Brompton introduces 12-speed C-Line to celebrate 50th birthday

Brompton has introduced a 12-speed C-Line to its folding bike range to celebrate the brand's 50th birthday.

The C-Line is the British brand’s original model, first released in 1975 when Andrew Ritchie set up the company in west London. After initially being made available in two and six-speed, the flagship bike will now be available in three different colours in 12-speed format to match another offering from the company, the P-Line model bike.

According to Brompton, the 12-speed C-Line will be better for commuters and other urban users thanks to the increased gearing and more range that the new model will provide. It is available in three new colours - 'flamingo pink', 'amethyst lacquer' and 'Turkish green'. The 12-speed also comes with the 'Advance Rear Frame', which allows for better wheeling around while half-folded.

The off-road-oriented Brompton C-Line Explore was chosen as Cycling Weekly’s best overall folding bike in a group test at the end of last year. The review said that the six-speed model is the ideal bike for tackling hillier terrain.

Brompton became a certified B Corp at the start of 2024. A year on, it was revealed that the brand’s profit margin has fallen dramatically, with the folding bike manufacturers making just £4,602 before tax in the year up to April 2024, falling down from £10.7 million.

"This decrease in profit margin is primarily due to the miss in budgeted sales by the Group, and the delay in being able to respond with a reduction in costs due the committed and fixed nature of a number of them," CEO Will Butler-Adams said in January.

"The industry is still in turmoil and will not get better this year. It will not be as bad as 2024 but there is still excess stock,” Butler-Adams added in an interview with The Guardian, explaining that the brand had been hit by widespread discounting by businesses attempting to clear stock in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Brompton were given the green light to build new eco friendly headquarters in January. Plans for the brand to relocate from Greenford in London to Ashford in Kent first emerged in 2022 but were pushed back due to the turbulence engulfing the cycling industry at the time.