Brompton Eazy Wheels

[[XAP]Bob]

The point of a brommie is that it folds small.
You can carry it, but you wouldn't want to do it for very long.
You can wheel it as a bike, and there is an intermediate, where you can treat it as a push along suitcase kind of affair.

[Vinko]

What works well is the folded bike in one hand and the Brompton C bag in the other(I do like the C Bag).

They all fold and unclip in moments.


http://youtu.be/jw-iBCUKi80


Again, I like the Brompton, but its certainly a compromise, especially when you are tall and lanky like me

I understand that some rail companies wont allow any bikes unless they have "two folds"...not sure it that is true.....or just a marketing ploy

[Mick F]

The point of a brommie is that it folds small.
You can carry it, but you wouldn't want to do it for very long.

What do they weigh?
They must be quite heavy.

Rail companies don't like bikes, but they don't mind luggage.
Put your bike in a bag, and it becomes luggage.

[Brucey]

18 to 26 lbs or so. Given that it inevitably won't be the only thing you have with you, you wouldn't want to carry a Brompton as well as all your other stuff. Not if you could wheel it instead. In its half-folded state it is easy to take on escalators etc and people don't trip over it in crowds....

cheers

[Mick F]

Ok.
I understand now.
Even my Mercian fully mudguarded and with a stuff sack on the back and a water bottle only weighs 23lb .......... and that's a full-sized steel bike!

A Brompton is a heavy bike, when I reckon it's supposed to be a light bike.

[[XAP]Bob]

Not designed for lightness, designed for compact fold.

The very design requires that the individual tubes are substantial.

[Brucey]

I agree; it is one of the strongest and most durable fold-down-dead-small bikes; -and not the lightest in good part because of this.

cheers

[Vinko]

In direct answer to CJs post then I do not have experience of Eazy Wheels failing, but I do think they are a good upgrade to a standard old Brompton. I am pleased that I did that to mine and its only a couple of bolts and not expensive. Maybe the fact that mine haven’t failed when the old rollers did, is sufficient to answer the question! The eazy wheels are just a generally good upgrade though because they actually work better than the rollers. I didn’t fit the “bung” thing to the seat post on mine though, I just bought the two wheels on their own cause it was cheaper (£6.50 each?).

[CJ]

Can we get back onto the subject please?

Eazy wheels. We know they make the bike so much easier to trundle and that's justification enough for upgrading. But do they also protect the mounting stalks from damage?

My reviewer lives in NZ and flies often with his Brommie. Often enough to have broken one of the original sacrificial trolley wheels on FOUR occasions and bend a mounting stalk once. So he always used to carry a spare trolley wheel. He's flown just a few times since upgrading to Eazy wheels and so far so good: no breakages, no bending and no need (so he reckons so far) to carry a spare wheel.

I really want to hear from someone who's found their Eazy wheel in pieces after a flight, that proves it's taken a hard knock, and no other damage, and been able to snap the wheel back together okay.

[Brucey]

I have not tried these wheels so I can't say for sure but I would suppose that at best they might protect from some knocks but not all.

My logic is thus;

-if the rim of the eazy wheel gets a knock in the axial direction I can see how the wheel might pop apart and this might protect the stalk. However...

- if the wheel takes a significant radial load then it isn't clear to me that the wheel will pop apart in the same way; if it did come apart easily under such loads then presumably the wheel would also be liable to come apart when wheeling the bike over sharp edges etc.

If the radial force gets to be high enough the stalk will bend, obviously. So if you think the wheels get knocked axially I can see a snap-apart wheel working quite well, but I'm less convinced if the knocks are radial.

If the stalk were a three-section CrMo tube with a length of ~M5 studding up the middle, it could be very nearly as strong (or stronger if the diameter were increased) as a solid stalk, but both lighter and easier to repair in the event of a bend; M5 studding in the right grade is quite ductile and can be bent back easily. A new piece of M5 studding would cost about 50p and you would be able to buy it almost anywhere.

cheers

[Vinko]

I really want to hear from someone who's found their Eazy wheel in pieces after a flight, that proves it's taken a hard knock, and no other damage, and been able to snap the wheel back together okay.

There is a Brompton "Yahoo Group" - I think its quite active. When I last looked there ages ago, it seemed there were a lot of people travelling all over the place, might be more Bromptoneers there who could help. At least they only talk about Bromptons

[Vinko]

In case you havent got both to hand, here is the old style roller/trolley wheel held (back facing) against an eazy wheel, on my Brompton. Others may have experience of actual breakage statistics of either of them etc, but it seems the bit where it might break on a eazy wheel is about the same place as the diameter of the old style (roller/trolley).

But if its going to be such a knock as to bend the metal stalk anyway I think either versions are prone to suffering and now I compare them like that I doubt there is much in it. Putting one against the other, I might be inclined to say that if anything the original is a better bet as the cone shape is less likely to catch on anything, the eazy wheels are quite thin and pronounced!

Maybe the best solution is better protection over that area when loading....or change airline compaines

Oh....and the damage to mine is still visible in the pic...the metal stalk never got re-painted

ps- For the record (for any non Brompton owners), the cone shaped wheel is the old style roller/tolley wheel. It would be mounted around the other way if it were actually fitted (cone flaring outwards), I took the pic like this to show a direct size comparison! The wheel on the other side is how the Eazy wheels are when fitted.

[SA_SA_SA]

I have the eazi wheels (3 fitted to an "L" type): the rear one is offset to the non-chainside: this might seem counter intuitive but I think the slightly larger diameter of the eazi wheels over the standard rollers encourages the folded bike to want to tip on to the folded (real) front wheel (I think "L"s are worse than "T"s for this) so I thought better to encourage it, then the bike is more stable resting on the 3 points of the real front wheel and two outer eazi wheels. When rolling I hold it so that it rolls on all 3 eazi wheels.

My Brompton is too cosseted to have tested the Eazi wheels strength:

Perhaps, buy an extra pair and do a proper measured mechanical test (mallet?) .

[SA_SA_SA]

<Bump>

[townbikemark]

Bought mine Saturday.

The Eazy Wheels look like a good idea, although the standard ones suffice. As has been said, Bromptons weigh about 12kg; this is a nice and light bike when unfolded, particularly in comparison to Bike Friday, weighing 20-25kg, but becomes a 12kg dumbell when folded...This was all too apparent when yours truly on his morning ride yesterday, decided to stop off at the local shop (10-15 mins walk usually), folded it to go inside. On coming out, he found that he couldn't unfold the thing, because he'd forgotten how to, in particular that the seat has to be extended (the post locks the bike when folded), before it unfolds (he thought it was the next step). So, morning ride cut short, he had to carry the thing back to the house, let down one of the tyres, thinking the front wheel was obstructing the pedal (it wasn't). So, he phoned Cycle Surgery where he was advised to extend the seatpost and...voila!