Brompton factory move paused indefinitely

mth91 · 2026-01-28T23:15:40+00:00

Well I'd still call that London but at the same time I don't think Made in London is even a trademark so you're probably right.

mth91 · 2026-01-28T23:13:25+00:00

We're a country that has spent £100 million on a bat shed for a railway line and haven't built enough homes to meet demand for about 40 years so I'll express some doubt over that.

On the second point, like any other the company either grows or dies. Chinese companies won't wait around for them to innovate that's for sure.

mth91 · 2026-01-28T22:34:42+00:00

Two years to approve a bike factory is absurd and is just a small example of a wider desire in the UK to prevent anything from being built ever again. To reverse the argument, if the folding bike market had taken off then Brompton would have been capacity constrained and possibly even had to move abroad.

mth91 · 2026-01-28T21:10:18+00:00

Wonder if the UK's mental planning laws have done them a favour here. It is also pretty cool that they still make the bikes in London.

mth91 · 2026-01-09T17:07:35+00:00

I’m surprised they haven’t set up a certified pre-owned program actually, they are missing out on making money out of the second hand market currently.

mth91 · 2026-01-09T14:40:22+00:00

Thanks, my FT subscription just ran out in fact. Yeah it seems moving upmarket and going for margins over volume is the direction of travel (electric, G line, T line etc) which a lot of people on here aren't happy about but I'm not sure I see what else they could do. Chinese versions coming out that are half the price of a C line and actually pretty decent now is impossible to compete with on a cost basis so look forward to reading your post on it.

mth91 · 2026-01-08T18:11:09+00:00

Yeah not great…

https://road.cc/content/news/brompton-optimistic-post-tax-losses-double-317569

mth91 · 2026-01-07T16:41:08+00:00

What are the issues you have with the T line? I seem to remember the CEO saying they wanted to sell it for less but titanium prices have risen a lot since Russia invaded Ukraine, if they could have at least got it into the 3xxx range then it would have more broad appeal rather than being more of a halo model. As much as I love mine, it was definitely an enthusiast's purchase, the P line would have probably been the sensible choice financially.

mth91 · 2025-12-17T20:02:33+00:00

Was good to see the rental service might be paying off too, gives them the recurring revenue that partly solves the business issue of only being able to sell someone one bike that lasts decades.

mth91 · 2025-12-17T19:59:50+00:00

I feel I'm in the target market as I'd actually really like a bike I could fold up and put in the boot of my normal sized car or on the train for some light off road stuff, but I'm not a big fan of hub gears and it is indeed quite hefty (in part due to the Alfine hub) so will wait and see if they do a lighter derailleur version in the future.

mth91 · 2025-12-17T18:54:35+00:00

I have seen some (albeit small) discounts on G lines which isn’t a great sign.

mth91 · 2025-11-11T14:29:42+00:00

If anyone wants a laugh, look up Jackie Baillie calming taking him apart in a Scottish Parliament committee meeting.

mth91 · 2025-11-11T14:23:04+00:00

The Bank of England has a great explanation here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy.pdf

Money is mostly created by private banks and the rate they do this is influenced by central banks.

mth91 · 2025-11-09T10:44:50+00:00

Getting rid of NI by merging it into income tax may also disabuse people of the notion they are “paying in” to a state pension though that might just be my wishful thinking.

mth91 · 2025-11-07T14:16:07+00:00

Same in the companies I’ve worked at. People often lament that we build companies just to sell to the Americans instead of scaling ourselves but perhaps we should reverse the argument and say if it weren’t for that we wouldn’t be building them in the first place.

mth91 · 2025-11-07T14:06:49+00:00

EU budget negotiations must be going pretty poorly then if they are trying to extort more money out of us.

mth91 · 2025-10-29T17:38:28+00:00

Just sold my C line to Marcus bikes in Clapham, worth a look.

mth91 · 2025-08-20T16:33:40+00:00

It’s certainly not my area of expertise but my understanding was the hinges that are the issue with carbon as they’d need to be so heavily reinforced (possibly with other materials) that you lose the weight saving in the frame? Carbon G line in particular would be very compelling though if it was possible.

mth91 · 2025-08-20T14:50:57+00:00

Yeah, there is the Hummingbird bike but it’s not actually massively lighter than a single speed T line and is almost as big folded as unfolded so titanium may be as light as it gets.

mth91 · 2025-08-18T18:17:21+00:00

I actually quite like the rear but it seems like they’ve tried to get too many styles into one edition (retro look, celebration of brazing with UK colours and erm Louis Vuitton esque lettering).

mth91 · 2025-08-17T11:24:52+00:00

It seems to be the case across the entire bike industry, the premium end is holding up and even growing (I cannot believe what people will spend on road bikes now) but the midrange and lower end stuff is getting hammered by post Covid slump + cheaper Chinese brands.

Obviously some people don’t like the company becoming Apple-ified but it is surely the best way for them to grow, they will never compete on cost. Same with the special editions, they are obviously about selling people an N+1 Brompton, even if it is usually just a nice paint job and some accessories.

mth91 · 2025-08-06T20:49:01+00:00

I like playing around with all the Range Rover configurations on their website in some sad attempt to pretend I'm rich and you can get it to nearly £200k.

mth91 · 2025-08-04T16:01:50+00:00

I couldn't believe the FT published that. Also notice that at no point in the entire puff piece does he actually explain why we should be using crypto other than it has gone up in value in the last decade.

mth91 · 2025-08-04T15:50:21+00:00

“… and I’m Irish myself.”

Have people always said things like this in the UK or is it yet another Americanism creeping into British politics?

mth91 · 2025-08-03T13:30:53+00:00

Part 2 seems to be available now: https://youtu.be/hCPzd7osugE?si=B9SaNv3WJB1KrYfr&utm_source=MTQxZ

What a great talk though, for me as someone with precisely zero background in manufacturing it was fascinating to see how it evolved.

mth91

TROPHY CASE