Instead of 16in wheels with slick city tyres, it has 20in wheels wrapped in wide, 54mm rubber. It doesn\u2019t have rim brakes; there are disc brakes instead. The geometry has been tweaked, and there\u2019s an aluminium fork and an 8-speed gear hub from Shimano.\u00a0<\/p>
The bike is billed as \u201cBrompton\u2019s biggest launch in 50 years\u201d, with the London-based company having stuck to its smaller-wheeled, urban folding bikes since it was founded in 1975.<\/p>
Brompton claims the G Line \u2013 available as a non-assisted or electric bike<\/a> and from \u00a32,395 \/ \u20ac2,849 \u2013 is the \u201cmost versatile bike in the world\u201d. CEO Will Butler-Adams says it’s a response to the growing interest in off-road riding and people looking to explore \u201croads and trails less travelled\u201d.\u00a0<\/p> But if it\u2019s beginning to seem as though the \u2018G\u2019 in its name might stand for gravel, think again. Brompton doesn\u2019t want you to think of its new folding bike quite like that.\u00a0<\/p> Brompton\u2019s head of design, Will Carleysmith, says the idea for an off-road Brompton stretches back roughly eight years.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cThe idea came from what people were doing with the Brompton,\u201d says Carleysmith.<\/p> \u201cWe had people taking it into environments it wasn’t perhaps designed for. We had guys at the North Pole cycling to their instruments across the ice and people travelling around Southeast Asia. And then you get people doing like Paris\u2013Brest\u2013Paris and [Land\u2019s End to] John O\u2019 Groats.\u201d<\/p> Carleysmith says the early prototypes for the G Line resembled something from the TV show Scrapheap Challenge, where teams of mechanics and engineers would build machines to complete specific tasks from whatever was lying around in a scrapyard.<\/p> Since then, Brompton has launched three bikes. It also had to navigate the cycling industry\u2019s coronavirus boom and the ensuing downturn. This meant the G Line remained on the back burner.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cIt’s been a long-term thing that\u2019s been in the background and it\u2019s probably been four years’ work to get it to a mass-produced product,\u201d says Carleysmith.\u00a0<\/p> Straddling on- and off-road riding and launched with the gravel-ism of roads and trails \u201cless travelled\u201d, the G Line shares a similar ethos to the best gravel bikes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> Throw in the fact it uses Schwalbe G-One tyres \u2013 gravel tyres<\/a>, no less \u2013 along with the suggestive \u2018G\u2019 in its name, and it\u2019d be fair to assume that this is indeed a folding gravel bike. However, Brompton doesn\u2019t want to categorise the G Line this way.\u00a0<\/p> Carleysmith points out that riders in other countries may interpret the \u2018G\u2019 differently. For example, it could stand for g\u00eblande<\/em> in German, which roughly translates as terrain or ground, and is arguably closer to Brompton\u2019s framing of the G Line as an \u2018all-terrain\u2019 bike.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cWe would love this bike to be seen as just a very versatile bike that can do pretty much everything.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s not a performance bike or a mountain bike, but it’ll do the job and it won’t cause you grief,\u201d says Carleysmith.\u00a0<\/p> Carleysmith says there are people who \u201cjust absolutely love Bromptons\u201d, with more than a third of Brompton\u2019s customers owning more than one of its bikes.\u00a0<\/p> But he says the G Line is aimed at those \u201cwho would reject the Brompton or a compact folding bike because of what they see as its perceived capability\u201d.<\/p> \u201cWe really want to sell to the compact bike, hybrid bike<\/a> [market and] perhaps some of the people who buy gravel bikes,\u201d says Carleysmith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> Reaching a new audience can be read as combining Brompton\u2019s financial and philosophical aims. Brompton\u2019s planned move to a new factory<\/a> in Ashford, Kent, will double production capacity to approximately 200,000 bikes a year.\u00a0<\/p> Selling more bikes to more people also reflects Butler-Adams\u2019 belief in Bromptons, as shared in his book<\/a> The Brompton: Engineering for Change<\/em>. Butler-Adams says hardly any Brompton owners he\u2019s met have said anything other than its bikes have changed their lives, saying they\u2019re happier and healthier for riding one of these folding bikes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> \u201cBased on everything I\u2019ve seen, there\u2019s no way we could be content in leaving Brompton as a niche, cult product with a small fan base of enthusiasts,\u201d he writes, later explaining the role cycling \u2013 and specifically Bromptons \u2013 can play in tackling climate change and making cities more livable.