Martha

As we dig ourselves out of our latest Minnesota April snowstorm, we are looking forward to warmer weather and a pair of great events this weekend.

Tiny Bike Shop Concert

Join us Friday night at the shop for a Tiny Bike Shop Concert featuring FREE live music by The Decayed Realms, “an electronic rock duo from Minnesota comprised of Victoria Malawey and Brandon Patrick Sullivan. Their combination of live-performed melody and percussion create a big sound, with wordless narratives ranging from the slow and pensive to the cinematic and intense.”

WHERE Perennial Cycle, 3342 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408

WHEN Friday, April 20, 6:30 to 9 pm

WHO Music by the Decayed Realms + Special Guests from Thousand Helmets, Handsome Cycles, Banjo Brothers bags, and #30daysofbiking.

TICKETS Register for FREE at EventBrite

Once you’ve pre-registered via EventBrite, if you’re one of the first 25 guests to arrive for Friday’s show you’ll receive a special swag bag from Perennial Cycle and our event partners! These bags are only available to ticketed guests, and your ticket also gets you an extra entry into our prize drawing for gear from Thousand, Handsome, the Banjo Brothers, and more! There’ll be be plenty of ways to get extra entries into the prize drawing — your participation in any of the activities going on in the shop gets you an extra ticket:

• Photo booth with Gloria from Thousand Helmets

• Test rides with Handsome Cycles’s Jesse

• Spin the Brompton Wheel of Misfortune with Banjo Mike & Eric

• Blackout Poetry with Patrick from #30DOB and Allison from the Perennial family

• Live T-Shirt Screen Printing with Sofie from Perennial **BRING YOUR OWN SHIRT (or another printable object)!**

• Acupuncture with Katherine from Diamond Stone Oriental Medicine

If you’ve been on a Perennial Cycle #pastryride before, you may already know Victoria and Brandon, whether you’ve met them as ride marshals checking you in for a ride or you even caught their performance on wheels! If you missed it, not to worry. It has been recorded in the annals of YouTube:

Pastries and Portraits Ride

After a good night’s sleep, join us again Saturday morning at the shop for a special edition of our April #30daysofbiking Pastry Rides. Ride your bike with us to a local bakery, coffee shop, or other destination and enjoy pastries, coffee, and a raffle with sweet prizes. The April 21st ride is proudly sponsored by Thousand Helmets and Banjo Brothers, and will feature a portrait session so you can get a sweet photo with your bike.

WHERE Start @ Perennial Cycle… end at a delicious mystery destination!

WHEN Saturday, April 21, 9am meetup, 9:30 departure

WHO Special Guests from Thousand Helmets and Banjo Brothers bags and a professional photographer will be on hand to take portraits of riders at our destination

RSVP Make sure we have a pastry on hand for you by letting us know you’re “going” on Facebook

*UPDATE* While this blogpost has great info, there's a 2nd Version of the CHPT3 and we have a post about the updated CHPT3 HERE

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One of the most exciting collaborations from Brompton since they began partnering with designers in the early 2010s, the Brompton CHPT3 edition is one sweet ride. If you follow Brompton on Instagram, you’ve likely drooled over it more than once! The bike design combines retired professional cyclist David Millar’s design vision with the beauty of Brompton’s compact folder. After retirement in 2014, Millar formed the CHPT3 brand with collaborator and architect/designer Richard Pearce. Together, they have created bike apparel, accessories, and complete builds with top cycling brands like Castelli, Brooks, Factor, POC, and now Brompton. Here’s Millar, pictured with his CHPT3 edition in London:

Model Type

The CHPT3 edition is only available as an S2E-X or an S6E-X. This translates to an S Type handlebar for a sporty, more aggressive riding position like that of a road bike. The choice of 2 or 6 speeds allows for either an ultralight weight choice (2 speeds) or the more versatile (if a bit heavier) 6 speeds. Spec’d as a version E, the CHPT3 edition does not come with mudguards, but these can be added at the discretion of the buyer. About half of our CHPT3 customers thus far have opted to add Brompton’s black mudguards for practicality’s sake. Lastly, the X indicates both the S2 and the S6 models feature titanium extremities. Those familiar with the typical look of a Brompton superlight may wonder why the bike doesn’t *look* like it has a Ti fork and rear triangle. The reason? For the first time, Brompton has painted these titanium frame parts in a matte black finish.

