Brompton x CHPT3 limited edition adds urban cool to the ultimate commuter bike

Team up with CHPT3 means the well-heeled commuter's favourite fold-up bike is now certified fresh

Brompton CHPT3
Duncan Bell
By Duncan Bell
published

Brompton bikes (and e-bikes!) are a great British success story and a terrific feat of engineering. They're beloved of commuters for the way they are a compact, folded, easy to push, pull and carry package when they're on the train. Then, when the final leg of the commute arrives, they transform into something that in many ways is quite like a bike: nippy, robust and only slightly weird looking.

What they never have been, to date, is cool. However, this limited-edition team-up with Rapha-rivalling cycle lifestyle swank vendors CHPT3, that could all change.

Founded in 2014 by former pro rider David Millar, CHPT3 makes edgy, on-trend cycle wear in Italy, and is a serial teamer-upper with other brands from POC to Brompton. The Brompton x CHPT3 limited edition remakes the fold-up classic with weight reduction very much in mind, creating a bike that weighs just 10.3kg.  

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Some attractive photography of cool people on the Brompton x CHPT3

This is largely achieved by the use of titanium for the rear frame and forks. Its textured, matt black finish complements the fire red front frame nicely, along with mainly black components, Schwalbe One tan-wall tyres and Fabric Scoop saddle, which bears the Devesa print pattern of CHPT3’s home town of Girona. 

All parts have been 'selected for performance and lightness, yet durable and comfortable for day to day city riding and carving out new routes,' while the extra firm suspension has been 'race-tuned by David Millar himself.' 

The CHPT3 model Brompton is actually the second collab between the brands, and   'maintains the aesthetic of the original,' while 'amplifying the tone, evolving the design concept beyond.' Uh-huh. It is, 'a stripped-down, distilled Brompton, staying true to the original concept; dynamic, useable but eminently rideable.'

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Just look at this list of original features in the CHPT3 Brommer…


Machined hinge clamps! Machine seat-post QR! Fabric Scoop! Ti railed saddle with Devesa print! Fabric slim dual texture kraton rubber grips! Schwalbe One 35mm tyres!

Unlike  standard Bromptons, the CHPT3 comes with S-type handlebars only, and a 6-speed gear hub only. 

• Price: £1,990, the initial production run is limited to 1,000 bikes., so get your pre-order in at Cycle Surgery now…

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Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."


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