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| Brass & Black Brompfication Hinge Plate Set on my Brompton. |
Brompfication Hinge Clamp Set Video (by Brompfication)
The hinge plates are asymmetrical so that, when properly installed, they are not allowed to rotate when opened. This makes closing the clamp much faster because the hinge plate is locked in place and no manual alignment is required. I didn't think this would be a such big deal, but the more that I use the Brompton the more aligning the plate bugged me.
There are a couple of other features to this product. A spring that surrounds the lever bolt keeps the plate pushed out away from the hinge when clamp is loosened. This keeps the plate "ready" to close anytime that the hinge is open. The other feature is the locking nut on the end of the lever bolt. The locking nut, when properly adjusted, stops the lever bolt when there is enough clearance for the hinge to open. This eliminates wasted effort and quickens both the opening and closing of the clamp.
Here's my experience:
The upper hinge clamp works beautifully. The lower hinge clamp, however, is kinda rough. I think the spring surrounding the lower lever bolt is not clearing the hole between the two sides of the hinge and it's getting caught, not allowing the spring to function normally. Perhaps I have closer tolerances between the the two halves of the clamp on my particular Brompton.
Although the brass lever bolt looks very nice, it is not as comfortable to use as the stock lever bolt. The stock lever bolt is too short to accommodate the locking nut, but Brompfication states that the bolt part can be pressed out of the stock part and replaced with a longer bolt (M8 x 55mm).
A bonus benefit of the locking nut is that I'm no longer worried that some hooligan will steal the clamp bolt on those rare occasions that I have to lock up the Brompton outside.
Overall, I think this hinge clamp set is very nice and makes folding and unfolding less of a hassle. It's a solid upgrade.
Appendix:
Fernando,
ReplyDeleteI had the same spring binding issue with the lower/main clamp. There is not quite enough clearance between the spring and the hinge casting. A few minutes of grinding with a dremel fixes it, and it works perfectly.
Pete.
This makes closing the clamp hose clamps much faster because the hinge plate is locked in place and no manual alignment is required.
ReplyDeleteI agree, good product that works really well and the black levers on mine look a lot better than the Brompton original. Two bits of advice. I had to use Loctite on the bolts to stop the nuts coming loose. Also I found that stretching the springs prevented the snagging reported on above.
ReplyDeleteChris