\u00a0<\/p> The sales pitch is the G Line rides like conventional bikes but comes with the Brompton\u2019s convenience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> Compared to a conventional bike, Carleysmith says that with a Brompton G Line, \u201cIf you go away for the weekend you don’t have to drag your kind of roof rack out and set it up on the car.\u201d<\/p> Brompton\u2019s head of design adds that you can still fold the bike up and head home on the train if you’re faced with bad weather, \u201cwhich is rather lovely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Brompton would still steer urban riders towards its classic bikes rather than the G Line.<\/p> \u201cWe’re really after the \u2018mainstream bike market\u2019, but with added Brompton usability and magic,\u201d says Carleysmith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> The appeal to the mainstream can be seen in how the G Line uses tech that\u2019s now common across the cycling market and has less compromising ride characteristics.\u00a0<\/p> Disc brakes<\/a> bring Brompton\u2019s latest folding bike into the modern age and help increase the bike\u2019s versatility through different weather and terrain. Instead of developing the brakes in-house \u2013 as it did with its rim brakes \u2013 Brompton uses TRP levers and calipers on the G Line.\u00a0<\/p> Brompton says the Shimano Alfine 8-speed internal gear hub<\/a>, operated via a Microshift shifter, helps you cover a variety of terrain, while being low-maintenance.<\/p> Along with the larger 20in wheels and 54mm tyres, these features provide \u201cgame-changing comfort and capability\u201d.<\/p> Brompton has also revised the G Line\u2019s geometry to further the bike\u2019s off-road aims, employing the help of an unnamed but \u201cworld-leading bike fitter\u201d.\u00a0<\/p> Compared to Brompton\u2019s classic bikes, the G Line has a longer wheelbase and can be ridden with no hands<\/a>. This might seem like a minor detail, but it speaks to how Brompton has worked to improve the stability of the bike over its other models.<\/p> Larger wheels and a longer wheelbase mean the G Line is less compact than other Bromptons, measuring 690x730x402mm when folded.\u00a0<\/p> The G Line also differs from Brompton\u2019s classic bikes because it uses an aluminium rather than steel fork.\u00a0<\/p> The fork and stem are dotted in mounts for any bags or bottle cages, furthering the bike\u2019s versatility.<\/p> Brompton has fitted the bike with a wide handlebar for stability, leverage and comfort on longer rides.\u00a0<\/p> The G Line will be available as an electric folding bike<\/a>. Whereas the Brompton P Line Electric<\/a> has a front hub motor, the G Line Electric uses a 250W rear hub motor, which is beneficial for off-road riding.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cWhen you’re riding on loose surfaces, there’s a lot of weight on the back of the bike. So for us that made more sense than a front hub motor which you know on a city bike works well,\u201d says Carleysmith.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> It\u2019s not just the position of the motor<\/a> that\u2019s changed. Brompton has developed an entirely new electronic system for the G Line Electric.<\/p> \u201cWith the new system, we have pretty much put all of the electronics and software technology into one controller, which means we can be a lot more flexible with the system,\u201d says Carleysmith.<\/p> \u201cIt also allows us to have a lot more connectivity, so we can have what we call over-the-air updates which are becoming increasingly common,\u201d he adds, comparing the connectivity to how you would update your smartwatch or bike computer via your phone.\u00a0<\/p> Brompton says its latest ebike battery<\/a> delivers 345kWh of power for a 30-60kph range per charge via a more efficient system.\u00a0<\/p> The G Line Electric is also said to set \u201cthe benchmark for quality and safety\u201d, with the folding bike brand actively supporting greater regulation through the Battery Breakdown Safety Bill, which is intended to address battery fires<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>Eight years in the making\u00a0<\/h2>
Don\u2019t call it a gravel bike\u00a0<\/h2>
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A new audience<\/h2>
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Disc brakes and no hands\u00a0<\/h2>
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Electric, too<\/h2>
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