Long Haul Hardcase

A friend of mine is going to take her Brompton on a trip from Singapore to Toronto taking a 26-hour journey with a stop in good old Narita airport. The titanium model was her choice since it’s a bit lighter than her full steel B.

Based on experience from other friends who’ve also gone on longer flights with their B’s, she decided that she’d use a Lojel Streamline 31″ luggage on the trip. It fits airline size requirements and she can add a lot more stuff in between the nooks and crannies of the bike. It is also a happy shade of purple, fitting her personal color requirement. LOL.

She test-packed it this weekend, just to see what she needed to do to make the bike fit. First, she lay a bath rug on the base, to help cushion the bike.

This particular bike has an extended titanium seatpost with a Brooks saddle. The longer seatpost combined with the saddle couldn’t fit in without distorting the shape of the luggage so she decided to disassemble it. Without the saddle, the bike fit in perfectly, even without having to remove the seatpost.

There’s a lot of leftover space in the luggage. The removed saddle was stuffed between the wheels while the exposed seatpost was protected with bubble wrap. Spare parts, tools, and other removed jiggly bits were added into a ziplock bag.
She tested the closing up the luggage and it was fine. There was enough space even through the bag’s width. And with the 4 roller wheels, it was easy enough to maneuver without needing to carry the Lojel. I do worry about it a bit though because the luggage material didn’t seem strong enough to support the weight of the bike plus other things — but since quite a few of other Brompton owners we know have used and flown with this particular bag in question with no issues, I figure it shouldn’t do so bad on at least a couple of flights.

It’s also not very obvious, but there’s a LOT of space between the bike and the base. Packing a few days worth of clothes plus a helmet won’t be an issue at all.

New Bike!

I ordered myself a new Brompton! It’s one of those X models, so the rear triangle and forks are made of titanium.

Local distributor Mighty Velo (formerly known as Diginexx) has an excellent promo for pre-orders that includes getting a FREE GAME BAG amongst other things, and Brompton itself is sort of phasing out their titanium model, so I figure this is gonna be the best time to get a “limited edition” model. Not gonna lie, I’m not the biggest fan of the (what I find) insanely overpriced Game Bag, but there’s no turning down something that’s FREE!

People have been asking why I wanted a Ti Brompton. I’m not a weight weenie anyway but I did want a Brompton that’s less prone to corrosion. Singapore’s weather is wet more than half the year and cleaning up after rust-able parts is not fun! The slightly lesser weight makes it a bit easier to lug around when I have to haul it up those PCN bridge overpasses too.

It arrives next month! I can’t wait!

mo:Rack-ing, more rolling

In an dense urban environment, one of the important things necessary for multi-modal folding bike use is the ability to easily cart the bike around when folded. It’s precisely this reason, and my relatively short size, that makes me prefer smaller wheeled folding bikes. I’ve had two 20″ wheeled foldies, and each one was a pain in the ass — I’d end up doing a half-roll/half-carry method inching my way slowly. I suppose that anything that would make transporting a folded bike easier would catch my eye, and that’s exactly what happened with this product.

Ok, let’s get some background information first. My friend Jenny, who blogs at BilogGirl, flew over to Singapore to attend this year’s OCBC Cycle Singapore event.

As with all other previous OCBC Cycle Singapore events, there’s a “Cycle Village” where many local shops go and hawk their wares. So there I was, walking around looking at products when I spot this this guy rolling a 20″ foldie on it’s end. Whoa, what?!

I went closer trying to identify the bike because I thought it was a Tern with a redesigned Biologic Trolley Rack. Then, realizing that the bike was a Dahon, I thought maybe the brand finally came up with their own version of a trolley rack. And then, I saw the flyers. Oh, hello.

It was an entirely new product I’ve never heard of before — the Singaporean designed mo:Rack by Klappen (from Cyclecycle) — and it’s a pretty cool because it can fit “most” 20″ frames!

Here’s another one, in black.

And here’s how it looks like when the bike’s not folded. Still a rack. Still usable.

Youtube’s even got sample vids of the unfolding, folding, and rolling actions. Go check ’em out.

That’s pretty much all the information I know. If you want, you can go and contact the guys behind the mo:Rack directly, or go visit their shop in Woodlands (This is in Singapore, btw, just in case you guys forgot or something.)

OH WAIT, I NEARLY FORGOT! It retails for S$225! That’s about USD $180 or Php8000. If you’re in the Philippines, I’d say it’s only worth getting if you have a mid-range folding bike. If you have a tupayb, or a bike that costs around the same as the rack, this might be a ridiculous purchase. (Unless you really want it, then go get it! Whatever floats your boat, man.)

PS. This is not an paid ad or anything. I honestly think it’s an awesome product that can benefit many folks out there especially since it seems the majority of folding bikes are equipped with 20″ wheels!

Oh, and here’s a Brompton S-bag with the London Skyline flap I spotted at the Mighty Velo booth! It’s so pretty!