Brompton Boosts its Web Presence and Product Line
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04. 2.08
Despite it being one of the most popular folding bikes in the world, and a regular sight on the streets of many cities, The Brompton folding bike doesn’t seem to have featured too heavily on TreeHugger. Sure, we posted about an interview with the inventor way back in 2005, we’ve featured video footage of a do-it-yourself electric assist kit, and the bike did feature fairly heavily in our post on favourite folders, from A to B. However, we’ve never really had a post purely dedicated to The Brompton, so the fact that the UK-based company has significantly revamped its online presence seems like a good enough excuse to us. The new Brompton website features the history and philosophy of the company, as well as details of how the bikes are made by hand in their London factory.
We were particularly pleased to see that Brompton has been making significant efforts to reduce its environmental impact, including switching to renewable energy, and they also seem to have increased the range of models and accessories available since we last looked. As mentioned a little while back in Jerry Stifelman’s guest post on green branding and marketing, Brompton are also known for giving genuine, informative shout outs to some of their competitors on their site – a sure sign of confidence in an increasingly crowded market place, and a genuinely helpful tool for an uncertain buyer.
::Brompton::via site visit::
Made by hand indeed. Some photos of the bikes beeing made at the Brompton factory:
http://www.olivierpascaud.com/brompton.html
YUP!! Hand made by craftsmen (with the use of a jig to ensure correct alignment) instead of by a robot using a TIG or MIG set up. Hand brazing costs more, but the end result is just like with my hand-made (in Canada) touring bicycle: pleasing to the eye. PLUS, I KNOW a human did the detailed inspection of the frame before painting and final assembly :-) More costly though - but you only get what you pay for..