• S Type handle bars

• 6 speed gearing

• No mudguard or rack (to reduce weight)

• Painted Titanium front fork and rear triangle in black

• Custom Red & Black Cambium C17 saddle

• Red Ergon GA2 grips

• Special edition main-frame colors, sparkle grey and fire red

• Black steel handlebar post

• Black edition components

• Firm suspension block

• Custom Tan wall Schwalbe Kojak Tyres

As anyone who has waited for a B-Spoke or custom ordered Brompton can attest, every Brompton is special. Whether you purchased your bike off the shelf at a dealer like Perennial Cycle, ordered it online at PerennialCycle.com, or developed your own special configuration in the Brompton Bike Builder, your bike was spec’d and assembled part-by-part with the help of many individual eyes and hands. Knowing this, what makes a Brompton Special Edition, well… especially special?

Often, a special edition means a partnership with a particular company or designer — that’s how Brompton’s first collaboration came about, when the company joined forces with Tom Dixon in 2010 to create a very limited number of prototypes (more on that below). Many designers have put their mark on Brompton since. On other occasions, Brompton has released limited editions in honor of a specific event or person as they did with the Royal Wedding Brompton in 2011, the first edition with a significant production run made available to a wider market, and the Jubilee Brompton in 2012. In the mid-2000s, Brompton also started a series of editions made to capture the essence of the world’s great cities. After the London Brompton in 2012 and the Barcelona Brompton in 2013, the New York City Brompton arrived last year.

In addition to the NYC Edition, Brompton released multiple special edition bikes and design collaborations in 2017, including a return of the Black Edition and the Nickel Edition. At the close of the year, a fourth run of Black Editions was announced for 2018. As in prior years, a handful of colors are available in select specs. Along with Orange and Black, Turkish Green is back (see below right), and a new Black Lacquer finish is available (below left).

Perennial Cycle has multiple new Black Edition bikes in stock for the new year. We are working to list all incoming bikes in our online shop ASAP! Plus, a few Nickel Edition bikes remain from 2017 and are freshly marked down. There’s even one last 2016 Black Edition bike available at a great bargain.

We are also excited to share that we expect a small number of additional CHPT3 Edition Bromptons to arrive this spring, and we still have one 2017 S6E-X in stock and ready to ship or pick up in-store — though who knows how long it will last!

For more details on the Brompton Special Edition bikes, read on.

Brompton differentiates between Special Editions and Collaborations, mainly because not all collaborations lead to a bicycle. Brompton has developed bags and other accessories with like-minded brands and designers on several occasions, including the Game Bag, a collaboration with Chapman bags. And of course, as noted above, a special edition bike is sometimes the fruit of a collaboration with an outside designer or design team — but not always! We’ve put together a comprehensive look at Brompton Special and Limited Edition bikes and Design Collaborations from 2010 through the close of 2017. If you’re new to Brompton, this will be a step into history. If you’re a long-time fan, consider this a trip down memory lane.

2010

Our timeline begins with Brompton’s collaboration with British designer Tom Dixon. Today, Dixon is known for his lighting designs incorporating reflective surfaces in copper and brass (Minneapolis diners will recognize his work at restaurants like The Bachelor Farmer), so it’s not surprising that Dixon’s take on the Brompton involved a special process of copper plating the bike’s frame. While it never actually produced the bike for the public, Brompton created a small number of prototypes, one of which was displayed at Dixon’s booth as a part of London Design Week 2010. In addition to copper plating, accomplished with a base nickel plating and a finishing touch of an electrophoretic lacquer coating, the prototypes featured Brooks saddles but otherwise varied in specification. The bike pictured in the timeline here is an S2E with a green Brooks saddle and grips. The actual bike suspended above Dixon’s booth in 2010 was even more basic, an M1E fitted with Eazy Wheels and a Brooks B17 Special in honey.

