So I found the other Brompton! (See this link for background on why this is a big deal.) I saw it yesterday parked (poor thing) near a bench, but did not have my camera, and I was hosting the colloquium speaker (Chetan Nayak….he came to give that colloquium I saw him give in Aspen, which I described in some detail here) and so it would have looked a bit odd to have run screaming back to my office to get my camera (I’ve been carrying it every day since the last sighting, except yesterday of course).
But then I was walking along in the middle of a telephone conversation on campus today and it (with rider) went right by me! So I ran and caught up with them. I did not ask all those questions for which I wanted to know the answer, for the rider clearly already thought that I was a nut…..especially when I took a picture of her on it. Anyway, I realised from yesterday’s glance at the colour and frame details (and confirmed by asking) that it is an older model from the “Hong Kong” experiment when Brompton briefly experimented with having some made by another complany under license in Asia. As you can see it does not have the clever detachable tote-bag or attache case carrying system, for example, but she’s got a basket on it that seems to work. It looks great, though given its age. She’s had it for six years and brought it with her to study here (fine arts, I think). I told her about the blog so maybe she’ll show up and see her bike in lights!
-cvj
October 4th, 2005 at 11:18 pm
Sorry, but it doesnt look like a *real* bike. Wheels are too small!
October 4th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
Hey, she is smiling!
But I will now get out of the way before Clifford reads the previous comment…
October 4th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
I’ve donned my amor! It might be OK for the flat terrain of LA, but I don’t see how it can handle the hills of Northern California.
October 5th, 2005 at 12:01 am
That’s great that you found the person. I’d have thought you were a nut, too. Though every time I see ANY bike on campus when I’m reading my own, I think about your post.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:24 am
JoAnne: I refer you to my comments 9, 12 and 25 in the discussion thread of this post. And some other comments there from others have useful information too. You can take off the armour….must be awfully warm wearing it for so long!…
Moshe: She might be doing that very convincing “you scare me, please go away now” smile so common in parts of the USA.
-cvj
October 5th, 2005 at 2:07 am
Ha, now I wish I could’ve worked that bike into the article somehow.
Watch out for it tomorrow! I have to warn you, though, I don’t know what kind of editing job they did on it…
October 5th, 2005 at 2:13 am
Hi Diya! Welcome! Stay a while and come back often. Ah, the article. I think it is on the website, but I’ll look more closely tomorrow. Now that its existence has been revealed I guess I’ll have to do a post about it. About the bike: The photographer took a ton of me with the bike too, so you could do a follow-up on alternative means of tranport to campus maybe (profs and students alike)….? It is an important issue.
Cheers,
-cvj