chagzuki

I like the convenience of my folder but agree that the ride quality is in many ways significantly worse.

fietsbob

I'd say you should buy the bike designed around the suspension feature ,
Moulton or Birdy are examples ..

or forget about a suspension fork and ride your Brompton, If You already have it, as is.

Retrofit fork is a non starter.. Though maybe the factory Brompton Titanium fork
will have a little elasticity and springiness, because of what its made of.

coolio

In terms of the U.S. mass market (xmart and the like) I'd be willing to bet that most new bikes sold today have some sort of suspension. By this I mean those hybrid uprights with a suspension front fork and some with a suspension seatpost. And, I'm not counting those cheap MTBs that have at least a front suspension fork. In the main, these are weekend riders that won't really put their bikes through the paces that people who frequent the BF forums would, though. However, they'd probably very satisfied in what they buy and the price they paid for their bikes.

vik 

I'd be willing to bet that most bikes bought at department stores/walmart by adults don't get ridden at all. Just like all those tread mills and gym memberships that gather dust....so I don't think there is any point looking at that data and surmising that a feature is of any value because people bought them. Secondly these bikes are sold for bottom dollar which means they have zero relation to the bikes we are talking about like a Brompton - which can easily exceed $2K when you bling it out...not even getting to the point of designing/building/selling a fully suspended Brompton. My final point is people buy those bikes not because they made a calculate choice based on performance vs their needs...they bought them because they were there buying pantyhose and happened to walk past the bike section - the colour was nice and price right - and it made them feel like they were doing something concrete about getting fatter and fatter each day. They would be just as happy with an equally well designed and executed rigid bike with balloon tires.

grounded_kiwi

Adding suspension to a Brompton is really a waste of time IMHO! I have a Brompton 6-spd and it is truly a wonderful piece of engineering for what it was really designed for. (i.e. commuting and using public transport) For longer rides I prefer my Velotechnik Grasshopper-- only slightly bigger wheels (20") but recumbent with front and rear suspension. It also has a Rohloff hub and disk brakes. I find the biggest danger when returning to the Brompton is the comparatively deficient brakes! Although the Grasshopper folds in half it's no Brompton in terms of folded size (L96xW60xH70 cm) It all comes down to "horses for courses".

fietsbob

Changed brake shoes on my Brompton... older bike, CLB made single pivot calipers,
Kool Stop Salmon Continental molded shoes, a bit different from the shoe/padholder that CLB designed due to a threaded boss on the pad holder.
But cutting a strip out of an aluminum pie pan, folding it over, and wrapping it around the molded in stud on the KS pad, worked fine, just needed to get the stud in the center of the slot in the brake arm . and a bit wider flatwasher..
Kool Stop pads are a good upgrade for any rim brake .

rezo

10 years have past since this post. I came up with the same idea recently and was looking for information, ended up here.
So did anyone actually tried this and had any luck?

I was looking at Prevelo's HEIR FORK for 16inch wheels, it is quite attractive, but is it theoretically doable (despite of the weight and the look..etc, just whether it is mountable or not).

bikebikebike

Great thread, oldie but goodie because of its thoughtful discussion of several topics.
Handling, fetishism, novelty , thoughtful comments and pure riding, with several great lines summing things up well.

One of my surgery professors once said, "Whenever you see more than one approach to a problem, it means that nothing in particular is working very well."
The standard diamond frame bike hasn't been around for 130 years because of the soul crushing war on inspiration creativity and diversity.
That said ,
at what point does the addition of more than vestigial suspension push a 16"bike back towards 20"weight fold and handling?
And does suspension add only to very specific task customization?
There are some streets I dread on the 16"s, but that's why I have other bikes, and take other roads.

Jipe

Some people mounted a Birdy (or a Frog) suspension fork on a Brompton.

linberl

There are reasons some people have more than one bike - because no single bike can do everything perfectly. I guess most Brommie riders use them in cities and are not riding daily more than 20 miles max. Yes, some people do decide to do longer rides but I doubt they are the bulk of Brompton owners. Brompton markets toward the multi-modal fast fold crowd, not the comfy long distance tourer.

Get a Birdy if you want to tour with suspension and a halfway decent fold. Or put the trekking bars on your Brompton and some cushy tape and buy some gel gloves and call it a day, lol.

Jipe

There are several cities in Europe with a lot of cobbles streets.

Riding a Brompton on cobbles is not pleasant at all and you need to slow down if they are bad.

Having a front suspension like the Birdy really help.

Using a Frog (ETRTO 305 smaller wheel version of the Birdy) would probably help to have a better bike geometry (with this fork from a ETRTO 355 Birdy, the front of the Brompton is higher than with the factory fork).