2011

After the Tom Dixon collaboration, Brompton released its first Special Edition in commemoration of the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, who wed on April 29, 2011. Dubbed The British Royal Wedding Brompton, the bike was released in an edition of 300 in 2011 only in East Asian markets. As you can see in our timeline, the bike was an M3L in “Sake White” with special decals featuring William and Catherine’s names as well as their wedding date. A Brooks B17 Special in antique brown and an S Bag with a specially designed, hand-sewn Crown Flap for the occasion finished the look. The S Bag flap featured Prince of Wales check woven from UK-sourced wool.

2012

The year 2012 brought the Jubilee Brompton in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee (the June 2012 celebration of 60 years as queen) and the London Brompton, a collaboration with designer and illustrator Vic Lee. Together, these bikes were the first two Limited Edition Brompton bicycles to be released at the global level. Each was limited to 500. As my time at Perennial Cycle began in 2012, I remember when we sold our last Vic Lee and a few Jubilee Bromptons! The Jubilee bike was a classic M3L in the colors of the Union Jack and the London Brompton featured Vic Lee’s illustrations in white on an all-black S2L. The Vic Lee shipped with a numbered print, also by the artist, and a custom S Bag with a flap featuring his designs. Similar to the Royal Wedding Brompton, the Jubilee Brompton’s S Bag flap used materials from the UK and a Union Jack design.

2013

In 2013 Brompton added a second city-themed bike to its Limited Edition collection with the Barcelona Brompton, designed in collaboration with multidisciplinary designer David Torrents. The release was limited to 400 S6Ls, each fitted with a matching S Bag, a custom orange Brompton saddle, blue Brompton grips, and custom orange mudguards. Torrents writes that he based the bike’s design concept “on something that is part of the city’s anatomy: the grid of the Eixample district. Eixample is a transitional area between the old Barcelona and its former surrounding towns. Barcelonans are very proud of this district, where aesthetics and functionality meet.”

2014

For 2014, Brompton created limited edition bikes available only through its “Pop-up Factory” at The London Design Festival 2014. Each bike was unique as shoppers were able to choose from five frame colors rather than the usual limit of two. Brompton even released a limited number of colors just for the show, including gold and grey (now a regular part of the color palette). 2014 was also the year Brompton joined forces with Chapman Bags to develop the Game Bag, now a regular part of the bag line-up, and a series of leather goods with luxury British leather good manufacturer Ettinger made available through Brompton Junction shops.

2015

As for 2015, the release of the very first Black Edition, detailed on the Shopcast in the run-up to the release, may have kept the Brompton factory a bit too busy for many other releases, save for their collaboration with London design duo Thornback & Peel on a series of hand-printed handkerchiefs featuring illustrations of Brompton bikes.

2016

Brompton “upped the swag factor,” as Momentum Magazine put it at the time, with the launch of the Nickel Edition in 2016. The same year, Brompton marked the occasion of Brooks Endland’s 150th anniversary with the production of 150 Brompton x Brooks Limited Edition bikes. These were available only through Brompton Junction stores and the Brooks B1866 London shop. Another rather limited edition from 2016 was the Brompton World Championship bike, an S6L from a run of only a few hundred bikes sold exclusively through Evans Cycles in the UK and select additional shops.

Branching beyond their UK neighbors, Brompton began another collaboration with Korea-based Line Friends with the release of 50 Line Friends “Brown” Brompton bikes in South Korea. The partnership was so successful that the companies came together again in 2017 for a larger production of the Line Friends “Sally” Brompton in a greater number of markets.

2017

When it comes to special edition bikes, 2017 was the biggest year yet. Brompton launched a new addition to the City Series, the New York City Edition, and celebrated the opening of Brompton Junction Amsterdam with the Nine Streets or “De 9 Straatjes” Edition. A new crop of Nickel Edition bikes arrived along with the 2017 Black Edition, and Brompton teamed up with Barbour, CHPT3, Line Friends, The Cambridge Satchel Company, and Vespertine to develop not just bikes but front bags, apparel, and other accessories. Brompton even opened a Brompton Café at Rough Trade NYC.

• Brompton x Vespertine New York City Edition, limited run of 1500 (we are SOLD OUT of bikes but still have shoelaces, scarves, and hats)

• Nine Streets “De 9 Straatjes” Edition, available exclusively through Brompton Junction Amsterdam

• Brompton x Barbour Limited Edition (we are SOLD OUT of bikes, but still have the Merton Jacket available in a range of sizes.)

