06

I spent a week in January at Brompton in Brentford, London doing an internship (I like this word better than work experience although this is technically what it was). While I was there I was shown around the factory, developed part of a live project, saw the lengths the designers there go to in terms of fatigue testing and learned how a Brompton is built by stripping down a circa-2000 bicycle and doing a 'sympathetic resoration' on it. I had an absolutely fantastic, interesting, challenging week in London, and cannot thank Brompton enough for welcoming me so warmly.

I'm not going to go into detail here about the content of the project, I am going to write a report on the subject for my tutors. However, I will say that although it was not directly related to my research project, I found that I gained a huge amount of insight into the industry and the ways in which designers work. Brompton is an excpetional case in the bike industry since they do not settle for parts, machines, jigs that aren't quite perfect. Other brands in the industry will buy in available parts for the drivetrain, handlebars etc. but Brompton will design their own to accommodate the unique way a Brompton bicycle works.I like this ethos, and think that in a roundabout way it applies to my project, since my project is about not settling for male or unisex products. I want to design a brand that gives women products that make them feel great, and perform better.

Thanks Brompton.