All Mix Blog

M&I visited Brompton 's factory in Brentford on a beautiful spring afternoon a couple of weeks ago. We were shown around by a welcoming Swedish lady and given a great insight into the working process behind the classic folding bicycles it produces. During our turn around the factory we met Alan, an engaging gentleman who is in charge of goods and quality control. Over the course of ten minutes, Alan showed us various testing methods and told us about his love for Brompton's designs. Below is the transcription of our chat. On Testing "We take various measurements - how far it moves sideways, length, roll... all sorts. It takes half an hour or more on this. And on this (new machine, pictured above) it takes 4-5 minutes. All the measurements get logged by the computer. We aim to do one in fifty (tests) on each part. We’re after a very accurate measurement. On an ordinary bike, if your alignment is 2-5mm, it’s not too bad. What a big bike business will do is bend it to put...

A very brief post to document the understated documentation that came with a recently purchased Brompton. There are plans for a M&I field trip to the Brompton factory premises in 2011. We see that Will Self has already visited .

Nice interview with Sir Paul Smith by Simon Usborne in The Independent on Monday. Here's a small extract: "I look at this bike (a Mercian) and see something that was handmade in England by a small business," Smith says. "And that's something I mourn – the fact that there are now so few small companies like that. I worry about the pressure young people feel to earn a certain amount of money or to achieve a certain status. To be a stonemason and only to carve as much stone as your hands can manage isn't attractive anymore." Image of early 1980s Mercian catalogue cover from Chris 531 on Flickr

A real treat courtesy of Mr. Joe Hall at Rapha here . He visited Burfields Glove Factory in Martock, Somerset and has produced an informative piece on his findings. Photo courtesy of Kasper Daems/Joe Hall

Stratford upon Avon's finest bicycle manufacturer, Pashley , is celebrating the coming of spring by offering its classic Princess model in three new colours. In a nod to the company's manufacturing process taking place in the UK, the Brittania bicycle range comes in red, white or blue. We plumped for the red to match the masthead, obviously.

'Dan Rudge built the first Rudge High bicycles in 1870. In 1894 it merged with the Whitworth Cycle Co to form Rudge-Whitworth. They made an excellent reputation for themselves over the next twenty years for producing a full range of beautifully made machines with many clever and unique features and ridden by King George V and family. Their road racers were widely used and they diversified into motorcycles in the early 20th century. In 1935 they were bought by EMI (the record company) and under Jack Lauterwasser¹s direction produced some superb top end racers as well as more mundane machines. EMI however soon decided that cycles were not for them and Rudge was sold to Raleigh in 1943. Raleigh had acquired Humber in 1933 and were to acquire many others after WWII and soon used the Rudge name to badge engineer what were essentially Raleigh machines with Rudge pattern fork crown and chainwheel. Hence there were Rudge versions of the Lenton and of the Clubmen. The name was finally kille...

South Londoner James Bowthorpe cycled around the world last year. He completed the 18,000 mile ride across 20 countries in less than six months, beating the world record by 20 days. He also raised a sizeable amount of money for What’s Driving Parkinson’s, a research clinic at King’s College Hospital in London in the process. Obviously, cycling over 100 miles a day for half a year requires a quality saddle so it was no surprise to read this in The Financial Times (Weekend of 19/20th September 2009): 'I'm sitting on a Brooks saddle that I have had for about 10 years. If you have time to wear one in and are prepared to do a minimum of upkeep (rubbing in a spot of dubbin every now and then) they're unbeatable.' Image from the fantastic website of Mr. Jim Langley (although we do advise readers to turn the volume down when visiting).

We were delighted to see that the esteemed cycling magazine, Rouleur, recently visited tube manufacturer Reynolds. In an article that spans fourteen pages, Guy Andrews reveals a great deal on the company's history and manufacturing process. The birth of Reynolds stems back to 1841 when Mr. John Reynolds started out as a nail manufacturer in Birmingham. By 1898 the predecessor to today's bicycle tubing company was formed, The Patent Butted Tube Co., Ltd. During the second World War Reynolds made tubes for Spitfire fuselages and employed more than 2,000 people. The 531 steel tube set, first produced in 1935, is still being made today. Keith Noronha, managing director of Reynolds, reveals how the quality of tubing being produced today by the company is directly related to the power of the factory's equipment which was developed in the 1960s. 'We're lucky to have the background and the hardware - we're very pleased that one worked out,' he tells Andrews. Click o...

We highly recommend this short documentary on the manufacture of Brooks saddles. Founded in 1866 in Smethwick, Birmingham, the company embodies everything that we are looking for in the subjects of M&I. Having registered their first patent in 1882, the product remains nearly identical today - the B17 saddle was first produced in 1898 and is still available 111 years later. Eric Murray, an expert chamferer at the factory, believes the manufacturing process will remain, 'I presume it will always be the same, it's the way it goes.' Thank you to Anothersomething for bringing this video to our attention.