# Brompton ml3 2000 model



## Skyway (17 May 2020)

Hello I just purchased a Brompton nonlocking folding rear wheel is it possible to connect the locking part of the newer model onto this has anyone done this


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## 12boy (17 May 2020)

Sure, you can buy a latching device which I beieve includes a new shaft for the elastomer. Not very hard to do. I would not care for going around with the latch undone, although I understand that doesn't impair the ride quality.


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## Specialeyes (17 May 2020)

I've fitted 4 of these to the family Bromptons - dead simple and just about the best first upgrade to a brommie 🤞


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## Skyway (17 May 2020)

Thanks do you know how much and where to buy 
And my serial number is 1620 but cannot work out what year it is


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## Skyway (17 May 2020)

Sorry just seen you link thank you you are both very helpful


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## tribanjules (17 May 2020)

Takes 2 mins to fit and makes life so much easier - got my kit from Brilliant Bikes


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## roley poley (17 May 2020)

Easy up grade stopped me from having to lash the rear triangle to the seat post with a toe strap .It is designed to be turn offable with a quarter twist of the rubber block if desired, easy done by hand.


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## berlinonaut (17 May 2020)

In case you want to go on the cheap you can instead of the original retrofit-kit from Brompton use the solution from Spa which they invented before Brompton invented the rear frame clip:

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s155p127/SPA-CYCLES-Brompton-Clip

It costs just 2 Pounds, so you save 25. ;-) Dead simple, works like a charm though a tiny bit less comfy as the Brompton solution and your rear frame may loose the color where it is clamped to the mainframe.


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## roley poley (17 May 2020)

berlinonaut said:


> In case you want to go on the cheap you can instead of the original retrofit-kit from Brompton use the solution from Spa which they invented before Brompton invented the rear frame clip:
> 
> https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s155p127/SPA-CYCLES-Brompton-Clip
> 
> It costs just 2 Pounds, so you save 25. ;-) Dead simple, works like a charm though a tiny bit less comfy as the Brompton solution and your rear frame may loose the color where it is clamped to the mainframe.


good link never knew they existed love its simplicity and price


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## Gunk (17 May 2020)

tribanjules said:


> Takes 2 mins to fit and makes life so much easier - got my kit from Brilliant Bikes



Me too, first modification I did on my 2002 bike


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## 12boy (18 May 2020)

Can't see how that clip works....got a pic of it installed?


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## Gunk (18 May 2020)

12boy said:


> Can't see how that clip works....got a pic of it installed?



Check my Brompton build thread


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## 12boy (18 May 2020)

I loked through your post and saw the Brompton clip kit but not the one berlinaut showed the link for.what page wss it on and what does it attach to?


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## Gunk (18 May 2020)

Mine is the genuine Brompton kit


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## roley poley (18 May 2020)

12boy said:


> Can't see how that clip works....got a pic of it installed?


YES PLEASE


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## rogerzilla (18 May 2020)

I removed the clip on mine! Slows down folding. No Bromptons had them until the late noughties.


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## berlinonaut (18 May 2020)

12boy said:


> Can't see how that clip works....got a pic of it installed?


Sorry, no pic on the computer where I currently am. The "eye" goes at middle of the bolt of the seatpost-clamp (analogue to where the Brompton thingy sits). The other end clamps to the rear-frame between the ears that hold the roller wheels from above. To loosen the clamp you have to either push the bike into the damping or to unclamp it against the tension of the springloaded thingy directly or a combination of both.


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## Gunk (18 May 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> I removed the clip on mine! Slows down folding. No Bromptons had them until the late noughties.



no need to remove the clip, just turn the rubber block slightly and that allows it to be permanently unlocked


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## rogerzilla (18 May 2020)

Gunk said:


> no need to remove the clip, just turn the rubber block slightly and that allows it to be permanently unlocked


But the weight!


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## roley poley (18 May 2020)

Skyway said:


> Thanks do you know how much and where to buy
> And my serial number is 1620 but cannot work out what year it is


Frame nos, 1104 to1674 . Build date Jan 89 toAug89 .... referenced from David Henshaw "Brompton bicycle" book


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## 12boy (18 May 2020)

Berlinaut, thanks for your reply. The non eye end just clips over the frame, then. Seems like an ingenious idea to me.
Gunk, I did see the clamping parts but since your reply followed my pic request I misunderstood.


