Question: why are the bikes so high in price ?

Eleanor Sherwen answered on 8 Mar 2016:

Bromptons do cost a lot more than most folding bikes. It’s because they last a long time and they are high quality. They cost us more to make because we make them in the UK.

Our frames are steel, brazed (welded) together by hand here in London by our brazing team. It costs more to make them that way, but the combination of steel and brass joints is really good for lasting a long time. The bikes can get bumped and scraped and have lots of shaking from the road and they still last OK. We guarantee the frame for at least 5 years, lots of people are still riding theirs fine after 10, 15, even 20 years! My own bike is 8 years old and going strong.

You can pick up other folding bikes for as little a £250-£300 but they may only last you for 2 years or so and then you’d have to buy another one. Some of our customers say they bought a string of cheap folders and then worked out it would be cheaper for them to just buy a Brompton, once.

Also it is an important consideration for the design. When we make a new item, we have to check that existing users can fit it to their Brompton, even if it’s a model we haven’t made for 15 years. That can get very complicated sometimes, but people pay the high price initially because they trust us to keep them on the road for a long time