Traveling with a Brompton Bicycle

What’s it like to ride a folding bike straight from the airport, ride it relatively long distances, take it on the train, and even take it around the grocery store…

*The Brompton even works for some light trail riding*

After I had finished writing my third book fietspad, there were were still parts of the Netherlands I wanted to see, and things I wanted to figure out about cycling in the Netherlands. The fietspad trip had been done entirely on cheap old Dutch bikes with questionable reliability.

We came back from that trip intent on doing another, but doing it differently. So here we are, less than a year later back in the Netherlands on our own bikes. Folding bikes had caught my interest since the last trip, and in terms of compactness, the Brompton has few equals when it’s folded. Furthermore the system of bags and accessories is best in class with the front mounting block being the key to the ease with which you can travel with such a small bike.

Our setup for a month in Europe included the 2 speed Brompton bicycle, the Brompton bicycle travel case which folds flat when not in use, a Brompton Borough bag in size large, one 25L and one 28L mostly for clothing, a secondary bag for other things such as my camera stuff, iPad and jacket. Other items need for the trip included some pipe insulation to provide a little extra protection from baggage handlers, some straps to secure the same insulation when being used in transit, and a longer strap to secure the flattened suitcase to the mounted Brompton bag when travelling between cities (see image further below). We also had one Brompton toolkit which stows neatly inside the frame, a Brompton pump that attaches neatly to the rear triangle, an Abus folding lock which was less neatly mounted on the main frame, and a very compact set of front and rear lights with USB charger built in. One less cable to take.

For the flight to Amsterdam, we selected a ticket with checked baggage, not for our personal items, but for the Bromptons. While more expensive than with no checked baggage, it would be cheaper than paying extra for oversize luggage if we’d taken conventional bikes. While we’ve seen stories of people taking Brompton’s on as carry-on, we had no desire to test that theory, and as we still had other carry on items that would use that space (our two bags), it wasn’t really an option. We sent our bikes away on the conveyor for oversize items, despite not being oversize, hoping they’d appear at our destination unscathed.

We arrived at Amsterdam Schipol airport, waited for our bikes to appear at the oversize luggage belt, before seeing them come out with all the regular suitcases. They went on the plane as special luggage, but at the other end, I guess looked more like conventional luggage to the Dutch baggage handlers. One case had a small tear, more of a scuff really. It didn’t go all the way through, but clearly had been knocked, dragged or fallen somewhere to cause that damage. The bikes were fine though.

We wheeled the bike suitcases through to the arrivals area, opened them up, quickly took the pipe insulation off, unfolded them, folded the suitcases flat with pipe insulation inside for later use, mounted our Borough bags, and using the one strap, tightly bound the folded suitcase to the bikes and we were all set in about 10 minutes. Leaving the airport building, we hunted for the bike path for a bit, looking at the maps on our phone while still on WiFi and tried to orientate ourselves. After a short walk in the wrong direction, we soon found the bike path and began our trip to Utrecht.

*Brompton Borough bag and folded suitcase strapped to the front*

Despite what seems like a very front heavy set-up, when riding, the rider weight more than balances everything out and the little bikes handle really well. The strap setup while decent did have a little bit of bounce in it when going over bumpy surfaces or cobbled streets, but it was working pretty well. The block has a capacity of 10kg, and out setup with large bag and folded suitcase only came to about 6.5kg balancing them precariously on the bathroom scales. We were safely within the weight limits, but the bounce and leverage may have been putting extra strain on the mounting block. I do have some thoughts on how it could be made better, more on that at the end.

We arrived in Utrecht following only the road signs, with the confidence from the last trip that it would be safe the entire way. It was, and after about 55km and a whopping 98m of climbing, we arrived in Utrecht in just over six hours (about 4.5 hours moving time) for a few nights. While in Utrecht, the suitcases and large bags sat in the room, and we simply took the shoulder bag and backpack for day trips from the hotel.

