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Argyll

Basil’s Got a Brand-New Friend

His name is Argyll, and he’s an H6R Brompton.

Here he is, in the late afternoon, with Basil’s Mini-O bag on his luggage block.  (He’ll have one of his own soon enough, I expect).

Back in December, Dr. Diarist and I took a whirlwind trip to New York, and stopped in at NYCeWheels so that poor Dr. D, who had been chained to his desk just about 24/7 for the previous year,  could test ride a couple of Bromptons.

Yes, sad though it may seem, Dr. Diarist has never ridden Basil.  There was never a good moment, and, at this point, Basil is so completely identified with me (and his fittings scaled to me) that it was just never going to happen.  Happily, NYCeWheels always has a stable of Bs on hand for any similar situations.

That’s Dr. D above, on an M3R. He was dubious at first, and I briefly wondered if I’d been mistaken about how right a Brompton would be for him.

Then he tried an S type — he rides a mountain bike, and thought the straight bars might work for him — though he was pretty sure that he’d want to travel with a T bag, which the S type does not accommodate.  But the S set-up wasn’t right for him.

The he tried this M6R, and it was just right.  Dr. Diarist came back from this trial run grinning.  He loved the 6 speed gearing, and said that he couldn’t understand why anyone would settle for the three-speed hub when they could have the six.

In no time at all, we’d ordered his Brompton-to-be.  Argyll’s color scheme  — racing green frame, sage green extremities — had been previously debated, and then clinched when we saw a photo of a the same scheme on someone else’s B.

When it came time to pick up Argyll, we  had thought that we were on a tight schedule between trips, so Dr. Diarist made a quick one-day turn-around trip to New York to pick up Argyll.  Unfortunately, the only available time slot turned out to be another Snowmageddon day.

He and Argyll fought their way back to Penn Station, and then homeward through a paralyzed NYC and some pretty serious snow at home, too.

As it turned out, the expected upcoming trip was cancelled, so that unseemly haste turned out to be unnecessary.  We were just as happy to have Argyll home, but as a result of the rather sketchy adventures on the day in question we don’t have any good pictures of Argyll’s arrival. We did manage the above shot of how he looked right after he got here.  Immediately after, though, everyone was busy brushing snow off both Argyll and Dr. Diarist.

Here he is, later, a lot less snowy. And drier.

One of the coat closets has now been appropriated as a full-on Brompton Garage.  Basil and Argyll fit quite nicely, along with cycling garments, helmets, and the expanding collection of Brompton bags (which are above, on a high, dark, shelf).

Argyll arrived nearly a month earlier than expected (!), which meant that his own saddle bag is still in the works.  The fit in the garage will be a little chummier once he’s wearing his, but I don’t think either one of them will mind.

Indoors or out, two Bromptons make a very compact package.  None of us are really cycling yet — un-iced and un-snowy blacktop is quite the rarity around here these days — but all four of us are ready to go.  It’s already pretty cool to be a two Brompton family.

9 replies on “Basil’s Got a Brand-New Friend”

Congrats to the two of you (for so many things). Looking forward to lots of news/reviews/creativity/action/etc.

Inspirational post. I’m considering getting a new Brompton (probably in cobalt blue and white but not sure) so that I can pass on my red/black on to the other half, so we are both able to put the Bromptons in the back of the Yaris and take off together.

Hi, Will B! What an excellent plan: We’re riding much more together now that we both have Bromptons. (By the way, we’re putting ours in the back of a Toyota Echo, the precoursor to the Yaris. It’s lovely to be able to get them both into such a small car!)

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