Not Just for City Slickers: The Professor Who Takes Her Brompton Everywhere

Last week's newsletter was about the Brompton World Championship, and I asked how fast you can actually go on a folding bike. A reply landed from Wellington, New Zealand, answering a much better question — not how fast can a Brompton go, but what can you do on one?

"An awful lot!"

That's Annemarie Jutel. She's a professor emerita at Victoria University of Wellington, a registered nurse, and the owner of three bikes: a Santa Cruz Highball, a vintage Specialized Stumpjumper, and a Brompton. When she first wrote to me back in June, she signed off with a challenge: "Guess which one I prefer."

You can probably guess. But I don't think you'd guess what she does with it.

The bike, for the record: a Lagoon Blue M6R — the standard six-speed with a rack and mudguards, what Brompton would now call a C Line Explore. Not a special edition. Not modified. That's rather the point.

A Brompton in the mud

"Lost somewhere in the moors near Exeter" — IMAGE: ANNEMARIE JUTEL

That's her Brompton, axle-deep in an English bridleway. In her words:

"Below you've got a picture of my Brompton, lost somewhere in the moors near Exeter. You can see what I was riding on. I am not sure I would recommend riding in ankle-deep mud, but it can be done! (Oh, and it should be said that I was keeping up with a young man 20 years my junior who was on a hard tail mountain bike.)"

Wellington is too hilly for her to commute on the Brompton — "just too hard a slog" — so at home it's the mountain bikes. But she's tested the Brompton on grade 3 singletrack in the hills above the city anyway, just to see. Her verdict: grade 3 is fine. "Grade 4 might be a big ask."

A Brompton up an Alpine pass

The Col du Cucheron, 1,140m, in the Chartreuse — IMAGE: ANNEMARIE JUTEL

She mentioned this one almost in passing: "Here I am, however, at the top of a category 2 climb."

That sign says Col du Cucheron — a proper Alpine pass in the Chartreuse massif in France, one that turns up in the Tour de France and the Critérium du Dauphiné. People train for months to get over it on carbon road bikes. She did it on a six-speed folding bike with 16-inch wheels and a luggage rack.

Fly, land, unfold, ride

Here's the part that has properly stuck with me. The Brompton is her travel bike, and her system is beautifully simple: carry-on clothes only, bike in the baggage hold.

"The exciting thing, which is possible at some airports, is when you just take your bike out of its bag, strap the carry-on bag on the baggage rack, and bike away. You can do that at LAX, in Sydney, in Wellington, and sort of at SFO (you have to take the BART part of the way)."

Think about that for a second. No taxi queue, no rental desk, no airport bus. You land on the other side of the world, unfold your own bike at the kerb, and pedal off into a new city with everything you need strapped to the rack.

Her one complaint is aimed at us Brits: "London would be possible, except that there are lots of signs that say 'bikes not allowed in the underpasses'. I don't understand why, or rather, why not."

Heathrow, take note.

Not just for suits and ties

Cross-country in New Zealand — IMAGE: ANNEMARIE JUTEL

The Brompton's image problem, if it has one, is that it's seen as a commuter appliance — a clever briefcase for people in suits. Annemarie's take:

"The Brompton is not just for suits and ties and high heeled shoes. It's a good bike for lots of stuff. And, it's not just for young men with beefy thighs and neckties. There are some bad ass women out there too."

The fold has other uses: over the stile and on your way — IMAGE: ANNEMARIE JUTEL

And that's really the point of sharing this. A Brompton will do the station run and the office lift, of course. But the same fold that gets it under your desk also gets it into an overhead locker, over a farm stile, and onto the summit of an Alpine col. It's not a compromise bike. It's a passport.

See Brompton →

If you're wondering how much speed you actually give up on small wheels, I crunched the numbers in How Fast Are Folding Bikes Really? And if Annemarie's adventures have you eyeing up the daftest race in cycling, there's always the Brompton World Championship.

Got a bike story of your own? Reply to any of my newsletters or email me — the unlikelier, the better. Some of the best things on this site started as a reader hitting reply.