L" refers to the fenders.  I'm not sure why "L" stands for fenders, but if you know, leave a comment!

The frame is made of steel, and as you can see I chose Cobalt Blue for the color.  Love that color (more on that in a future post).  Oh, and I got the handy cover too.

Here it is in the "parked" mode, with the rear wheel flipped inward:

It's raining today, and while I certainly plan to ride it in the rain in the future (the reason for the fenders) it seems a shame to get it all dirty on only ride #2.  So I'll wait for tomorrow to take the Brompton out again. As we get to know each other, I'll post more details about this unique and lovely little bike!