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## Skyway (18 May 2020)

Thanks for frame details so it early and it so looked after


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## Skyway (18 May 2020)

My bike


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## Skyway (18 May 2020)

And I got one of the clamps kits from Brompton and all fitted in 10 min great item thanks


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## Gunk (18 May 2020)

That’s actually a T6 (touring spec, 6 speed) lovely condition. Mine started as a T3 but much more tatty than yours.


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## berlinonaut (19 May 2020)

Skyway said:


> View attachment 523290
> 
> My bike





Gunk said:


> That’s actually a T6 (touring spec, 6 speed) lovely condition.


The bike is a T3 MK3 as far as can be told from the pics and year 2000 may fit well. Just that you may have misread the serial or frame number



Skyway said:


> And my serial number is 1620 but cannot work out what year it is


Serial numbers only are on Bromptons since late 2001/early 2002 via a sticker on the seat post tube and they do have way more digits, so this cannot be a serial. It could be a frame number (sitting on the top of the rear folding hinge, sometimes hard to read on a bike of that age) and for this bike it does not fit as



roley poley said:


> Frame nos, 1104 to1674 . Build date Jan 89 toAug89 .... r



and in this case the bike would look very different from how it does. It could be 162xxx - this would fit the year 2000 as well as the looks of the bike.


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## Gunk (19 May 2020)

If it’s a T3 @berlinonaut why is there a second gear shifter on the bars?


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## berlinonaut (19 May 2020)

Gunk said:


> If it’s a T3 @berlinonaut why is there a second gear shifter on the bars?


It isn't.  It looks like a comic version of Brompton's two-speed shifter, but the form is different as is the clamping. More importantly there is no cable leaving the "shifter"  so it cannot shift. Plus a year 2000 Brompton is lacking the little nut on the rear frame that is needed for the derailleur - it was only invented in 2002. The 3-speed hub should also still be the Sturmey 3AW which is unable to take two sprockets (at least from factory). I guess the thing on the bars may just be a bell.


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## Gunk (19 May 2020)

It’s the same as mine then, mine started life off as a 2001 T3.


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## berlinonaut (19 May 2020)

Gunk said:


> It’s the same as mine then, mine started life off as a 2001 T3.


Same same but different, as people say in Thailand.  To the innocent eye Bromptons look pretty identical since the invention of the Mk2 in 1987, but there has been a coninuous stream of small incremental changes each year (and sometimes more often) that sum up over time. And obviously some bikes have been modified and retrofitted. Regarding your bike: It has 2018 model brakes and a stem from a MK2 before 2000 and a right hand pedal and saddle with pentaclip after 2008, 3rd party brake levers and shifters from a model after 2005 and possibly a later, mate M bar as well as a relative new mudflap on the front-wheel and probably newer blades as well, also the seat post clamp got exchanged for the newer version from mid 2007 on - though the main frame may be a 2001 - so it is a little bastardized.  "started life off" is obviously true. Can't tell from the pics if the main frame really is a 2001, you would have to refer to the frame number to be safe. What I can safely say is that the main frame dates from before 2004. The Mk2 stem makes me a little suspicious that it may be a Mk2 by birth (Mk3 got invented in 2000 and the OPs bike clearly is a Mk3, completely original apart from the saddle and the thingy on the bars. The shifter looks a little bit like Sram, but this would not fit 2000 and is impossible to tell from the pic).

Regarding the shifting there was a break point between 2000 and 2002: In summer 2000 S/A went bankrupt, leaving Brompton with limited stock of hubs and no supplier. Stocks lasted until spring 2001 and just in time before running out of hubs Brompton managed to squeeze in the SRAM 3-speed hub into the rear frame replacing the S/A 3AW that was no longer available. Too bad that the Sachs/Sram 5-speed hub did not fit, so there was no replacement for the top notch model T5 that was using the S/A sprinter. That led to the development of the half-step 6-speed on the basis of the SRAM hub which was then invented in spring 2002 as L and T6. A tad earlier Brompton fitted the rear frames out with the nut that is necessary for the shifting mechanism - I guess towards the end of 2001. Your bike, being a (possibly late) 2001 possibly has it (or the rear frame got replaced at some point in time) or not whereas a 2000 model doesn't have it. Your's also may possibly have an S/A hub with an aluminium hubshell instead of the S/A 3AW with the steel hub shell or the Sachs hub (hard to safely detect from the pics, I may be wrong here) that replaced the 3-speed Sachs in 2005, so maybe a little bit more of bastardization. The 6-speed used the Sachs until early 2009 when it got replaced by the BWR.

