Brompton T Line Tuning: Dropping Weight and Wind Drag for a Faster Ride
Gear · Published 5/23/2024 ·
A stock Brompton T Line weighs 8.8kg
Completely untouched…
It’s been a few months now since I bought one of those gorgeously advertised 12-speed Brompton T Lines. Even though it’s a folding bike with a 12-speed gear range, it still tips the scales in the 8kg range straight from the factory. The exact stock weight, measured myself, is 8.8kg.
Normally, once you bolt on a front light mount, a rear light mount, and hang a water bottle, you’re looking at about 1.5kg of added weight. I’d been riding with a pump and various other bits and pieces attached, so I figure I’d put on around 2kg.
Even Porsche 911s get tuned…
Apparently even a flagship-grade bike is hard to ride completely stock. Just like how there’s always plenty to tinker with on a 911 with aftermarket parts…
Here it is with all that stuff stripped off. I took it out for a test ride, about 20km… and there’s a lightness and a liveliness to it that I just can’t put into words. Whether it’s the slightly lower weight… or the fact that the mudguards I removed aren’t catching the wind anymore… or the new pedals just rolling better, I honestly can’t say. Either way, sections where I used to cruise at 25km/h now come in at 27–30km/h. Same power output… Into a headwind, holding 25km/h used to be a real struggle, so I’d usually settle for 22–23km/h — and now those same stretches suddenly become 28–30. And I’ve finally started using internal 1st gear.
It really does roll beautifully.
It doesn’t look like much, and it doesn’t roll well either.
The Han River bike paths are mostly flat. Not much in the way of elevation change. Even among road bikes, aero frames are all the rage — that’s how important wind resistance is. I tried to minimize every spot that catches the wind, apart from the basic frame. No clutter, and it looks great.
Up front, the turbulence-generating points have been removed too.
Same goes for the rear. The downside is it’s now more vulnerable to getting dirty. Haha.
I left the Garmin mount as is. The part is titanium and barely weighs anything. A cyclo-computer is like a trip computer in a car. It’s genuinely important.
The saddle is actually lighter than the stock one, so I left it alone too. No real issues with it in use. Once I swap the handlebars, I’ll soon have to move to a more aggressive position — meaning leaning further forward. For now it’s perfectly fine to ride. I’ve done up to 70km in one go. No complaints about the saddle. I bought it on AliExpress for around 40,000 won, and… it’s honestly impressive. Brand-name saddles with a similar concept go for half a million won.
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Here’s the ride data after stripping all that stuff off. There was a brutal westerly wind. The Han River is pretty much always a westerly. I rode through it taking the wind head-on in stretches. I was wearing bib shorts on the bottom and just a short-sleeved T-shirt up top. Not exactly aero attire. And yet my top speed sections comfortably cleared 30km/h. Anyone who rides will know — your pace doesn’t just jump up like that out of nowhere. I guess when your fitness isn’t there, the answer really is a gear upgrade. Hahaha.
Anyway, after riding it stock for a good while, a little tuning with parts I already had on hand boosted the performance ridiculously, and it feels great. With heavy pedals and a heavy bike, you head out for cardio and it turns into an anaerobic slog — neither strength training nor proper cardio, just some vague in-between workout — and I hated that. Now the pedaling is light and hitting a cadence of 100 is easy.
Thank you.
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