My Brompton Folder: One Year Summary of Technical Problems

A bit of pecking

I have been riding my Brompton folding bike for over a year now.  During  this time I have written in this blog  about my experiences with the bike.  As any reader will know, my Brompton folder has been a lot of fun, especially because I have been able to expand my circle of riding activities by carrying the Brompton in my car and by taking it along on public transport.
It seems,  everybody who is writing  about his Brompton bike experiences is only full of praise.  In this posting, however, I will tell you of my list of technical problems.  As I have had a number of good bicycles  in my life, I had expected that the Brompton, being a bike of a great reputation, would give me at least one full year of reliable service without a single problem.  Far from that.  This is my list of complaints:
a)   Plastic snatch broken. It catches the handle bar when   
      the bike is folded up.
b)   Plastic hook on front wheel broken twice.  The hook comes to ´
      sit on the frame when the bike is folded.
c)  Metal fender of front wheel broken twice.
d)  Back wheel out of balance, spokes needed to be tightened by a 
     mechanic
e)  Flat tire (back wheel); the mechanics did not detect any obvious
     cause.
f)  Gears needed readjustment by a mechanic.
g)  Roller casters on the back of frame and small rollers on rear
     rack are not quite functional.  Poor plastic material, one roller is 
     broken to this day.
h)  Rubber mud flap of back wheel got lost.
i)   Drive chain guard broken twice. Its plastic material is not doing
     the job well enough.
Now, call me a madman, but I still like the little folder.  Yet at the same time I am wondering what kind of first year riding experiences the owners of a Birdy folding bike can report.  The Birdy, in case you don`t know about it, is a folding bike with a suspension system,which does not fold as small as the Brompton, but which may boast its German engineering quality.
In case you want to read more: In previous posts I have already talked about most of the issues.
Folding, Riding, Fixing
Brompton psssss...