Several weeks on a 6-speed Brompton C-Line

I bought a six-speed Brompton C-Line several weeks ago, replacing a Zizzo Forté. I like having a non-electric "get around" bike, and I like having a folding bike for camping trips or flexible city travel. The Zizzo was fine, but a little creaky for my tastes, with an ungainly fold.

I bought the Brompton on the strength of a good test ride that told me it'd be fine for my purposes: Steel frame, interesting suspension, decent gearing, and surprisingly comfortable geometry. I was imagining round trips of six or seven miles within my part of town, and the occasional slightly longer one-way to get picked up in a car or with a train ride at the end. The one addition I've made so far is a Brooks C-17 saddle.

Last weekend we needed to get Al a new bike lock, so we rode from Lents to River City Bikes on MLK, taking the Springwater. At 20+ miles round trip, that's way longer than I was imagining when I bought the bike, but I wanted to see how it felt. When I first started bicycling a lot 13 or 14 years ago, I couldn't do that round trip more than two or three times a week. Last week's trip was great. I couldn't really tell I'd ridden that distance when it was over.

This week I went on about as ambitious a trip with it as last week's, taking it up to Bye and Bye on Alberta, which is just under 9 miles away, including a brief but steep slog up the Alameda Ridge. That was also pretty comfortable. I record my rides on a Garmin watch, and that told me I never really left zone 2, but finished the trip up there 20 minutes faster than the Beeline predicted I'd need.

The Springwater Trail is pretty smooth and level, so my trip downtown didn't feel like a huge test. The ride up to Alberta is much less level and a lot of the streets are pretty bumpy. The steel frame and suspension handled most of that. Though the 16" Schwalbe Racers are heavy and introduce some rolling resistance, it felt easy to get up to a decent cruising speed and hold it. The slog up the Alameda Ridge wasn't too bad—the gearing is fine—but it was the one time my heart rate edged up to zone 3.  The Brooks saddle feels great, too. I sort of feel like I've joined a cult with that thing.

I think, based on that ride, that I will probably swap out the Racers for some Contact Urbans, which are supposed to be a little more plush and a little more fast without losing noticeable puncture resistance. Next weekend I'm also taking it in to have a dynamo hub and lights installed in time for winter riding. I'm on the fence about adding a rear rack. That's supposed to make it more rollable when it is folded up, but I'm not sure if adding a MIK plate would affect that rollability. 

Which is all to say that I bought the thing for a narrow but common use case—jaunts across one or two neighborhoods—and I'm finding it very capable as a plain old utility acoustic with cross-town reach.  If I'm comfortably and happily taking it across town without feeling like it's gassing me out or making me uncomfortable, then I can set aside the vague idea I had that I might like to go find a steel hybrid or gravel bike. 

I also need to go look up a friend who was on the Brompton bandwagon over a decade ago. It never made sense to me just looking at it. Now that I've put a bunch of miles on mine, I get it.