I rode my Brompton to the machine shop today. Michel, Sulaiman, and I were doing a non-invasive teardown analysis of it. The final conclusion is something like

It is an elegant design that has clearly been refined over many years. Almost every detail and part on the bike appears to be a bespoke design from Brompton’s factory in the UK. So while it works very nicely today, if anything ever were to break on the bike during a long ride, bar one or two M3 cap bolts , there is almost no chance of finding a spare unless you find yourself outside a Brompton Service Center.

It is a nice little minimalist bike. The 5pm ride home from the workshop was a bit rude from sun and hills, but a few stand-ups on the grades had me home in reasonable time.