BRANDS


BREAKING NEW GROUND


Brompton has launched the G Line as the biggest innovation in its history. Daniel Blackham speaks to chief design and engineering officer Will Carleysmith about the product’s origin and development


W


hen a brand as storied as Brompton markets a product as its “biggest innovation in 50 years” it certainly peaks interest.


Step forward the G Line. From a distance, you could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about. When folded, the bike looks the same as its predecessor with the folding mechanism identical and creating a similarly compact form factor. On two wheels there are many commonalities with the frame’s silhouette almost identical. But a closer look reveals an entirely new frame, bulkier 20 inch wheels wrapped in Schwalbe custom-made rubber, a


32 | October 2024


Shimano 8-speed hub gear, and the first Brompton to feature disc brakes from production. “It started as a bit of an engineering and design experiment eight years ago,” explains Will Carleysmith, chief design and engineering officer at Brompton on the origins of the G Line. “For the last 10 to 20 years, people have taken the


Brompton and done more and more, pushed it further and harder, so we thought: ‘How capable could you make the bike? How far could you take it?’ That took us to the wheel size that we have. “The first test was ‘does it have a purpose?’,


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