Brompton introducing subscription service

Brompton has had their popular bike hire scheme for a while now but they will be introducing a subscription service in the next month or so.

The way it works is you can hire an M3L bike for two types of subscription. If you go for the 12 month option it is £30 a month. For a lesser commitment £42 a month gets you a rolling monthly contract.

Things like insurance, repairs and servicing twice a year are included which actually make the cost pretty fair.

I would imagine that in the current climate, this is going to be incredibly popular and the limited initial run of availability will almost certainly be oversubscribed.

To me this seems like a great idea. My basic calculations tell me that it is less expensive than the monthly costs of getting a Brompton (assuming you can buy one at the moment) on one of the bike to work schemes. Of course with this subscription service, the bike does not belong to you.

I can see several different groups of people this would appeal to:

• Those who want the convenience of the best folding bike out there but no commitments about maintenance, repairs, insurance 
• People reluctant to use public transport in the current climate
• Those testing out whether a Brompton is for them
• Casual users that may not need a Brompton in three months time

Once you see how good a Brompton is and how useful and fun it is, I can see many heading off to Brompton Junction or their local bike shop to order their own.

There are plans to launch this at a later date in Germany and the USA. I suspect other countries where Brompton has a presence may get it too. 

Not sure that this will be a long term thing for Brompton? Will they be doing this fives years from now? For the moment however it is a really good idea.

Stay safe out there people!!