Full titanium brompton clone, now 5.20kg

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Raxel
Posts: 1037
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:41 pm

by Raxel

I (and my wife) haven't had any time for riding for years, but we managed to settle down recently.
I noticed that full titanium brompton (clone) frames and brompton-specific WW parts are fairly easy to acquire nowadays, so I decided to build one for my wife.

main.jpg
rear.jpg
fork.jpg
post.jpg
Titanium main frame, rear frame, fork and handlepost are now being made by multiple builders in Taiwan and China. They are not cheap, but still cheaper than genuine frame and handlepost made by UK Brompton (while weighing a lot less)
fwheel.jpg
rwheel.jpg
16 inch prebuilt wheelset. They are unbelievably cheap for the weight (whole wheelset costs less than $200)
Kinlin NB-R 349 rim, 14/21 spokes (rolf pattern front, g3 pattern rear), DT champion spokes, 74mm/112mm wide hubs (american classic? )
Last edited by Raxel on Thu Jun 20, 2019 2:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.

by Weenie


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Raxel
Posts: 1037
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:41 pm

by Raxel

Chinese WW parts galore.
crankset.jpg
bb.jpg
Again, unbelievably cheap (and light) square taper crankset+BB combo. They may be super flexy, but should be fine for my wife.
handlebar.jpg
Carbon flat handlebar cut to 530mm length.
seatpost.jpg
31.8mm carbon seatpost cut to 550mm length.
saddle.jpg
Unbelievably cheap copy of san marco superleggera saddle.

lever.jpg
I have successfully used inline brake lever for many of my builds, and I chose another pair as the main brake lever here.
shifter.jpg
DT swiss remote lock lever is used as an ultralight shifter.
ez_wheel.jpg
Small wheels are used to support the bike when folded. I custom designed and 3D printed mine.
tensioner.jpg
And I decided to design custom tensioner too
pusher.jpg
And finally the pusher assembly (which moves the guide pulley around, in short a crude derailleur)

Raxel
Posts: 1037
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:41 pm

by Raxel

Here's the assembled bike:
full_ti_brompton_ps.jpg
full_ti_brompton_cockpit.jpg
full_ti_brompton_drivetrain.jpg
full_ti_brompton_weight_final.jpg
Final weight is 5780gr.
Not a bad weight for budget build. :P
Last edited by Raxel on Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Klaster_1
Posts: 1390
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:25 am
Location: Paphos, Cyprus

by Klaster_1

This is seriously awesome :thumbup:


martinkartin
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 5:21 am

by martinkartin

Where were you able to order the ti parts? I’ve heard that eBay sellers take weeks up to months before they can properly deliver the parts.
Factor O2 Disc

Marin
Posts: 4035
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:48 am
Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

Very nice, makes me want to own one...

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themidge
Posts: 1528
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:19 pm
Location: underneath sweet Scottish rain

by themidge

Epic. What BB is that?

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jbaillie
Posts: 684
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 4:17 pm

by jbaillie

What a cool project! And WW appropriate.

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Rich_W
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:31 pm
Location: LBI / Sarasota

by Rich_W

That is ridiculously cool. I’m convulsing in jelly...

Raxel
Posts: 1037
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:41 pm

by Raxel

martinkartin wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 am
Where were you able to order the ti parts? I’ve heard that eBay sellers take weeks up to months before they can properly deliver the parts.
Ebay, from multiple sellers. Some have them in stock, some build to order. For my case it didn't take more than 2 weeks to get them.
themidge wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:34 pm
Epic. What BB is that?
It's "ace" brand. Just search "titanium bottom bracket square taper" at the ebay and you will see a bunch of them.

markdjr
Posts: 250
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:21 pm

by markdjr

Looks awesome! Any thing you feel it's lacking when compared to a Brompton? What was cost of the build?

kavlares
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:56 pm

by kavlares

what a badass bike!
you should post your sources for the frame parts!

basilic
Posts: 1028
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:05 am
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

by basilic

This is spectacular, bravo.
I've always rejected the idea of a brompton due to weight...

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



Geoff
Posts: 5395
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:25 am
Location: Canada

by Geoff

Ok, that's nice. I would never have imagined that you could get a folder so light so quickly. Great work.

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