On the last trip with the old Dutch bikes we were never too concerned about leaving them locked up out on the street, but that would change on this trip. With each bike being worth around CAD$2,000, leaving them locked, even in a sea of bicycles, still left an uneasy feeling, especially when we’ve had bikes stolen at home, which did influence what we did from day to day. We’d typically find places to eat where there was space for the bikes, not always easy with small restaurants cramming as many seats as possible in. Even folded, there wouldn’t always be space, and this was one of the downsides of taking nicer bikes. We could have locked them, they’d probably have been fine, we just opted for places where we could sit with them.

At grocery stores, one of us would initially wait outside, but by the end, we’d partially fold the bikes into shopping cart mode and wheel them around the store. I’m not sure why this is more acceptable than just wheeling the fully unfolded bike, but it felt less like we were breaking some unwritten rule.

The previous year on the old Dutch bikes, we’d covered Utrecht to Gouda and Gouda to Delft over two days. The Bromptons were far more nimble and we were able to cover the entire trip from Utrecht to the Hague reasonably comfortably in one day. That would be a trip of 69km with 105m of climbing, and would take around 7 hours (5 hours moving). The Bromptons are very capable of big days.

*The hills in the national park were a bit of a challenge on the 2-speed*

Leaving the Hague, we were going to have quite a few changes of location before leaving for Nice to meet my parents in 10 days time. We were headed for Maastricht via Thorn on the Belgian border. That would be too big a day, so we took the train to Eindhoven, and as we’d be flying out of Eindhoven, we found a hotel that offered bag storage (through an app called Nannybag), conveniently located next to the Hovenring. We strapped our Brompton suitcase together to create “one bag” and paid 66 euros for 10 days of storage which would just mean a little less hassle every time we moved location. We dropped the bags, the guy chucked them in a cupboard, and we hoped this service was legit and they’d be there when we returned.

From there we headed south towards Maastricht, stopping in Thorn after 65km, then continuing to Maastricht which was another 55km through Belgium. We’d spend a few days in Maastricht, then head north to Arnhem and the national parks, before heading back to Eindhoven where we’d fly to Nice.

On a few legs of the trip we’d take the train, where the Brompton’s again paid dividends. It was much easier to get on and off the raised floor intercity trains, but also, on each train we got on, there were others with bikes and we’d likely have struggled for space if we’d been on regular bicycles. NS trains, you need more bike space! Or everybody needs to embrace the Brompton!

Back in Eindhoven before flying out to Nice, we collect our Brompton suitcases, which were still where we’d left them, and did the same thing on route to Nice, riding with the flat suitcases, packing them up at the airport, hoping they arrive unscathed, collecting them from the regular luggage belt, unpacking them and riding to the hotel.

I wasn’t initially sold on Nice, but a look online showed several protected bike lanes through the City and those convinced me it was worth a visit. More on that in an upcoming post. We rode around Nice and then did the same again, riding to the airport, packing the bike, unpacking at the other end and continuing our trip.

Sure the Bromptons cost a lot more than the Dutch bikes, we couldn’t just take carry-on, which meant more waiting at the airport, and maybe our paranoia about bike theft stopped us eating in a few places. Do thieves even know a Brompton is quite valuable, or would they turn their nose up at these funny little bikes?

But the Bromptons gave us the freedom to easily explore parts of the cities we couldn’t have, without of course renting bikes in each location, they were reliable, we could take them inside places easily, we could take them on the train easily and take them to other countries easily. The luggage system is mostly amazing relative to normal bikepacking or touring setups. And we still have them to use on many many more trips in the coming years. Luckily, we made it home with bikes intact, suitcase with only minor war wounds and another fun trip back to Europe complete.

If anyone from Brompton happens to read this, I’d like to see a mounting block integrated into the suitcase base, with a further block on the suitcase accessible in its folded form that could then accept the Borough Bag on top, saving the need to strap them to each other and hopefully reducing the bounce.

In addition to the Borough Bag, I also had a backpack, primarily for my camera gear, but also for a spare jacket, water bottle, etc. On days where we weren’t travelling but exploring the city, I would just use my backpack and accept the sweaty back that came with it. I later thought I could have taken the Borough bag frame out and mounted my backpack to that and then directly to the bike, it might work, but I haven’t tried it yet. I also just found a camera bag designed for the Brompton.

There’s more blog posts to come from this trip, so keep an eye on the website or follow along via the various social media links above.

Esplanade Complete Street is Complete