Building a Brompton is a labour intensive task. It takes a factory of 115 skilled people, some 1,200 parts and six hours to custom build each individual bicycle.
Every stage is inspected to meet the high standard and all the engineering, brazing, and assembly is done under one roof in West London, just a stones throw away from where the bike was first conceived by owner Andrew Ritchies 1975.
The first stage involves the brazing of raw metal to form the main frame, rear frame, front frame and the handlebars. Brazing is used instead of welding to ensure the bike is not weakened by the process.
Many of the parts are specially designed and unique to the Brompton. A large number of the tools and machines have also been specially designed or adapted for building the fold up bikes.
The parts then go away to be painted and are inspected on their return: this is one of the processes which is not done on site due to space restrictions.
From there, each bike is hand assembled according to the specifications ordered by the customer. They are then boxed and ready to ship.
Brompton currently export to 38 markets worldwide with their biggest demand in Japan and South Korea. The main market is city dwellers, not just commuters but people who have limited space at home, at work and even on a busy train.
Brompton is part of the Making it in Great Britain campaign.
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