A brace of brommies - or Multi-modality commuting

You might be wondering what a brommie is, and why a 'brace' is the correct collective noun. So here is a brace of brommies .... explanation to follow.

A nice plump brace indeed

The major reason for our hasty trip to London was to hunt for brommies, and we scored ourselves a very nice brace, with nary a pellet remaining from the shot gun blast.

Note the wings poised for flight

Brommies is the term of endearment given to Brompton bicycles by people who fall in love with the intensely cute but eminently practical folding bike. We used to enjoy riding our mountain bikes when we were back in Oz, and it seemed an ideal solution to the problem of being on a boat. That is, the only way to get around off the boat is shank's pony. Normally, Megan and I will walk for hours, but this has been giving rise to a few problems: we can completely exhaust ourselves, but not get very far, and my knee has learned some new things and is now classed as a 'trick knee'. I've even started walking with a cane, which is a very scary development!

Old crockness meets new crockness

The brommies solve this problem, we can ride around for hours, but actually get where we need to go. The shopping is now easy as they have commodious baskets that swallow an amazing amount. The really good thing is that, unlike most folding bikes that ride like a hernia with hiccups, the brommie rides like a real bike.

A practical pouch - maybe a marsupial brommie

So, we became infatuated brommonians, or is that bromedaries? We love our new bikes, treat them tenderly, and go "Aww, shucks" when people admire the graceful folded wheel stance that a brommie takes to let you mount her.

A bromedary (hmm, one hump or two) with brommie, ready to roll.

Of course, if you've sneaked a look in Pavlov, you'd know that there's not a lot of room in there, so where can one stash a brace, or hoist a bromedary? Well, this was the selling point of the bikes. We have a small unoccupied space just on top of the generator. We measured it  up, and thought that the two bikes would just fit. And they did! With only 1mm to spare.

A brommie lair - that's two adult brommies in there!

Another view of their hide-away.

The other great thing about travel by bromedary is that in their folded state (cunningly disguised by black 'stealth shrouds'), they can ride with you on trains, buses and airplanes. This so extends the extent of our travel capabilites, that it deserves a title. And it has been given one, as we learned in the yuppier reaches of London. Its called 'multi-modal transportation'.

So there it is. 'Have Brommie, will travel!'