There’s more chance you’ll know Scottish company Kinetics as a Brompton Lover than a recumbent enthusiast. Kinetics is a Glasgow-based one-man company with the driving force of Ben Cooper. Ben is best known for his rebuilds of legendary Brompton folding bikes, which through his skill gain larger diameter wheels, internal Rohloff or Pinion gearboxes, disc brakes, mountain bike capability etc. He sends his kits all over the world, and his work in this regard is really famous. Ben is also a recumbent dealer, selling mainly HP Velotechnik but also HASE and ICE trikes. Occasionally he will build a trike tandem he calles Duplex, which is very unique.
But today I’d like to take a sneak peek at his latest development, which involves recumbent bikes. He actually combines his two favorite types of bikes. Recumbent bikes and folding bikes. Yes, it’s a prototype kit that will make the Brompton an extremely compact recumbent bike. This idea is not entirely new, Juliane Neuß from Germany has already offered a similar kit. However, in her case it was rear wheel drive and not MBB FWD (Moving Bottom Bracket Front Wheel Drive) style as Ben has it. Ben expects to start offering the kit for sale once he has the whole kit fine tuned.
It’s clear that this is a very compact folding recumbent bike that will be great for someone who needs to fold the bike often, and transport it frequently, for example on trains or other very crowded means of transport. For other uses we have, among folding recumbents, the HP Velotechnik Grasshopper, which provides full suspension and a huge degree of comfort, and which can take you across continents, but is much, much bigger when folded. Or the AZUB Origami, which is somewhere in the middle.
In any case, this is a very interesting project and for those who love technology and unconventional bikes in particular, I recommend following Ben’s FB channel Kinetics. To give you a brief idea, I’m adding some photos of his unique builds (Credit: Ben Cooper).