• Brompton x CHPT3 Limited Edition, initial run of 500 (we have one S6E-X in stock and ready to ship as of 22 Jan. 2018)

• Brompton x Cambridge Satchel Co. Edition (we are SOLD OUT of bikes but still have Cambridge Satchels available in a range of colors.)

• Brompton x Line Friends “Sally” Edition, available in Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and New York City’s Line Friends store

We are now accepting pre-orders for the Brompton Black Edition 2015.

Announced today, Brompton's new Black Edition 2015 collection features Brompton folding bikes with all black key components for the first time. The arrival of the limited edition —just 5,000 Black Edition bikes will ship to dealers worldwide this spring— comes with much anticipation after years of interest in the possibility of an all-black Brompton. Brompton Black Edition bikes are only available in select customizable options, based around five main frame colors: Black, White, Lime Green, Berry Crush and Lagoon Blue. We've ordered a great group of S2L, S6L, M2L, M6L, and H6L bikes for you to choose from. And, as per usual, we are happy to help you personalize the bike of your choice prior to shipping or riding home. See the complete selection of bikes available for shipment beginning April 2015 here.

Customize your Black Edition bike spec at Perennial Cycle:

• HANDLEBARS: H, M, S Types
• GEARING: All bikes shipped from Brompton with 2 and 6 speed standard ratio drivetrains. We have developed a custom black anodized Brompton chainring and guard in-house to allow you to change your order to match your preferred gearing choice, including 7% reduced on all 2-speeds and 12% reduced on all 6-speeds. This option is available for just $60 with the purchase of a new bike and as a spare part for $99.97 at PerennialCycle.com. For information about Brompton's gear ranges and ratios, click here.
• VERSION: All Black Editions will be assembled at the Brompton factory with Brompton's Black L-version mudguards. If you'd like to add a Brompton or Nitto rack to your bike prior to shipping to your door (or taking it home for our local customers), we're happy to make that happen. When ordering online, simply select the rack of your choice under the "rear luggage" option, or choose none to stick with mudguards only.
• COLORS: Frame extremities including the stem riser, rear triangle, and front fork are black on all Black Edition bikes. Mainframe options are Black*, White*, Berry Crush, Lime Green and Lagoon Blue. As with standard Brompton orders, *Black and White frames are surcharge free colors. Base prices for each bike available for pre-order are listed at PerennialCycle.com. There is no surcharge on Black Edition bikes, all are priced at standard 2015 pricing.
• SEATPOST: choice is available as usual – standard, extended and telescopic all in black, of course! We have ordered bikes with both standard and telescopic seatposts to accommodate riders of all heights and offer the most compact fold. If you'd prefer an extended post, please contact us.
• SADDLES: All Brompton Black Edition bikes come with a standard Brompton rail saddle with special edition black rails. If you'd like to add a Brooks saddle to your order, we recommend the Black B17 Special for men or the Black Team Pro S Special for women. Both feature hand-pounded copper rivets and saddle bag loops. Several saddle choices are offered in each bike listing. If you don't find the saddle you'd like in the drop-down menu, simply add it to your cart as a separate item.
• LIGHTING: Black Edition bikes are assembled with reflectors only, but as the bikes all include standard Brompton front wheels with silver rims and spokes, we can easily change out the front wheel to help you upgrade the bike of your choice to dynamo lighting. We are offering 3 packages with Black Edition bikes:
  • Brompton's standard Shimano set-up with a B&M Lyt in front and a Brompton light in rear
  • Brompton's standard SON set-up with a B&M Cyo in front and a Brompton light in rear.
  • A special SON XS Black Edition dynamo package including a SON XS front wheel with a black and silver SON XS for Brompton hub — built with silver straight-pull spokes by expert SON wheelbuilders, a Black anodized Edelux II headlight, and a black SON taillight, installed for $675.00.
• QUESTIONS? For more information, please call 612-827-8000.

Black Edition components:

The following components are supplied in black as part of the Brompton Black Edition bike:

• Handlebars
• Headset
• Crankset
• Pedals
• Seatpost
• Saddle rails (Brompton standard rail saddle)
• Pentaclip
• Fenders
• Hinge clamps
• Brake levers
• Brake calipers