Loading Up A Brompton Bike For Touring

We recently received an email from Peter, who wanted to tell us about his 3 week trip around Europe on a Brompton folding bike.

Peter especially wanted to share his touring set up on the Brompton. He pointed out that it’s possible to carry a lot of luggage on this little bike, with no modifications.

Brompton Folding BikePhoto by Peter Provaznik

I carried around 40 pounds (20kg) on it: half of that was in my waterproof front bag (including heavy camera gear) and the other 20 pounds was on my rear carrier (tent, sleeping bag, Exped Synmat) in a drybag. It travelled very well!

The front bag on Peter’s bike is sitting in a standard Brompton folding basket and the dry bag on the back is held tight with straps.

This touring setup may not be for everyone, but it’s great if you want to combine bike riding with public transport. It gives you all the freedom of bike touring and all the flexibility of being able to easily hop on a train, bus or boat if you want to skip ahead a few kilometers.

As Peter’s experience shows, you can even take your bike to the dining car of the train for a nice meal!

brompton in train dining carPhoto by Peter Provaznik