Cycling UK Forum

I was prompted to fit Eazy-Wheels to my aged Brompton after airport baggage handlers managed to break one of the original trolley wheels and also bend the tubular steel stalk it mounts on. Fortunately I could straighten the stalk okay and now have an easy-rolling Brompton.

I have since received a review of these wheels from a member, who suffered the same and did the same, and now reckons that Eazy-Wheels do not only roll better, but are also likely to be more resistant to destruction in a similar impact. He claims they will fall apart in a way that lets them be popped back together (so if you have Eazy Wheels you don't need to carry a spare wheel when flying with your Brompton) and what with that and their rubber tyre, he believes they should offer just as much impact-absorbing protection to the mounting stalk - compared to the original wheels, which absorb energy by bending and breaking.

But I'm sceptical about that. What do other owners think? More importantly: what have you found? Have you flown with your Eazy-wheeled Bromptons and found that they protect the bike from damage by falling mendably apart, or do they break and bend their stalks just the same - or worse?

You are aware of this (and have noted it above) but for future readers I think it's worth being ultra clear.
The Brompton rollers wheels are deliberately weak - although if you've been bending the stalk, maybe not weak enough - to avoid damaging the frame in this scenario.

I've no personal experience with the eazy wheels though.

Apologies, can't really answer your question ~ having swapped the standard rollers on my own with on line skate wheels and bearings... it rollers better, but does make the folded package ever-so-slightly higher.. i think Mr Halliday (sorry, mind like a..thing full of holes at the moment.. may have mispelt the gentleman's name) went one further and actually fitted roller skate wheels to the rear of his rack..

I too have replaced the original rollers on my Brompton with Easy Wheels and found that they work well. When rolling over rough pavement I have found the rubber tires come a little adrift but they have been easy to put straight.

Alan

Yes, I know I could Google it ....................... and so could everyone else ................

......... but for the benefit of this thread and people who have never ever seen a Brompton in the flesh, please explain what Eazy Wheels are.

bigger/better wheels for when the brompton is folded

To clarify, the (even smaller) wheels that normally sit just behind the seat post on the rear triangle; when the bike is folded, this rear triangle flips under the top tube so that these wheels are on the ground. This allows the bike to be dragged in a folded state.

No, I have no idea why people don't just unfold the bike either.

I thought that Bromptons were light and they were foldable so you could carry them?
Isn't that the whole point?
Why drag them?

Serious question here, I've never even seen a Brompton, let alone folded and carried one.

isn't the idea that when it is like this;



it can be trundled around and (unlike an unfolded bike) it is small (good for crowded railway platforms) and it stands up by itself?

cheers

You've lost me here.
Please correct me if I'm wrong ....................

The Brompton is light.
The Brompton is foldable.
You fold it up.
You carry it.
You even have bags for them.


My Mercian is light. (ish)
I hang it over my (right) shoulder.
I carry it.
For goodness sake, I've carried my Mercian on and off ships!
Even down a ladder into a boat to be taken ashore .............. and back.

like I said before it Is an additional option that some folk find convenient. You wouldn't want to be wheeling a full-size bike on a crowded rush-hour railway platform, and carrying one when you could be wheeling it is just daft.

cheers

And they're not actually all that light.

I'm OK carrying it for a while, but I tend to just unfurl it and wheel the thing around the station.

I too have an older Brompton, from Aug 94-Sept 94. Nearly 20 years old now, I had it from new...it has been superb! In the really excellent book "Brompton Bicycle" by David Henshaw (a recommended read to all Bromie owners), you can look up the serial number and get a date for your bike as well as a fascinating history of how it developed. Mine was £320 brand new....err, they cost a bit more now!

Anyway, I take full responsibility for bending one of the small roller brackets on mine ages ago, and mashing the roller wheel. It took a lot of scary bending back to get the bracket bit relatively straight again (and still has a big kink in the stalk...but hey, its close and I don’t want to weaken it any more). I looked at all the various ways people had put skate wheels on, various Googlings later I realised that it wasn’t worth the faffing around for me, especially as I have big feet and I was concerned about clipping the bigger skate wheels with my shoe.

So I stuck on the Eazy Wheels and its so much better. I recommend them over the original rollers. The bike rolls much better in folded mode and I do have it part folded and drag it around like that some of the time if I don’t want to fully unfold it. When part unfolded you get access to the bag, if you have one, on the front. Its rather like a shopping trolley on wheels, the EaZy Wheels have come into their own for this as the original rollers didn’t make this work very well. You can fold it further than the pic above and still move it on the Eazy Wheels....then its simple opening it out and flip the back wheel and off you go

I have no experience of the Eazy wheels breaking, or falling apart and quick repairing though. Having just looked at mine, it looks as if they are made in a way that they could separate and maybe they would come apart and be put back together again simply. My "maybe" doesn’t really help I guess, but certainly the ones I have got seem to be in two parts. You could probably also argue that being bigger they might however give more leverage or pressure on the metal stalks and possibly make bending them again even more likely if badly handled!

...but for what its worth, I do think the Eazy Wheels are worth it and an improvement to make.

Whilst in Bromptonian mode, I have the original old handle bars on mine. It was a failure item on my age of bike, and yes I am aware of it (and its mentioned by other Brompton owners who regularly point this out to me). I know I should change them, but I must admit I haven’t yet....opps!

Mine also came with the original horrible saddle.....its £25 for the Brompton “pentaclip” to convert?…. Nerr…just got one of the old type of seat post fittings for £3 from my LBS and fitted a B17! If you put the “rail” fittings at the top, you gain an extra inch for taller riders and don’t need the extended seat post either!!

Oh dear…I don’t think I have helped you very much here CJ, but I reckon the Eazy wheels are better than the rollers anyway and I rate “Brilliant Bikes”

http://www.brilliantbikes.co.uk for Brompton bits (I have no connection there, they have just been really excellent).

Good bikes, if I had to choose one bike, would it be the Brompton or my touring bike? Now thats the question I hope I never have to answer

As for folding etc...my local rail company wont allow "full" bikes at certain times....but the Brompton is fine anytime. I have also had no problems on busses either or taking it into cafes or shops. Without doubt it's a compromise in riding..... but better than not cycling at all

Still lost me.
I thought that the whole point of them was that they were light and you could fold them and carry them. ????

Many years ago (1982/3) we were living in W Scotland and I had courses to do in Portsmouth. I was due to be there for weeks, and the courses were one after the other with a week or two between. I wanted my bike with me, and I took it.

In order to get the bike down from Glasgow to Portsmouth via London, I needed a good idea, and me and Mrs Mick F made a bag to put it in. The bag was made of denim and had straps to hook over my shoulder, and I could carry my Raleigh Clubman across London through the underground from Kings Cross to Waterloo, and then from Portsmouth Harbour via the Gosport Ferry and by taxi to my courses in Fareham at HMS Collingwood.
(Later, this bag had my Mercian in it to get up to JOG for my JOGLE in 1994)

If I can do that with a steel non-folding bicycle complete with a suitcase, I'm sure someone can carry a foldable alu bike.