As you can see: Changes over changes and tiny things like the nut sometimes make huge differences.


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## Gunk (19 May 2020)

Very interesting and informative @berlinonaut you're right about the modifications. Here is a photo of the frame number, I dated the bike to 2001, it’s a short wheelbase frame, I was pretty sure that it’s a Mk2


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## berlinonaut (19 May 2020)

Reads to me like "15109" which would mean Nov/Dez 1994 to Jan/Feb 1995. So a middle-age MK2 (neither an early one nor a late one).


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## Gunk (19 May 2020)

That’s much older than I thought, thanks for clarifying it for me!

I have tried very hard not to “bastardise” it, my goal was to try and preserve the integrity of the original bike by retaining the patina, but make it more useable and rideable, with exception of the Shimano levers all the improvements use genuine Brompton parts, the biggest improvements were fitting the later saddle, stronger M bars and 2018 brakes, the original Mk 2 brakes just don’t work!


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## 12boy (19 May 2020)

We been schooled, by golly.


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## roley poley (19 May 2020)

here is the page from David Henshaw" Brompton bicycle"


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## Skyway (19 May 2020)

berlinonaut said:


> Same same but different, as people say in Thailand.  To the innocent eye Bromptons look pretty identical since the invention of the Mk2 in 1987, but there has been a coninuous stream of small incremental changes each year (and sometimes more often) that sum up over time. And obviously some bikes have been modified and retrofitted. Regarding your bike: It has 2018 model brakes and a stem from a MK2 before 2000 and a right hand pedal and saddle with pentaclip after 2008, 3rd party brake levers and shifters from a model after 2005 and possibly a later, mate M bar as well as a relative new mudflap on the front-wheel and probably newer blades as well, also the seat post clamp got exchanged for the newer version from mid 2007 on - though the main frame may be a 2001 - so it is a little bastardized.  "started life off" is obviously true. Can't tell from the pics if the main frame really is a 2001, you would have to refer to the frame number to be safe. What I can safely say is that the main frame dates from before 2004. The Mk2 stem makes me a little suspicious that it may be a Mk2 by birth (Mk3 got invented in 2000 and the OPs bike clearly is a Mk3, completely original apart from the saddle and the thingy on the bars. The shifter looks a little bit like Sram, but this would not fit 2000 and is impossible to tell from the pic).
> 
> Regarding the shifting there was a break point between 2000 and 2002: In summer 2000 S/A went bankrupt, leaving Brompton with limited stock of hubs and no supplier. Stocks lasted until spring 2001 and just in time before running out of hubs Brompton managed to squeeze in the SRAM 3-speed hub into the rear frame replacing the S/A 3AW that was no longer available. Too bad that the Sachs/Sram 5-speed hub did not fit, so there was no replacement for the top notch model T5 that was using the S/A sprinter. That led to the development of the half-step 6-speed on the basis of the SRAM hub which was then invented in spring 2002 as L and T6. A tad earlier Brompton fitted the rear frames out with the nut that is necessary for the shifting mechanism - I guess towards the end of 2001. Your bike, being a (possibly late) 2001 possibly has it (or the rear frame got replaced at some point in time) or not whereas a 2000 model doesn't have it. Your's also may possibly have an S/A hub with an aluminium hubshell instead of the S/A 3AW with the steel hub shell or the Sachs hub (hard to safely detect from the pics, I may be wrong here) that replaced the 3-speed Sachs in 2005, so maybe a little bit more of bastardization. The 6-speed used the Sachs until early 2009 when it got replaced by the BWR.
> 
> As you can see: Changes over changes and tiny things like the nut sometimes make huge differences.


Well that’s very interesting you know what you talking about 
The thing on the Handel bars is a bell ha 
And 2000 year spot on I found out since


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