Why a Folding Bike Beats a Regular Bike for Commuting

A London commuter reflects on 11 years with a Brompton folding bike, framing it as a piece of personal infrastructure he wishes he’d adopted decades earlier. The bike lives in his study rather than a shed, weighs around 12kg, folds to suitcase size for trains and car boots, and can be carried into offices or cafes — sidestepping the bolt-cutter-equipped bike thieves endemic to London. Puncture-proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres have eliminated flats entirely, and after a decade of use the original frame, wheels, and gears are still intact with only minor cable replacements.

The economics are straightforward where station parking is expensive: at £10/day parking versus £1400 for a new Brompton, the bike pays for itself in roughly 140 commuting days, before accounting for pre-tax purchase schemes or saved transit fares. The author also recommends the Cycle Streets app, which uses OpenStreetMap data to route riders along quieter streets — addressing the most common objection to urban cycling.